Walking with the world

Studies by the Pew Research Center and the Center for Immigration Studies suggest that by 2050, the United States will be a place where no single racial or ethnic group makes up the majority — a reflection of the nation’s growing diversity, including refugees and immigrants.

Novea McIntosh, associate professor of teacher education, wants to make sure UD’s future teachers are ready to meet that moment.

“Our teacher educators must be armed with the tools and the research to engage students who come from different cultures — especially with the profession being 80% white, middle class, female,” she said.

This summer, in partnership with UD’s Human Rights Center and its director of programs, assistant professor of practice Satang Nabaneh, four students traveled to Kenya for an immersion experience with Dandelion Africa — a UD partner and grassroots nonprofit focused on women’s health, economic empowerment and youth development in rural communities.

Amanda Maylath, a senior teacher education and math major from Illinois, joined the group. Her work focused on bringing STEM learning to schools in the rural areas outside the city of Nakuru.

“I designed a curriculum for the students I worked with,” she said.

“They selected a challenge facing their community, and we had conversations about how we can apply math to find a solution.”

One of those challenges was access to clean water.

“They came up with a drip irrigation system,” Maylath said. “They measured how much water they were conserving before and after it was built, using conversion rates, calculations, equations — and a little bit of engineering.”

Maylath said the project revealed how math could be both “useful and beneficial to other people,” showing students that numbers could drive positive change.

To prepare students like Maylath for these global experiences, Nabaneh teaches Human Rights and Development in Africa, a course that explores poverty, gender equality and human rights systems. All students participating in African immersions or international fellowships are required to take it.

“I’ve been very lucky to have Novea guest lecture on intercultural competence [the skill of understanding and engaging with people across cultures — with empathy, respect and awareness of one’s own perspective],” Nabaneh said. “That’s a key element — how we should avoid sending students into certain spaces thinking they’re saviors.”

Maylath said the class reframed her perspective before she ever left campus.
“I learned a lot about Africa — the challenges, the laws and the human rights issues — things I’d never studied in any other class,” she said.

Since joining UD in 2021, Nabaneh has expanded the Human Rights Center’s global reach, sending students to countries including Malawi, Gambia, Senegal, South Africa, Ghana — and, most recently, Laos.

“I think it definitely was a fantastic experience in terms of experiential learning,” Maylath said.

For McIntosh, that’s exactly the point. “Education cannot be siloed anymore — education has to walk,” she said. “I have to walk hand-in-hand with human rights, because that’s where we are globally in education.”

One of the most important outcomes of the Kenya trip, McIntosh said, was the spirit of co-creation — working with local teachers and communities, not for them.

“Dandelion was surprised,” she said. “It was the first time they facilitated professional development with teachers and schools.

“As scholars, we always want to honor the cultural and ancestral heritage in these spaces — because that’s best practice.”

In October, McIntosh and Nabaneh traveled to McIntosh’s native Jamaica to expand their interdisciplinary model and develop partnerships with the University of the West Indies, creating new university Collaborative Online International Learning opportunities for UD students.

Looking ahead, McIntosh plans to propose a global education certificate for teacher education majors, embedding international experiences like Kenya and Jamaica into the curriculum.

“I’m hopeful that we can give students … an opportunity to know how to navigate spaces, whether it's global or what I call ‘glocal,’ because our [U.S.] culture is changing,” she said.

But for Maylath, that lesson has already taken root.

“This experience made me more aware of issues we have in global education, and the issues we're facing here in the U.S. education system — we’re very similar to other places in the world,” she said.

From Dayton to Kenya — and soon Jamaica — UD students and faculty are learning that education doesn’t just cross borders, it connects them. Their work reminds future teachers that understanding the world starts with listening.

photos courtesy Dandelion Africa