University Communications and Marketing
Fulbright Scholar's Experiences in Slovakia the Focus of Faculty Lecture at MSU Billings
April 14, 2014
Contacts:
Carmen Price, University Relations, 657-2243
MSU BILLINGS NEWS SERVICES — A Fulbright Scholar’s learning experience while teaching and researching in Slovakia will be the focus of an upcoming faculty lecture at Montana State University Billings.
Dr. Susan Barfield, faculty member in the Department of Educational Theory and Practice,
will talk about her experiences last year as a Fulbright Scholar in Slovakia on Monday, April 21, from 12:15 to 1 p.m. in room 323 of the College of Education building at the University campus. The lecture is free and open to the public and will include
a brief introduction to Slovak and Roma Culture.
Barfield worked four months as a Fulbright Scholar in the Fall of 2013 at the University of Prešov, Slovakia, where she co-taught undergraduate and graduate courses in English education. She researched minority Roma educational issues and is co-authoring a tri-lingual children’s book based on a Roma folktale. Her professional activities included travel to Slovenia, Hungary and Turkey.
Barfield received her Ph.D. in education with an emphasis on multicultural, bilingual and English as a Second Language programs from George Mason University. She has nearly four decades of success in every facet of teaching, counseling and school/community relations at the K-12 and college levels. She has also extensive experience working as an external grant evaluator in eight states, including several federal projects for the U.S. Department of Education Office of English Language Acquisition.
She has conducted program evaluations since 1990 for dual language/immersion programs in Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Arabic, and Chinese, including the Chinese American Immersion School in San Francisco and Becker Elementary School (Arabic) in Dearborn, Mich. She co-authored the U.S. Department of Education “Foreign Language Assistance Program Evaluation Guide.”
In addition, Barfield has been a researcher, project director and /or faculty advisor for several programs. Most recent, she contributed last year to the Montana Office of Public Instruction’s ”Montana’s English Language Learners: Guidance for School Districts” publication.
Barfield worked four months as a Fulbright Scholar in 2007 with the Ministry of Education English Opens Doors Program in Chile. While there, she visited more than 20 schools throughout the region, including Easter Island, talking and working with students from kindergarten through college and their teachers of English as a Foreign Language.
Barfield is on post-retirement from a 17 year career at MSUB, where she has received two Outstanding Faculty Achievement Awards. She presently teaches two courses and is scheduled to teach during the summer session.
PHOTO ABOVE: Dr. Sue Barfield