Annual Program Review CIEE Study Center at the Universide Católica do Salvador and the Universidade Federal da Bahia, Bahia, Brazil 2006

Transcription

1 Annual Program Review CIEE Study Center at the Universide Católica do Salvador and the Universidade Federal da Bahia, Bahia, Brazil 2006 CIEE Program Director: Christine Wintersteen, CIEE Resident Director: Jeferson Bacelar CIEE Academic Consortium Board Program Evaluation: CIEE Academic Consortium Board Monitor: Kathleen Sideli, Indiana University Each summer, program directors write a Study Center Review for each CIEE Study Center program commenting on the previous academic year. The program director writes the review based on input from the CIEE Academic Consortium Board members, resident directors, sending institutions, and student evaluations. Each report is made public on the CIEE website at Program Goals The CIEE Study Center in Bahia, Brazil is designed for students who have at least two years of college-level Spanish or one year of Portuguese or the equivalent and want to improve their Portuguese language skills and knowledge of contemporary Brazil, especially the Northeast region with its distinctive cultural patterns. The program has three main goals: to increase students oral and written Portuguese language skills; to facilitate students knowledge of contemporary Brazil and the northeastern region; and to provide students with the opportunity to take regular Brazilian university courses, especially in the fields of Afro-Brazilian issues and cultural studies. This study abroad program is particularly unique due to its five-week pre-session focusing on intensive Portuguese language acquisition and culture consisting of two courses: Portuguese language and Contemporary Brazil. This Intensive Language and Culture program (ILCP) provides an important linguistic foundation to participants so that they can direct enroll in regular university courses during the regular semester. Additionally, the interdisciplinary Contemporary Brazil course presents various themes regarding Brazilian society provides students a context to better understand and analyze the culture around them. Another unique feature of this program is the three CIEE courses that are offered in addition to the course offerings at the host institution, Universidade Católica de Salvador. Overall, the program goals are being met well and are still appropriate for the site. However, the 2005 monitoring process did recommend the following: creation of an onsite orientation manual in both English and Portuguese to ensure that important information is understood by participants, implement a host family evaluation at the end of the first month and the end of the semester to better track the quality of host families, and explore various strategies to improve aspects of the academic program. Academic Program During the fall semester, the Intensive Language and Culture Program (ILCP) is held in Bahia for participants of both the CIEE São Paulo and Bahia programs. During the spring semester, the ILCP is held in São Paulo for both groups of semester students. In both sites, the curriculum remains the same consisting of a Portuguese language course (60 contact hours) and a Contemporary Brazil course (45 hours). 1

2 Portuguese Language Following the ILCP, participants on the Bahia program begin the regular semester during which they are required to continue Portuguese language study. Portuguese language courses are taught on the Universidade Federale da Bahia (UFBA) through the Institute of Language and Literature. Students were enrolled in the following language courses this year: Fall 2005 Spring 2006 Semester Beginner NA 8 students Portuguese, II Semester NA 6 students Intermediate Portuguese, I Semester 12 students 12 students Intermediate Portuguese, II Semester Advanced 3 students NA Portuguese, I TOTAL 15 students 26 students Overall, students found that their level of Portuguese improved greatly during the semester. During the fall 2005 semester, the students did not find the initial instructor to be very good and the Resident Director interceded and collaborated with UFBA in order to replace this instructor. The CIEE Resident Director, Dr. Jeferson Bacelar, works closely with the Institute of Language and Literature at UFBA to monitor the quality of the language courses throughout the year. CIEE Courses Beginning in spring 2006, the CIEE core course, Culture and Society: Bahia and Brazil, was offered on an elective basis. The academic requirement shifted to oblige students to enroll in one of the three CIEE electives: Culture and Society: Bahia and Brazil, Race and Class in a Multicultural Society: Bahia and Brazil; Brazilian Artistic Manifestations. It was noted by the resident director that students seemed more motivated in their course due to the fact that the course selection is a choice rather than a requirement. In fact, during the fall 2005 semester, only the Culture and Society course was offered the resident director noted that students were reluctant to enroll in an additional CIEE course because they wanted to have more direct enrollment courses alongside Brazilians. During the spring 2006 semester, students chose to enroll in the other CIEE electives and the Culture and Society course was not offered due to very low enrollment. This suggests that changing this requirement has resulted in providing students the opportunity to enroll in a course that is more of interest to them academically, hopefully increasing student motivation and engagement. The Race and Class course previously met for one 3-hour class per day but, beginning in spring 2006, it meet twice a week for 1.5 hours each session. The resident director found that this change resulted in an improved engagement among students in the course material. Overall, students found this course very enjoyable and learned a great deal. Some students noted that some of the guest lecturers repeated the same information and reading assignments were not often discussed in class. The resident 2

3 director will work to strengthen the course and provide more cohesion between the lectures and ensure that reading assignments are linked to class discussions. Brazilian Artistic and Cultural Manifestations was also very well evaluated during the spring semester. The course explores diverse forms of artistic creation and expression in Brazilian and Bahia society including architecture, music, cinema, northeastern poetry, dance, festivals, fashion and cooking. A basic characteristic of the course was a combination of theoretical lessons using audio-visual resources and guest speakers, and participation in practical activities. Universidade Católica de Salvador (UcSaL) CIEE participants have three weeks as their add/drop during the course selection process at UcSal. Students had mixed evaluations regarding the smoothness of the registration process. This process will always require U.S. students to participate in a process they usually characterize as bureaucratic and certainly not familiar. One challenge that occurred in the spring 2006 semester was the arrival of students from the ILCP program in São Paulo program after the registration process for Brazilian students had already occurred. The resident director will ensure that this does not occur again in the spring 2007 semester. The evaluations of direct enrollment courses improved in the academic year with about half of the courses receiving good evaluations and the other half receiving mixed and/or poor evaluations. This is an improvement and is due to the resident director not allowing registration in courses that had been poorly evaluated the previous year. The resident director will continue doing this as well as exploring other ways to monitor and improve the course advisement process. The best evaluated courses, were the following: Fall 2005 Spring 2006 History of Bahia History of Bahia Brazilian Literature, III Instrumental Guitar, I Instrumental Guitar, I Space, Memory and Citizenship Cultural Anthropology Work, Development and Popular Education Political Economy History of the Church, III Political Sociology Evolution of Visual Arts, I Non-academic Features Orientation The first half of the orientation program discussed adaptation issues and expectations about Bahia life, including a focus on housing and safety. During the second half of the orientation, students were divided into small groups to discuss academic culture and the structure of UcSal, and students did their preliminary course registration. During these latter sessions, there were 10 UcSal students who provided their perspective about Brazilian academic life and also accompanied the CIEE students on campus tours of the different faculties. Beginning in fall 2005, all students received both an English-language 3

4 and a Portuguese-language on-site manual to ensure that important information was understood by all participants. Orientation evaluations were better than previous years. Cultural activities and Field Trips CIEE organized the following activities for all participants during the fall 2005 semester: A day trip to Cachoeira city and observation of a feast organized by Irmandade da Boa Morte, a traditional Afro-Brazilian organization exclusively formed by women. A day-trip to a palm oil factory and a Quilombo Boitaraca (a free-slave maroon). A visit to the Baixa part of the city of Salvador; Attendance at a Brazilian movie Os filhos de Francisco Attendance at the theater A metamorphose ambulante Attendance at the Balet Folklorico da Bahia CIEE organized the following activities for all participants during the spring 2006 semester: Two-night field trip to Porto Seguro A visit to the Baixa part of the city of Salvador; A trip to the Castle of Garcia D Ávila and Projeto Tamar in Praia do Forte, a sea turtle rescue organization; Attendance at a Brazilian soccer game Participation in a soccer game between participants and locals Attendance at the theater Todo mundo tem problemas sexuais Attendance at the theater Cabaré da Raça Attendance at a religious ceremony of Candomblé The organized cultural activities often complemented the CIEE courses, primarily the core course. The variety of events provided students with the opportunity to observe and participate in specific cultural events. The field trip to Porto Seguro was a new destination and although students enjoyed the trip, they commented that traveling by bus for 12 hours was exhausting. In the upcoming year, the group will travel by plane to Porto Seguro. Community Service CIEE has an agreement with the Centro de Voluntários da Bahia (CVB), an organization that centralizes the main institutions responsible for volunteering in Bahia. Many students had requested and visited CVB during both semesters. In addition, CIEE resident staff began an activity entitled CIEE na Comunidade, which brings CIEE students into contact with a day-long volunteer project at various locations throughout the city. These volunteer experiences included: Working on a recycling project at a daycare and school. Teaching English classes to children in a marginalized community Spending time with young patients at the Cancer Hospital This new activity was very well evaluated by all students and will continue in the upcoming year. 4

5 Housing Beginning in fall 2005, the on-site housing coordinator implemented a new housing evaluation one-month after the students arrived and again at the end of the semester to better trouble shoot any problems between host families and students. Overall, students evaluated the host families well. There were a few students that switched host families each semester. Students Enrollment Gender Semester 42 Male 11 Academic Year 1 Female 32 Average Student GPA 3.39 Top Enrollments by Major Anthropology Political Science Latin American Study Spanish Language/Lit Psychology Top Sending Schools Columbia University Georgetown University Harvard University Macalester College Wesleyan University Future Directions Overall, staff continued to improve various components of the program and these improvements were reflected in student evaluations. Most notable were strong evaluations of the staff, cultural activities and the CIEE courses during the spring semester. In June 2006, Ana Carolina Campos, the Resident Coordinator, attended the CIEE Resident Director Training in Portland, Maine. During the upcoming year, the resident staff plans to implement more interactive and reflective exercises in the orientation and throughout the semester. In addition, staff will focus on linking reading assignments to class discussions in the CIEE courses and ensure that lecture contents do not repeat one another, ensure that students arrive at the start of the course registration period, and continue to monitor the quality of direct enrollment courses. 5