ADVANCING INTERNATIONAL MUTUAL LEARNING THROUGH UNIVERSITY-COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

Brazil's Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) in Natal has been partnering since 2011 with Canada's University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver to design and deliver non-credit courses that advance social learning about metropolitan governance, urban development, and informal settlement. In 2011, an on-line course was jointly delivered to professionals, students, and community members in Natal. In 2012, a field course for non-Brazilians, led jointly by UBC and UFRN, was offered in Natal. The format of the 2012 field course was designed by UFRN and UBC as an intensive week of site visits to four communities of Natal, in combination with debriefings conducted by informal leaders and professors. The eight non-Brazilian participants were attracted by UBC's Centre for Intercultural Communication through its self-funded certificate programs on International Development and Intercultural Studies. All were experienced practitioners of international development. What they sought from this course was an introduction to Brazilian theories and conceptualizations of remedies to social exclusion. Participants' tuition fees covered most of the course costs. Lessons learned relate to curriculum design for international field courses provided to adult learners, and for the larger programs of which such courses form a part. More broadly, the 2012 UFRN-UBC field course outcomes, as documented by participants, reveal university opportunities for meeting what appears to be a strong latent demand by adult learners for international education that is both experientially rich and intellectually engaging.