Matthew Hume, ICIC Assistant Director, presented on March 22 at this year’s TESOL International Convention and Expo in Tampa, Florida. Mr. Hume was joined virtually by three participants from a 2023 Department of State sponsored Service-Learning (SL) Exchange Program hosted by IUPUI–Ayna Aliyeva, Olivia Mondal, and Michael Recard Sihombing–as well as in-person by Jamila Barton, Global Program Officer for the U.S. Department of State’s Online Professional English Network (OPEN) Program. 

Presenters of the “Engaging Communities, Empowering Learners: Service-Learning for Transformative Change,” led by Assistant Director, Matthew Hume.

The panel, “Engaging Communities, Empowering Learners: Service-Learning for Transformative Change,” explored the transformative power of service-learning in ELT for societal change. Matthew Hume and Jamila Barton presented an overview of SL and its potential for English language education and transformative societal change in diverse environments. The exchange program participants, who are EFL instructors from a variety of education settings (K-12 and university) in Azerbaijan, India, and Indonesia, shared the SL projects they developed as part of the 2023 exchange program. They discussed challenges to implementation in their home contexts, along with valuable strategies for adapting best practices of SL to meet intercultural needs.

Matthew Hume browses the TESOL Bookstore in his spare time.

The panel was a testament to the rich relationships that were formed between ICIC and the service-learning exchange program participants. ICIC will continue to collaborate with our growing community of international teachers and explore the power of service-learning in ELT both at home and abroad.