Shared Futures

Arcadia University

Jeffrey Shultz
Associate Dean for Internationalization, Coordinator of General Education,
and Professor of Education, Arcadia University
shultz@arcadia.edu

In his role as Associate Dean, Jeffrey Shultz works with faculty to help them add international content to their courses and to encourage them to participate in seminars in other countries.  He edits an on-line campus newsletter called Global Matters, and contributes to the writing of grant proposals related to global issues (e.g., Shared Futures; a Title VI grant that is funding the implementation of an International Studies major). In order to encourage them to study abroad, he came up with the idea of sending all first year students to London for spring break (now called London/Scotland Preview).

As Coordinator of General Education, he is responsible for staffing the two core courses, Global Justice and Pluralism in the United States, and for dealing with student and administrative issues related to both courses. He is also one of the six faculty members who teach Pluralism every semester. This teaching builds on his academic background in anthropology and education and his interest in and concern for issues of equity and social justice.

Professor Shutlz’s academic background includes an S.B. in mathematics from M.I.T. and an Ed.M. and Ed.D. with a concentration in anthropology and education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. His research has focused on issues of communication, schooling, and equity and includes an analysis of interaction between students and academic counselors (The Counselor as Gatekeeper: Social Interaction in Interviews, Academic Press, 1982, with Frederick Erickson) as well as work with middle school students in Philadelphia and Greenwich, England. In addition, he has a concern for student voices in middle schools and high schools (In Our Own Words: Student Perspectives on School, Rowman & Littlefield, 2001, co-edited with Alison Cook-Sather) and a strong interest in the teaching of courses focusing on issues of race, class, gender, and sexual orientation (Challenges of Multicultural Education: Teaching and Taking Courses on Diversity, Paradigm Publishers, 2005, co-edited with Norah Peters-Davis).

In the curricular reform efforts that are currently underway at Arcadia, he is also co-chairing the learning communities initiative and serves on the steering committee for the first year experience.

Ellen Skilton-Sylvester
Associate Professor of Education and Coordinator of ESL and Reading Programs in the Education Department, Arcadia University
skilton-sylvester@arcadia.edu

Professor Skilton-Sylvester is the principal investigator for a grant from Fulbright-Hays entitled “Across the Ocean and Back Again: Study Abroad and Service Learning in Equatorial Guinea” and has previously received grants for investigating biliteracy and schooling (from the Spencer Foundation) and implementing a national service learning initiative to assist immigrant elders in learning English and applying for U.S. citizenship (from the Corporation for National Service).  She is also serving on Arcadia’s Undergraduate Academic Program Committee (UAPC).

She teaches courses on literacy, second language learning and teaching and globalization.  She recently designed a four-course “ESL Program Specialist Certificate” at Arcadia for K-12 teachers interested in teaching English Language Learners. Her professional background includes work as a teacher of English to international and immigrant students in university, adult education and K-12 contexts and work in international admissions. Her academic background includes a B.A in French from Earlham College as well as a master’s in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) and a Ph.D. in educational linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania.

She considers herself an educational anthropologist who is interested in understanding linguistic diversity in U.S. education.  Her research has focused on immigrant and refugee education in the United States (particularly for Cambodians in Philadelphia), biliterate development, and service learning in undergraduate and graduate education.  Some recent publications include a chapter on academic biliteracies (in an edited volume to be published by Lawrence Erlbaum in 2006) and one on in and out-of-school biliteracies (in an edited volume published by Teachers College Record in 2002).  Recent articles in the International Journal of Bilingualism and Bilingual Education, Adult Education Quarterly, the Journal of the Pan-Pacific Association of Applied Linguistics, the Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning and Language and Education: An International Journal focus on immigrant education and the role of identity and biliteracy in and out of classroom contexts.