BORDERLANDS EDUCATION CENTER

The main goal for the Borderlands Education Center -BEC- is to create an intellectual hub in the rural borderlands of Southeastern Arizona and Northern Mexico, thereby expanding learning and research opportunities for border teachers, researchers, and communities. The Center supports initiatives that address the complex educational issues on borders and foster the development of networks of border teachers and researchers and sponsors the Teacher Identities Institute addressing the border educational context, promoting diversity and inclusion and knowledge exchange with scholars and pre-service and in-service teachers.

This project addresses UA Strategic Plan Pillar 3: Arizona Advantage: “Make the UA the leader in the field of border studies by creating new knowledge and transnational collaborations and thus position the University as a top destination for students and faculty pursuing border-related scholarship in global, binational and regional contexts.” The BEC provides the infrastructure needed for this initiative in Southeastern Arizona and Northern Mexico.

LEARN MORE

The BEC also supports the UA Masters in Secondary Education, Alternative Path Program students. Over 5M in Federal grant funds over the last nine years have helped support recruitment and retention of secondary STEM teachers in our regional schools, currently through our Noyce Borderland Scholars and  our Noyce Borderlands Master Teacher Fellows program. BEC programming, through Sin Fronteras provides relevant professional development opportunities for all Southeastern Arizona education professionals in the areas of asset-based pedagogy, Equity Literacy and the future of education, resilience and trauma informed instruction and inquiry based STEM instruction Strategies.  Our Critical Conversation series focuses on issues that impact youth and families of southern Arizona.