Contact: Jennifer Beaulieu
The University of Hawai‘i College of Education (COE) and School of Pacific and Asian Students (SPAS) received Freeman Foundation gift of $400,000 for the Chinese Language Teacher Education Program. "China is rapidly gaining attention in the global economy, and there is more demand for Chinese language offerings in Hawai‘i schools and schools across the United States,” Dean Christine Sorensen said. “The need for a teacher education program leading to licensure for Chinese language teachers is critical in meeting this demand,” added Gail Tamaribuchi, Co-Director and Chair of the ITE Secondary Program.
The College of Education is one of only a very few institutions nationally with an established program to license K-12 Chinese language teachers. One of the program’s goals is to train up to 50 new Chinese Language teachers in the next three years. “This award will give us the opportunity to expand our programs to serve students on a larger scale and enhance the quality of teaching,” Assistant Dean for Student Services Xu Di said.
Other partners in the project include the Center for Chinese Studies, the Confucius Institute, the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, and the Department of Second Language Studies. In addition, the project will collaborate with the Hawai‘i Department of Education, the Hawai‘i Teacher Standards Board, the Hawai‘i Association of Independent Schools, and other institutions outside of Hawai‘i.
“We are pleased to have this opportunity to partner with the Confucius Institute and Beijing Foreign Studies University to recruit and prepare Chinese language teachers,” said CRDG Director and COE Associate Dean Don Young. “Our long range goal will be to develop an on-line teacher preparation program that can expand the number of licensed Chinese language teachers even more.”
For more information about the UH Mānoa College of Education, visit www.hawaii.edu/coe/