Specialist Spencer Salas spent two weeks working with teachers in Bahrain as part of a Summer Institute for regional public school teachers. The project aimed to explore practical strategies for promoting participatory student learning within their prescribed curricula. Dr. Salas worked with two cohorts of 20 during the two-week annual Bahraini Summer Institute. He provided five days of focused, hands-on practice for individual and collaborative exploration of literacy instruction that leverages learners’ lived experiences in generative ways with particular attention to their application to MOE texts. At the conclusion of the project, Dr. Salas noted that the level of support and organization was commendable. He recommended that the Summer Institute continue as a means of reinforcing hands-on practice with student-centered instruction.
Spencer Salas, Ph.D., currently teaches at the University of North Carolina where he is also the TESL strand coordinator for the Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction. He is an award-winning educator specializing in teachers’ negotiation of New South contexts and the implication of Latino immigration for educational policy and praxis.