The director of Lander University's Montessori teacher education program continues to pile up frequent flyer miles, traveling the world as part of the accreditation and evaluation process for Montessori programs in other countries.
Associate professor of education Barbara Ervin was selected by the Montessori Accreditation Council for Teacher Education (MACTE) to make site visits to colleges and universities in Taiwan twice, Shanghai, China, in 2009, and most recently Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in September and Dublin, Ireland, in November.
In each country, except Ireland, she was the leader of a three-person team that conducted evaluations of colleges and universities under consideration for MACTE accreditation to verify the documentation they had submitted.
Ervin and a separate group were invited to St. Nicholas Montessori College in Dublin, whose five-year endorsement by Ireland's Higher Education and Training Awards Council is up for renewal. Their task was to confirm the school's quality assurance procedures and adherence to standards set by the Council.
She said spending time evaluating programs at schools overseas has helped her understand how Montessori education programs operate in other countries. "It broadened my view and each time I came back with information for Lander's Montessori students."