The document summarizes the findings of interviews with 15 Canadian deans regarding their faculties' Education for All (EFA) projects. It identifies 10 principles for maintaining sustainable EFA projects and partnerships, such as establishing institutional commitment, empowering graduate students, developing reciprocal knowledge exchanges, and including research funding in all EFA projects. The deans believe that stable, long-term EFA partnerships can increase global security, prosperity, and hope for future learners.

1. Pan-Canadian Study of
Deans’ Thoughts about
their Faculties’
Education for All
Projects
Dr. Jim Greenlaw
University of Ontario Institute of Technology
Canada

2. Introduction
Interviewed 15 deans across Canada using grounded
theory approach
Canadian deans of education consistently value the EFA
work that their professors conduct with their international
partners, but they argue that this work is complex to
administer.
Videotapes of the interviews were used to establish a list
of 10 principles for maintaining sustainable EFA projects
and partnerships.
ACDE Accord on Internationalization of Faculties of
Education
IAU HEEFA Reference Group since 2007

3. Ted Riecken - University of Victoria
Institutional Commitment

4. Principles for Sustainable EFA
Projects
Establish institutional commitment – Effective EFA
projects require the ongoing moral support and financial
commitment of the university’s senior administration and
they require EFA research and service work to be
recognized in tenure and promotion and merit evaluations
of faculty members. (Riecken, Sumara, and Snart)
Empower graduate students – Graduate student
participation in EFA projects can provide vital energy to
these initiatives. (Snart)

5. Fern Snart – University of Alberta
Reciprocity

6. Principles for Sustainable EFA
Projects
Expand EFA to include lifelong learning – EFA projects
should not be limited to formal elementary level education
settings but can include all levels of both formal and non-
formal education. (McNinch and Frank)
Develop reciprocal knowledge exchanges – Research
and teaching in EFA projects should involve reciprocal and
equitable knowledge exchange. (Snart and Frank)

7. Jeff Orr St. Francis Xavier University
Building Lasting Relationships

8. Principles for Sustainable EFA
Projects
Build lasting relationships through community
engaged scholarship – EFA projects should involve
community engaged scholarship that is based upon a
social justice philosophy of education and long term
relationship building among project partners.
(Sumara, Frank, and Orr)
Redefine accountability – Canadian faculties of
education need to continue to take a moral stand in their
work with funding agencies and to find ways to loosen
bureaucratic constraints and narrow views of what
constitutes accountability in effective EFA projects.
(Magnusson and McNinch)

9. Kris Magnusson
Simon Fraser University
Bridging the Digital Divide

10. Principles for Sustainable EFA
Projects
Reduce risk and manage for sustainability – EFA
projects need to be carefully and competently managed if
they are to be successful, and this requires the
commitment of all partners. At the same time, if EFA
projects are to be sustainable, risk management
assessments should be conducted frequently during the
life of a partnership. (Sumara, Turnbull and Orr)
Bridge the digital divide – EFA projects should attempt
to bridge the digital divide by employing, where it is
warranted, cost effective educational technologies to
empower marginalized communities through distance
education modalities. (Magnusson and Turnbull)

11. Fiona Blaikie Brock University
EFA and Undergraduates

12. Principles for Sustainable EFA
Projects
Include research funding in all EFA projects – Funding
agencies need to be encouraged by faculties of education
to support the research components of EFA projects
because without research there can be no meaningful
knowledge exchange. (Magnusson)
Establish EFA components in undergraduate service
learning and practicum experiences – Faculties of
education should consider carefully the EFA potential of
the service learning and international practicum
opportunities that they can provide for their undergraduate
students. (Turnbull, Elliot, and Blaikie)

13. Principles for EFA
Establish institutional commitment
Empower graduate students
Expand EFA to include lifelong learning
Develop reciprocal knowledge exchanges
Build lasting relationships through community engaged
scholarship
Redefine accountability
Reduce risk and manage for sustainability
Bridge the digital divide
Include research funding in all EFA projects
Establish EFA components in undergraduate service
learning and practicum experiences

14. Conclusion
Canadian deans of education firmly
believe that stable, long-term EFA
partnerships grounded in well-
established intercultural relationships
provide the promise of increased global
security and prosperity and increased
hope for future generations of learners.