The purpose of this article is to describe the efforts of three Latin American countries (Chile, Colombia, and Dominican Republic) to develop their own early childhood teacher preparation standards. The authors explain the demographic and historical environmental conditions, the sociopolitical climate that gave impetus to the development of the…

Financial knowledge is critical for making sound decisions that foster financial health and protect consumers from predation. A widely-used tool for building this capability is financial education. Yet evidence suggests that conventional approaches which teach concepts in classroom-style settings are ineffective and expensive at scale, especially…

The UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) has launched a new publication, "Integrated Approaches to Literacy and Skills Development: Examples of Best Practice in Adult Learning Programmes." This new compilation showcases 21 adult education programmes that demonstrate promising approaches to integrating literacy, life skills and…

Despite the growing number of international professional development programs, there is very little published research regarding the structures and effectiveness of these programs. This paper shares the design and development of the technology component of an international professional development (PD) program designed for secondary English as…

In an effort to become more competitive in the global market, Colombia, as many other Latin American countries, has declared English the dominant foreign language to be taught in schools and universities across the country. To support this measure, in the last 16 years, the government, through its National Ministry of Education, has launched a…

The challenges of ensuring the right to education are numerous, especially when working with marginalised populations in fragile contexts. Despite having the legislation, strong constitutional support, and even educational innovations designed to guarantee the right to education, a major gap exists in Colombia between political intentions and the…

This article details the design and implementation of a reading program in a university EFL setting as a strategy to encourage creativity, critical thinking, collaborative learning, and reading for enjoyment (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001; Richards & Renandya, 2002). This student-centered project challenged ELLs to address issues such as…