EDAD Faculty Explore Partnership Opportunities in China

17 Jun 2019    

Building relationships and exploring collaborations within a classroom is great. Doing the same across the globe is even better.

This past May, professors from the Educational Administration department at UNL spent a week in China visiting universities and building relationships with professors and other educators there.

“Our hosts were passionate educators, deeply committed to their work and to student success, and looking for new opportunities to grow and improve,” said Dr. Nick Pace, EDAD professor and the department chair.

Dr. Pace, along with Drs. Niehaus, Holman and Xia visited Dr. Xia’s alma mater, East China Normal University (ECNU) in Shanghai. They also visited Hangzhou Normal University and Zhejiang University in Hangzhou and multiple P-12 schools.

Their purpose, Dr. Pace said, was to explore collaboration opportunities such as potential faculty research partnerships and student and faculty exchanges among the schools.

Each professor shared information on their current research, outreach, and expertise. Dr. Pace shared information from two books he has written that utilize fiction to engage students in educational leadership standards, Dr. Holman overviewed the department’s use of distance education technology to engage students, while Dr. Xia presented on his use of statistical modeling in educational research., Dr. Niehaus presented her work on faculty engagement in higher education internationalization and met with student affairs professionals.

“We made some great new connections with students, faculty, and administrators at each university, as well as the P-12 schools,” Pace said.

The group visited several P-12 schools to observe classroom environments and teachers. They compared current challenges and discussed new opportunities in each setting and met with teachers and administrators.

“It was fascinating to observe a first grade classroom with 41 students practicing handwriting with the intricate Chinese characters,” Pace said. “We also saw some impressive collaborative learning in a fifth grade STEM classroom in which students were using modified jigsaws.”

Besides visiting schools, the faculty members were able to enjoy themselves and explore the world’s most populous city, Shanghai, with 26 million residents, as well as Hangzhou, one of China’s most famous cities for art and literature.

“I was proud to represent UNL, CEHS, and our faculty and share the work we do. I feel like I returned to Lincoln with new friends and exciting ideas for future collaboration,” Pace said.