Classrooms at all levels of schooling are an intersect of languages and cultures. The United States are experiencing the circulation of multinational and multicultural students, teachers, school personnel and thus of families and social organizations. Understanding the importance of the international component in education is essential to better serve this ever increasing multinational and multicultural population but also to serve autochthonous students who will face a global world in which a multicultural knowledge is essential to succeed. SOE should be a place to broaden perspectives on education and to create access to different languages, cultures and ways of understanding education.
Loretta Fernández
Loretta Fernández is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Teaching, Learning, and Leading at the School of Education at the University of Pittsburgh. She received her doctorate in Language, Literacy and Culture at the University of Pittsburgh in 2017. She teaches courses on practicum in foreign language education, teaching English language learners, principles and practices of foreign language testing and assessment, and issues in foreign language education. As an experienced multilingual specialist, she emphasizes the importance of the school of education to sustain students in their different ways of experiencing teaching and learning offering social and cultural events that promote multicultural and multinational experiences.