An international, community-engaged research partnership with the University of Tetova in North Macedonia is helping to improve trauma-informed practices and social emotional learning in the region’s K-12 schools and advance scholarship in the field of K-12 counseling and education.
For more than a decade, NIU has been building a relationship with University of Tetova, which is the first Albanian-language university in an area still haunted by the wars and ethnic conflicts of the Balkan region.
Recently, NIU College of Education faculty Eric Junco, Dana Isawi and Yenitza Guzman have partnered with Tetova faculty and K-12 teachers in North Macedonia to learn about K-12 education in the region and advance understandings of social emotional learning and trauma-informed practices.
After months of online meetings and long-distance planning and discussions, the three – along with a team of scholars from the NIU College of Education – visited North Macedonia in September.
The team’s research and applied teaching in North Macedonia are grounded in community-engagement best practices of reciprocity, mutual respect and what Isawi terms “cultural humility” – the desire to approach other cultures with an open mind and learn from them.
We’re also excited to announce that Professor Junco and the team have won an Engaged Scholarship Grant from the Engagement Scholarship Consortium to support this research!
