Credit: Subira Popenoe, IEM ’23

“[It’s a] beautiful intersection between this is what works [and] this is what you can bring home.” 

This is how Professor Marie Butcher, Middlebury Institute of International Studies’ (MIIS) Program Head for English for Academic and Professional Purposes, described the benefits and outcomes of sustainable development partnerships for students. This J-term, Professor Butcher and Professor Morera, Associate Professor of Spanish and Latin American Policy Studies at MIIS, offered Peace and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Action, a language and intercultural competence course with the goal of providing a “curriculum where cultivating a culture of peace is at the center of discussion” using MIIS’ three pillars of peace and security; language skills and intercultural communication; and sustainability as well as the UN SDGs. During J-term students were exposed to a range of individuals, groups, and organizations actively working to foster peace and sustainability in various contexts like education, youth empowerment, and environmental sustainability. 

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are “an urgent call for action by all countries – developed and developing – in a global partnership” to tackle the wicked problems impacting societies across the globe. Partnerships are essential in imagining how international education and education abroad programming can support achieving the UN SDGs. Education abroad programs rely on partnerships in achieving programmatic goals. For example, an education abroad program coordinator may collaborate with a local grassroots organization to offer students a presentation on advancing human rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Such partnerships target UN SDG 17, Partnerships for the Goals, and specifically UN SDG 17.17, which seeks to “encourage and promote effective public, public-private and civil society partnerships, building on the experience and resourcing strategies of partnerships”. This includes Butcher and Morera’s Peace and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Action course. Included below are two takeaways from an interview with Professor Butcher further exploring the intersection between international education, the UN SDGs, and partnerships in advancing sustainable development.

Question 1: Why focus on the UN SDGs and Costa Rica specifically?

Costa Rica as a Case Study and the UN SDGs as a Shared Framework and Language 

The motivation behind Costa Rica as the location for the program is rooted in its unique position as a model for studying peace in action. Costa Rica demilitarized in 1948 and proceeded to center peace in both its national policy and identity by investing into education and social welfare as well as acknowledging peace as a human right. Combined with Middlebury’s interest in conflict transformation, or the process of finding creative solutions to conflict, Costa Rica served as a perfect fit in envisioning what a peaceful society and future can look like. 

The choice for including the UN SDGs was rooted in both its goal to solve the wicked problems of the world through global partnerships, but also because the UN SDGs can be leveraged in easily facilitating such partnerships. According to Professor Butcher, “[Our] partners in Costa Rica were an easy conversation to have because they already have the UN SDG framework”.  Acting as a bridge between both MIIS professors and program partners in Costa Rica, the UN SDGs provided each group with a shared language and framework that was used in the planning and designing of the program. 

Question 2: The SDGs are a set of goals that primarily operate on the national-level. How do you reconcile this with the nature of international education programs, which, on-the-ground, operate at the individual and local levels?

Using the UN SDGs to Spur Bottom-Up Change 

The nature of international education programs, which primarily serve individual students and local universities, organizations, and communities depending on the type of program, can initially seem at odds with the national-level focus of the UN SDGs. However, this isn’t necessarily the case, and Professor Butcher provided an example that illustrates this point. In 2019, MIIS hosted high school students from Carmel for The Lyceum of Monterey County’s Model UN event. This event engages students in “debates that mirror those of United Nations ambassadors, like background research, in-conference debate, and resolution forming”. The topic of the event was UN SDG 13, climate action. That year there was a small group of Russian students interested in learning more about recycling in the hopes of implementing a recycling program in Moscow. Through Monterey County’s Waste Management department, the students were provided more context on how recycling works, context that they could then bring to and implement in Moscow. These instances of “organic collaboration”, as Professor Butcher referred to them, allow for opportunities to explore international issues, perspectives, and solutions and apply those takeaways to our own individual, local, or national contexts. 

An example like this reimagines how the UN SDGs can be applied. Rather than being solely implemented from the top-down, where national goals and actions are meant to lead to local and individual changes, the UN SDGs can also be applied locally, with the intent to create change from the bottom-up. International education program partnerships can be used in a similar manner. By sparking curiosity and a desire and vision for change in individual students, students that participate in international education programs can be inspired to take the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and experiences gained and developed abroad and apply them to their various contexts, from the individual level to the national level. In reflecting on my own recent experience abroad through the Peacebuilding and Reconciliation in the Balkans course, I deepened my interest and knowledge of peace education, conflict transformation, and LGBTQ+ human rights by through partnerships with local leaders and organizations that exposed me to international, non-U.S. perspectives and approaches on these topics. Additionally, I also returned with knowledge on navigating intercultural interactions and living abroad. These are interests and knowledge that I will be bringing with me in Kazakhstan this summer, both to my practicum site and to my program cohorts. 

References

Butcher, M. (2023, March 13). SDGs and Peacebuilding in Costa Rica Interview (Q. Townsend, Interviewer) [Review of SDGs and Peacebuilding in Costa Rica Interview].

Coleman, P., & Donahue, J. (2018, September 7). Costa Rica: Choosing a Path to Build and Sustain Peace. IPI Global Observatory; IPI Global Observatory. https://theglobalobservatory.org/2018/09/costa-rica-choosing-path-to-build-sustain-peace/

Davis Collaborative in Conflict Transformation | Middlebury. (n.d.). Www.middlebury.edu; Middlebury College. Retrieved May 19, 2023, from https://www.middlebury.edu/conflict-transformation

Model UN. (n.d.). The Lyceum of Monterey County. Retrieved May 19, 2023, from https://www.lyceum.org/model-un

Peacebuilding and Reconciliation in the Balkans – A Spring Break Experiential Learning Program. (n.d.). Retrieved May 19, 2023, from https://sites.miis.edu/balkans/

Remmel, A. (2019, October 23). Local students tackle global challenges at Model UN event. Monterey Herald; Monterey Herald. https://www.montereyherald.com/2019/10/23/local-students/

United Nations. (2015). The 17 Sustainable Development Goals. United Nations. https://sdgs.un.org/goals