Jeff Armstrong (PhD ‘05) thinks it’s important for community college faculty to have international experiences and bring a global perspective to their classrooms.

As Dean of the Muscatine Community College and Director of Resource Development and International Government Relations for the Eastern Iowa Community College District, he’s sent small groups of people to participate in short-term projects all over the globe, including the Ukraine, Thailand, India, South Africa, and Namibia.

“All of the projects are workforce or community college development,” Armstrong said.

The projects link community colleges, help develop international community colleges, and provide opportunities for classroom innovation and collaboration.

In Thailand, American community college faculty gave presentations to Thai faculty about teaching techniques. American community college administrators taught their Thai counterparts about developing resources and raising money.

American community college representatives have been involved in developing a community college in Georgia.

In India, faculty collaborated to create teaching modules on globalization and literature and even designed a course that linked classrooms in India and the United States through video conferencing.

An English instructor who visited the Ukraine developed a lesson plan from her experience that teaches her students to create a PowerPoint presentation while also teaching them about the Western European nation.

Armstrong said most of the people who participate in the projects come back with a broader perspective of the world and many new ideas.

“They come back with a better sense of the transition international students have to go through here. And they now have some specific applications from another culture and another country that they can apply in their classroom to make it more international,” Armstrong said.

Armstrong’s interest in international education stems from a class he took on a whim while studying at The University of Iowa—Professor Scott McNabb’s “Education in China.”

Readings and conversations in that class spurred him to take a three-month trip to India in 1995.

“That made all the difference for me,” he said.

McNabb has since collaborated with Armstrong on several of his international projects.

Jeremy Pickard, who teaches in the business department at Muscatine Community College, has participated in two of Armstrong’s faculty exchange projects to the Ukraine and India.

“I think any time you go outside the country, not only do you understand another person’s culture, but you start to understand a little bit more about your own culture,” he said.

Pickard said he tries to bring that concept back to his classroom.

“Any time you expose community college students internationally, that’s a good thing,” he said. “Often community college students don’t get as much international exposure as four-year school students do. But Dr. Armstrong and his colleagues are working hard to ensure that they get that same type of international exposure.” 

Armstrong’s current international projects include helping develop community college programs in hospitality training in Jordan, where the ministry of labor wants to expand the tourism industry. He’s also working on a project in Thailand now to develop an entrepreneurship certificate for students and community members.