TA Marryshaw Community College<\/a> a partner institution in Grenada, West Indies.<\/p>\nBrock students attended the meeting and collected the feedback of policy implementers, summarizing the key themes for use by Niagara College in creating the UNESCO-UNEVOC discussion paper.<\/p>\n
To prepare for the meetings, Brock students reviewed several policy documents on education, ICT, TVET and Sustainable Development Goal 4, Quality Education.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was an opportunity for us to look at policies, look at reality and try to draw the line between how policies are made and how they are effectively solving the challenges within society,\u201d said Reuben Plance, one of the Master of Education students who participated in the course.<\/p>\n
He said it was helpful to get insight into the process of creating a policy document by seeing policy-makers debate issues and share perspectives during the validation meetings.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn this course we are part of a real policy and our efforts are going to be used in the research work being done,\u201d said Jashanpreet Kaur, who is originally from India and another of the students involved in the course.<\/p>\n
The process also gave the students opportunities to network, gain an understanding of potential internships at the United Nations and learn about career opportunities available in policy development, careers which both Plance and Kaur are targeting.<\/p>\n
For Rutherford, participating in the policy document review has also been an opportunity for Brock students to make a significant contribution to education around the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cUNESCO has such broad reach and influence that it literally has the opportunity to improve the education of millions of students,\u201d said Rutherford.<\/p>\n
As well as studying policy, 11 of the students had an opportunity to implement what they learned in Grenada by helping to deliver a series of Future-Ready Skills workshops for 120 TVET teacher educators and teacher candidates at TAMCC.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese workshops cover topics we know are key to supporting teacher professional development so they can support students to be future ready,\u201d Rutherford said.<\/p>\n
Brock\u2019s graduate students assisted the lead instructors in facilitating the sessions with the goal of helping them to prepare and deliver the workshops themselves.<\/p>\n
The instructors of the workshops were all Brock employees and students. Giulia Forsythe, Associate Director of the Centre for Pedagogical Innovation, instructed Coding in the Classroom; Kyle Tuck, Systems Administrator and Educational Technology Co-ordinator, instructed Hands-on STEM; Cecilia Garcia Vega, Graduate Student Support Co-ordinator, instructed Entrepreneurial Thinking; and Rutherford instructed 21st Century Learning Design.<\/p>\n
For Plance, seeing the impact of the workshops on participants was inspiring.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t just go for the data,\u201d he said. \u201cWe also went there to train people to understand the way the world is moving and the kind of skills that they should have in order to shape not just their country, but also make an impact within the global scene.\u201d<\/p>\n
From Kaur\u2019s perspective, the ability to use what she\u2019s learned has been a valuable part of her experience at Brock and in Rutherford\u2019s course.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really want to get back and take these experiences with me and help my society and my community in any way that I can,\u201d she said. \u201cI value education because I come from a place where education is a still a privilege, and I\u2019ve got this opportunity to go to the best institutions. I think education is one way to uplift sections of society that are still vulnerable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t