In December 2023, we were honored to visit several peer educational research organizations and partner schools in the global MLRC School Network. These partners are committed to innovation in serving multilingual learners across contexts. MLRC School Network Director, Jon Nordmeyer, and Director of the Wisconsin Center for Education Research and Professor of Learning Sciences, Courtney Bell, visited multiple locations in Singapore and Japan. Learn more about each visit below!
XCL World Academy
We are grateful to XCL World Academy in Singapore for hosting the 2nd MLRC Research Symposium! Over 50 educators from three continents spent two days digging into current research about multilingual learning and developing their own action research projects. In addition to being amazing hosts, XCL is an impressive organization and was one of our recent Featured Partners. Check out more about their school on their Feature Partner article. Thank you to XCL World Academy for your partnership!
ISS International School
ISS International School was one of the first international schools to be founded in Singapore, in 1981. A three-programme International Baccalaureate school, ISS International School serves an increasingly multilingual student population. While visiting, Jon and Courtney noticed the tight-knit community and emphasis on inclusion across elementary school homerooms, also known as kampong (the Malay word for “village”). There is a strong emphasis on integrating Learning Support and English as an Additional Language (EAL) programs to serve students with a variety of learning profiles at ISS.
Thank you, ISS International, for your partnership with the MLRC and your commitment to serving ALL your students!
Overseas Family School
Jon and Courtney also visited the Overseas Family School (OFS) in Singapore. The school is one of the largest in Singapore and has been serving multilingual families since 1991. OFS has students from over 70 countries and teachers comprising more than 40 nationalities. They provide extensive language programs, to support both students’ home languages and their proficiency in English. At OFS, Courtney and Jon noticed the community connections and cultural pride evident across this program supporting 14 different home languages.
Thank you to the Overseas Family School for the warm welcome and for your ongoing collaboration with the MLRC!
National Institute of Education (Singapore)
The University of Wisconsin-Madison and the National Institute of Education (NIE) at Nanyang Technical University collaborate in a ten-member network of research institutions called the International Network of Educational Institutions. As a part of that network, Courtney and Jon met with NIE scholars interested in collaborating across country contexts around issues of social-emotional learning, simulations (rehearsals) of core teaching practices, and the teaching and learning of multilingual learners. WCER is grateful for the hospitality and intellectual colleagueship of NIE colleagues and we look forward to continued conversations and collaboration.
Seisen International School
Jon and Courtney visited Seisen International School, the first all-girls IB Continuum school in Japan. Seisen also has a multilingual Montessori early years program. At Seisen, they are working hard to make the role of language visible and to leverage multilingualism as tool for learning as illustrated through their language guidelines.
We are excited to continue our partnership with Seisen International School and thank them for their hospitality!
National Institute for Education Policy Research (Tokyo)
The National Institute for Education Policy Research (NIER) conducts foundational education research in Japan. Senior Researcher Kenji Matsubara graciously hosted Courtney Bell and Jon NIER. Their visit included discussions of how best to measure K-12 teaching across country contexts and measurement modes (e.g., video, questionnaires, classroom artifacts) as well as potential collaboration in simulation and social-emotional learning research. NIER continues to lead the globe in thoughtful and impactful policy research and practice. We are grateful for our Japanese colleagues’ hospitality and thought partnership.
