Global learning with local impact: School of Teaching and Learning’s I-GO program connects education majors with learners worldwide – News

In 2021 during the COVID pandemic, the Illinois State University Global Outreach Program (I-GO) was developed by Dr. Do-Yong Park as an online teaching model to provide education majors with an option for fostering diverse, equitable, inclusive, and accessible learning experiences. Since its inception, I-GO has been offered every year. In 2025, the program continues to thrive, supported by dedicated new faculty members, including Drs. Woongsik Choi and Soo Won Shim from the School of Teaching and Learning.

Established through a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) University-Wide Research Grant and the College of Education’s Seed Grant for Equity, Diversity, Inclusivity, and Accessibility (EDIA), the I-GO program has expanded across the college’s three units to include students from the School of Teaching and Learning, Special Education, and Educational Administration and Foundations.

These preservice teacher candidates participate in a workshop focused on instruction for children from diverse backgrounds before they conduct online lessons in various subject areas for Kindergarten through 12th grade children in partner schools abroad, such as Cambodia, Indonesia, Nicaragua, South Korea, Finland, Japan, and Taiwan. This partnership has been established through Park’s Fulbright programs and his active global education research projects. “This partnership can be further expanded to schools across Africa and the Middle East through a structured and institutional approach, allowing ISU future teachers to gain a more extensive and global EDIA experience while strengthening their culturally sustaining pedagogy,” Park said.

Choi was enthusiastic about taking on the role of co-leader for the program, driven by his research interests and expertise in translanguaging, technology-enhanced language teaching and learning, and critical teacher education in bilingual/ESL/EFL settings. He said through the program’s emphasis on cross-cultural content and language teaching and inclusion of online learning tools, I-GO will offer a unique opportunity to connect with students beyond borders and gain deeper insights into diverse ways of learning, languages, and cultures.

Shim joined the I-GO program as a co-leader after seeing the positive impact participation had on a student in one of her courses. Additionally, her research interests also align with the goals of this program, as she has studied empathy-based pedagogy and technology-enhanced instruction in cross-cultural STEM education.

“For preservice teachers, it can provide a valuable global teaching experience without the need for travel, allow them to practice culturally responsive instruction, and broaden their perspectives on international classroom contexts while developing their skills in using digital tools for online instruction,” Shim said.

Facilitating I-GO not only benefits the student participants but also enhances the research and practice of the faculty sponsors. The research team focuses on strategies for intercultural instruction and challenges encountered in online teaching.

“This program can strengthen global partnerships and enrich our teacher preparation programs by fostering more globally aware and culturally responsive future educators,” Choi said.

The faculty involved with the I-GO program hope to expand the program even further in the future, with goals of including all teacher education majors across campus and exploring options to offer course credit or volunteer hours.

Students interested in I-GO can email Choi or Shim for more information.

Illinois State students in the I-GO program developed a Kahoot game to deliver a science lesson over Zoom for students abroad.

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