Linking Higher Education and Social Change

More than four thousand stories could be told about the remarkable individuals who received fellowships under the Ford Foundation International Fellowships Program (IFP) between 2001 and 2010. Over the decade, the program enabled 4,314 emerging social justice leaders from Asia, Russia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America to pursue advanced degrees at more than 600 universities in almost 50 countries. By April 2013, nearly 4,000 Fellows had completed their fellowships, receiving degrees in development-related fields ranging from social and environmental science to the arts. A survey done in early 2012 showed that 82 percent of more than 3,300 former Fellows were working in their home countries to improve the lives and livelihoods of those around them, while many of the rest were studying for additional advanced degrees or working in international organizations. The final group of Fellows enrolled in universities around the world will complete their fellowships by the end of 2013.In 2001, the Ford Foundation funded IFP with a $280 million grant, the largest single donation in the Foundation's history. The program was intended to provide graduate fellowships to individuals in countries outside the United States where the Foundation had grant-making programs. In 2006, the Foundation pledged up to$75 million in additional funds, allowing IFP to award more than 800 fellowships beyond its original projections. As extraordinary as the level and duration of funding, though, was IFP's singular premise: that extending higher education opportunities to leaders from marginalized communities would help further social justice in some of the world's poorest and most unequal countries. If successful, IFP would advance the Ford Foundation's mission to strengthen democratic values, reduce poverty and injustice, promote international cooperation and advance human achievement. It would decisively demonstrate that an international scholarship program could help build leadership for social justice and thus contribute to broader social change.In striving toward its ambitious goals, the program would transform a traditional mechanism -- an individual fellowship program for graduate degree study -- into a powerful tool for reversing discrimination and reducing long-standing inequalities in higher education and in societies at large. This report is the story of that transformation

International education in an interactive virtual learning environment: experimenting with digital media applications for community-based development

The article draws on empirical data to assess learning outcomes from an interactive course on digital media for community development. Taught jointly through the Sustainable International Development program (SID) at Brandeis University and the State University of São Paulo (UNESP) graduate program on Media and Technology, the Learning Across Borders (LAB) course enabled international working groups to create digital media-based solutions to development challenges in health, education, environmental conservation, income generation and civic engagement. The purpose of the research was to test whether positive learning outcomes generated by a problem- and project-based pedagogical approach could occur in an international virtual learning environment. Digital technology created the learning environment and was also the topic of study, a convergence that further strengthened the course results. Based on a conceptual framework showing how information and communication technologies can enhance participatory development models, as well as on an analysis of student projects and survey data, the article concludes that the course format and implementation provide an innovative model for graduate level professional education in media and development

Press Control Around the World

This volume in ten different studies systematically examines and compares the development of censorship systems around the world.https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/faculty_books/1295/thumbnail.jp

International education in an interactive virtual learning environment: experimenting with digital media applications for community-based development

The article draws on empirical data to assess learning outcomes from an interactive course on digital media for community development. Taught jointly through the Sustainable International Development program (SID) at Brandeis University and the State University of São Paulo (UNESP) graduate program on Media and Technology, the Learning Across Borders (LAB) course enabled international working groups to create digital media-based solutions to development challenges in health, education, environmental conservation, income generation and civic engagement. The purpose of the research was to test whether positive learning outcomes generated by a problem- and project-based pedagogical approach could occur in an international virtual learning environment. Digital technology created the learning environment and was also the topic of study, a convergence that further strengthened the course results. Based on a conceptual framework showing how information and communication technologies can enhance participatory development models, as well as on an analysis of student projects and survey data, the article concludes that the course format and implementation provide an innovative model for graduate level professional education in media and development

Public administration and public policy graduate programs in Argentina and their relation to the U.S model of public policy training

Área de Educación Superio