World Teachers Day @ TAMIU Celebrates Australian AIME Partnership + Global IMA GI-NATION {University} Alliance
This Tuesday, October 5, Texas A&M International University’s College of Education will once again lead a global celebration of World Teachers Day with a special outreach across time zones and thousands of miles… from Laredo to Australia.
Through video link, TAMIU College of Education students will join in as potential co-founders of a new democratic system of education aimed at addressing educational inequity, in partnership with the Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience (AIME), a global non-profit headquartered in Australia that has been building bridges and unlikely connections for a fairer world since 2005.
TAMIU College of Education students, including members of the Texas Association of Future Educators (TAFE), will join in AIME’s latest initiative to transform the face of education called IMAGI-NATION {University}, which represents a global diverse network of change-organizers, representing stakeholders from across education, employment and civil society, to join hands and utilize their imagination to solve the biggest challenges facing our planet today and tomorrow.
TAMIU dean of the College of Education Dr. James O’Meara said the TAMIU-AIME exchange Tuesday will provide students and future teachers a chance to share their experience and understand the important role everyone can play in helping students reach their potential. TAMIU is one of the first official alliance partners on the continent selected to join in the AIME initiative.
“Our goal is for our students and TAFE members to not only finish school and transition into university, but to seize control of their own internal narratives as educators and educational leaders and help future students fully realize the potential each has. Together, they will share a challenge of organizing change throughout 2022 by mobilizing 100 other students to become mentors and, in turn, inspire 100 local high school students to nurture a new, transformative mindset that’s focused on addressing educational inequity through ongoing engagement and action,” Dr. O’Meara explained.
He noted that while the conversation and contribution students will share are 23 hours and over 8300 miles apart, Australia and the USA have much more in common than would first appear.
“One and a half years into the COVID-19 Pandemic, this celebration of 2021 World Teachers’ Day is especially shared because it focuses on the support teachers need to fully contribute to the recovery process. Our international theme is ‘Future Teachers at the Heart of Education Recovery’ – and our shared experience in this global Pandemic has reaffirmed that teachers have a crucial role in our post-Pandemic recovery. Whether you are in Australia or the USA, or any other corner of the world, we must take steps to ensure that teaching personnel develop their full potential and that inequalities are addressed so that students around the world can also reach their full potential,” O’Meara said.
AIME’s general manager Taryn Marks commented on the partnership noting “We welcome TAMIU as one of our key educational alliance partners in the US for the next decade, and we’re inspired by the work TAMIU has commenced in making education equitable for all, and making teaching and learning accessible for all. IMAGI-NATION {University} is the perfect complement that will help complete the offerings of TAMIU, and other partners in Texas, to empower those on the margins to lead from the front, which has been AIME’s mission since 2005. This is the start of a chapter of change that we will continue to write together for years to come.”
Other celebratory activities at TAMIU include College of Education students adding blue ribbons to campus trees to note World Teachers Day, and an evening lighting of the campus’ landmark buildings in blue, including the Sue and Radcliffe Killam Library, Trailblazer Tower and Lamar Bruni Vergara Planetarium. Profiles of TAMIU faculty that note their unique contributions will also be shared on the University’s social media channels.
The Celebration of World Teachers Day takes place throughout The Texas A&M University System’s 13 campuses, noted Elaine Mendoza, chairman of the Texas A&M System Board of Regents.
“We want to celebrate World Teachers’ Day in a big way all across Texas this year,” said Regent Mendoza, “2020 has taught us all to better appreciate the importance of those who choose to spend their lives teaching others.”
“We teach Texas, and we are proud of it,” she continued, “The Texas A&M University System is proud to graduate more fully-certified teachers than any public university system in Texas.”
Graduates from education colleges at Texas A&M University System campuses are highly sought-after because they are so well prepared, Chancellor John Sharp observed.
“From Day One, our teacher candidates are working with students and getting the tools they need so they are ready for the classroom,” Chancellor Sharp said, “We give them the tools they need to make the world a better place, one child at a time.”
To find out more about TAMIU’s College of Education and its undergraduate and graduate degree programs and its educator preparation programs, visit tamiu.edu/coedu, email coeinformation@tamiu.edu or call 956.326.2420.
To find out more about AIME, head to their website or watch an informative video here.
To learn more about AIME’s groundbreaking work globally, view this special animation.
To understand more about IMAGI-NATION {University}, view this short introductory video.
