Current Trends in Global Education: Bridging K-12 and Higher Education for an Interconnected World

 Marina Falasca holds a Masters in Area Studies from Virginia Tech and an M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction, Adult anf Higher Education, from South Dakota State University, where she served as Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant (2005-06) and full-time instructor (2009-10). Presently, she is a full-time Lecturer at a major university in Buenos Aires (UTN), where she teaches TEFL Methods, Multimedia Learning, Discourse Analysis and Introduction to Educational Research. She also delivers a Methodology course on English for Specific Purposes (ESP) at I.E.S. en Lenguas Vivas “Juan Ramón Fernandez”, a renowned teacher training college in Buenos Aires.

Marina’s research interests include educational technology, intercultural learning, differentiated instruction, global education and collaborative ethnography. She has recently co-edited her first book in Spanish, Alfabetización y Competencias Transmedia: Propuestas Didacticas para el Nivel Secundario y Superior (Buenos Aires, Editorial SB, 2022), and her research has been published in reputable academic journals both nationally and internationally. 

Since April, Marina has served as the inaugural STAR Country Director for Argentina. In this new role, she has helped advance global education by successfully developing and running the first STAR training in Argentina on "Best Practices for Doing Local and Global Good". She has also hosted and moderated virtual intercultural exchanges with other students, teachers and researchers abroad, including Dr Shyam Sharma. In the following months,  she hopes to continue and expand the work she presented as a culmination of the STAR Certified Research Training, for which she was granted the Presidential award of distinction.

Karina J. Baum is the Director of Global Education at Buckingham Browne & Nichols (BB&N), a K-12 independent school in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Her research on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning and best practices in Global Education focuses on using case studies, technology applications, collaborations beyond the classroom, design-thinking, culturally responsive anti-bias curriculum development, and interdisciplinary learning. She has presented her work at numerous conferences and workshops and published in peer-reviewed journals in science and education and in an edited book. She received the Amgen Award for Science Teaching Excellence (AASTE) in 2014 and the Teacher of Merit Recognition from the Regeneron Science Talent Search Competition in 2018. Formerly, Dr. Baum was an Education Fellow at the National Academies of Science, a Scholar at the Board of Science Education of the National Academies of Science, a Latinos for Education Board Fellow, and a consultant for Oxfam. She has been a fellow and faculty of the Think Tank on Global Education at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education. Currently, she serves on the Board of Directors of the Global Education Benchmark Group (GEBG), the Thompson Island Outward Bound Board of Trustees, and the Spark School Advisory Board, and she is also on the Latinos for Education Founding National Alumni Council. 

Dr Baum is a STAR member and was one of the guest speakers in the first STAR training in Argentina on "Best Practices for Doing Local and Global Good". In October, she will deliver a workshop on "Using Design Thinking to Foster Global Conference" for STAR members in Argentina and the U.S.

Selected Publications 

US STEM Landscape: Sparking a Life Long Interest, The Pie Review, June 2022

Baum, Karina. Slowing Down In The Fast Lane: Changing Pace In Global Education, Independent Ideas Blog, National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), April 13, 2021.

Baum, Karina et al. International Perspectives on National Events at the US Capitol, The Exchange, Global Education Benchmark Group (GEBG) Blog, January 13, 2021 

Baum, Karina et al. Ethical Reflections on Climate Change and Global Education, Interconnected Magazine, Vol 2, Global Education Benchmark Group (GEBG), Spring 2020 

Baum, Karina & Rathburn, Melanie K: “Science Stories You Can Count On,” In Case Studies with

Quantitative Reasoning in Biology, National Science Teacher Association (NSTA) Press, 2014 

Baum, Karina & Rathburn, Melanie K. The Wealth of Water: The Value of an Essential Resource Journal of College Science Teaching, v40 n3 p58-64 Jan 2011