Cross Contextual Learning: Internships and Partnerships

All of our courses center praxis - the relationship between theory and practice - as a way of learning. Some courses with an internship involve designated time for travel to an educational site off campus. These internships are dynamic, cross-institutional, and cross-context relationships between teachers and learners. Some are long-standing collaborations, and others are newer, but all are active and growing. As a student in one of these courses, you will be the steward of and participant in one of these educational internship-partnerships as a core aspect of your learning in the course and will be expected to dedicate 4+ hours each week (typically between 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., or 3 to 7 p.m.) to making visits to the school site or other collaborations within the internships.

Education courses include internships and relationships in a range of educational settings—classrooms, after-school programs, arts organizations, and online settings. You can find the full list of active partnerships under Internship Sites section of the website. Ranging from two hours per week to full-time student teaching in the certification program, placements and partnerships engage students as observers, assistants, collaborators, curriculum developers, small group facilitators, and workshop leaders.

Internships and Field Experiences

Many education courses offered through the Education Department have an internship or field work component. This is in part because Education Studies necessarily includes engaging in observation of, experiences through, and partnership and collaboration with educators across different contexts and in part because having a range of field experiences is required by the PA Department of Education for students seeking state certification to teach.
The Education Department’s Fieldwork Coordinator, Margo Schall, works closely with departmental faculty and with school and community partners to develop a range of internship/field experience options in which Bryn Mawr and Haverford students ground coursework through observing, engaging in, and, in some cases, actively participating at the theory/practice nexus. This is complex logistical and relational work, and it goes best when everyone involved communicates regularly, clearly, and with consideration for all involved.

Expectations

Internship/field experiences are by nature varied, complex, and unpredictable because they unfold in particular institutional contexts with a diversity of variously positioned individuals, including but not limited to students, teachers, staff members, specialists, and administrators. All internship/field experiences present learning opportunities; the challenge to each student of Education Studies is to make their internship/field experiences educative.

The Education Department faculty and Fieldwork Coordinator expect education students to approach internship/field experiences with an open mind, a respectful attitude, appropriately professional attire, and a commitment to engaging with students, teachers, and others in the setting in ways that are consistent with expectations communicated by the educators in those settings. We are guests in these educators’ spaces, and our continued collaboration is contingent upon the maintenance of good relationships—a responsibility shared by all Education Department students, faculty, and staff members.

Ed Talks provides students the opportunity to reflect on and talk across placement sites and to identify approaches to making the most of this component of their education studies. Students enrolled in courses with internship/field experiences are required to participate in a minimum of two Ed Talks during that semester. The exception to this is students enrolled in capstone courses; participation in Ed Talks is optional for those students.

FAQs

We recognize that internship/field experiences, or such experiences in particular contexts, may be new to many students. We, therefore, offer this FAQ with suggested responses and first points of contact (e.g., Fieldwork Coordinator Margo Schall or the instructor of the college-based course linked with the internship/field experience). Mapping and making sense of your internship/field experiences

Each education student charts a unique path through Education Department offerings. The courses students complete include different kinds of internship/field experiences, some off-campus and some on-campus. We ask that all students make a copy of this template to use to chart and reflect on their various internship/field experiences over the course of their major or minor journey. Doing so will ensure that students have an active role in making sense of and, in the case of capstone courses, informing the selection of their internship/field placement.

Educational Internships follow three phases of practice, as students progress within their Education Department course of study

• Gateway Education Courses - Internship 1: Orienting in Educational Partnership
  • For EDUC 200: Community Learning Collaborative
• Other Education Courses - Internship 2: Deepening Educational Partnership
  • For EDUC 210: Perspectives in Special Education, EDUC 266: Geographies of School and Learning, and EDUC 275: Emergent Multilingual Learners
• Capstone Education Courses - Internship 3: Shaping Educational Partnership 
  • For EDUC 301: Curriculum and Pedagogy and EDUC 311: Theories of Change in Educational Institutions

Global Learning

• Titagya Schools, Dalun, Ghana: Since 2010, the Education Program has been working with an early education project in Northern Ghana by supporting student interns, co-creating and co-leading teacher workshops, and facilitating cross-cultural exchange and dialogue.
• University for Development Studies, Tamale, Ghana: UDS, Ghana's state University for the Northern region, and Bryn Mawr have entered into an educational partnership to support student and faculty collaboration and exchange.