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 Ģ������ƵStories      October 16, 2024

By Julia Duvall

Ģ������Ƶ has been engaged with Central and South American schools since 1978. Faculty travel and hold classes in various regions of Colombia, focusing on leadership in international schools.

Tammy Barron, an associate professor in Ģ������Ƶ’s College of Education and Allied Professions, has continued that long-time relationship by taking her expertise in co-teaching and instruction abroad.

Barron is a nationally recognized expert and scholar on co-instruction. She has led workshops and professional development programs across the state and the U.S. She is currently leading a professional development program for the faculty and staff at Colegio Bolivar in Cali, Colombia.

“The schools across Colombia were interested in implementing co-instruction because they serve such a diverse population of students,” Barron said. “They are working with students who have disabilities and students who are multilingual, so co-instruction is a mechanism that can be used to service all those students in the same learning community and the classroom is integrated. Now, students do not have to be pulled from the classroom to go elsewhere to complete their work.”

For many years, Joe Nagy, director of Colegio Bolivar and Ģ������Ƶalumnus, and Dan Grube, assistant to the dean for international programs and professor of health and physical education in the College of Education and Allied Professions at WCU, have collaborated on master’s degree cohorts and professional development opportunities between the two institutions.

Barron is the latest Ģ������Ƶfaculty member to partner with the early grades in the Tri-Association of Schools.

“Colegio Bolivar is a highly regarded American school in the Tri-Association of Schools in Latin America and has partnered with Ģ������Ƶon master’s degree cohorts in the past,” Grube said. “This is a great way to continue our strong collaborative relationship with these schools. Tammy strives to improve outcomes for students through increasing understanding and advocating for the needs of children, families, support staff, teachers, and administrators through research and practice.”

Barron has collaborated with school professionals to implement co-teaching and build collaboration in their schools. She is the co-author of several chapters, articles, and a book on specially designed instruction for co-teaching. She has published and presented nationally and internationally on inclusive practices.

“The teachers and assistants going into that space to co-instruct are ready to fully support the students being part of this one learning community, which is so important for equity for the students,” Barron said. “I traveled to Colombia and facilitated two professional development days with administrators and instructional coaches. I visited classrooms to get a feel for the content and met with the co-teachers. They were very excited to begin this classroom integration. They began implementing the method of co-instruction at the start of this school year.”

Barron returned to Colombia in August to help the schools roll out the new co-instruction model.

“I helped with implementing effective teaching strategies and collaboration. I observed classrooms and helped provide a coaching element,” she said. “This coaching will help them ramp up the service delivery, and we may be able to expand co-instruction beyond the early grades.”

Barron is grateful to Grube and his connection with Nagy and the other Colombian administrators and teachers.

“Anytime you see how another culture is serving students with disabilities, you take back information that you can share with the students here at WCU,” Barron said. “These teachers and administrators can do amazing work with the students; we can also take back some of the things they are doing and integrate that into our practice. It is just such a great collaborative experience.”