The Civic Education and Leadership Fellows Program is a three-year program that allows the Maxwell School to host 60 faculty members from under-served universities, colleges, and other post-secondary institutions across the Middle East and North Africa. The aim is to promote civic engagement in their home countries via improved pedagogy, teacher preparation, and curriculum development for related social science departments. This will be accomplished through the strengthening of access to information, broad research initiatives and improvement of the means by which students in the Middle East learn about civic engagement and democracy. Utilizing the Maxwell School's faculty and institutes, professional staff, and diverse student population, CELF Fellows with increase their knowledge about democracy and civil society, improve their pedagogy, and develop curriculum for their home institutions in order to communicate this knowledge to students in higher education settings.
The one- or two- semester academic program has both group and individualized components. One part of the program is a series of weekly seminars specifically designed to provide the Fellows with a comprehensive understanding of democracy and democratic reform, civil society, and educational leadership. A second component of the program is a series of weekly seminars focused on teaching skills, including pedagogy and curriculum development. The Fellows are supported to build relationships with Maxwell School and Syracuse University faculty members, based on their interests and expertise. Courses can be informally audited and classrooms visited in order to increase and share expertise for teaching and research. In addition, Fellows will be supported to increase and broaden their professional affiliation networks; to observe and contribute as teachers in classroom settings; and to work on collaborative research projects with American academics.
The CELF program is run by Maxwell School's Executive Education Department with sponsorship from the US State Department. Fellows are likely to develop affiliations with the Moynihan Institute for Global Affairs’ Transnational Non-government Organizations Initiative and the Program on the Analysis and Resolution of Conflicts, as well as Syracuse University’s Middle East Studies Program, the Campbell Institute, the Institute for the Study of the Judiciary, Politics, and the Media, and the Convergence Center.
Welcome to our fifth cohort of CELF Fellows who will arrive at Maxwell for the Fall 2011 Semester!