Supporting all teachers as well as supporting their learning processes
On October 5, 2021, RISE Travel Institute celebrates all teachers and educators for World Teachers Day. This year, the United Nations presented “Teachers at the heart of education and recovery” as the central theme for this year’s recognition of the resilience teachers demonstrated during the crucial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Education comes in all shapes and sizes. There is no one recipe to deliver content or educate a community. The beauty of the flexibility of education is that everyone is simultaneously a teacher and a student throughout their lives. Education is just as complex as it is simple, therefore teachers are presented to us in a myriad of settings and throughout uncountable themes.
For a long time, terms such as “education”, “teachers” and “students” have been associated with traditional K-12 schooling and higher education. However, with the evolution of technology and advanced modes of transportation, an increase in exposure to learning opportunities across boundaries follow, paving way for teachable moments throughout our journeys. Non-traditional learning is an avenue for all members of society to engage in, grow, and become better equipped for interactions with their families, neighbors and the planet. The interconnectedness of life and new exposures to the ways we all co-exist within the beautifully complex planet that surrounds us isn’t always easy to digest and navigate. Therefore, the need for nontraditional learning and teachers is just as important in our ever-changing world.
Teachers offer the learner opportunities to challenge confirmation biases that can often fog our understanding of the world around us with misjudgments, misunderstanding and gaps that help us relate better to others. Everyone, including teachers, are learners and vice-versa. It’s important for humans to continue educating each other in order to develop with this planet as healthily and sustainably as we have the power to.
Travel, and the exposure it offers us, invites lifelong learning and education through our interactions with nature, wildlife, local and Indigenous communities. Using the spaces between our travel journeys to explore the complexities of the places and local communities we visit can transform the way we think and live, foster cultural understanding, break stereotypes, and dismantle oppressive systems. Instructor Dr. Milena Nikolova used her platform during our summer pilot program to remind travelers, “All of the challenges and new experiences [in travel] are important for our personal growth and for the enhancement of our capabilities and our sense of satisfaction with our life.” Through mindful travel, teachable moments are inevitable, and our educators are found in the experiences we encounter.
Engaging in non-traditional learning and education is an opportunity to support educators who fill the social gaps that unravel throughout history. Thus, RISE Travel Institute believes in promoting all teachers as well as supporting their learning processes as they embark in new challenges themselves. With teachers in mind, RISE Travel Institute is excited to share that we are currently working on an exciting teacher training course scheduled for Summer 2022.
As education develops and transcends across boundaries, teachers adapt and redefine their methods to set the tone for transformations, filling gaps in education as they arise. As this year’s theme suggests, education is a form of recovery and rebuilding the way we navigate through the ever-changing realities of our collective existence. Thus, as we embrace new challenges, embark in new endeavors, and continue to build resilience, teachers become the force behind growth.
About the Author
Natalie Amezcua
Content Writer and Strategist
Natalie (she/her/hers) is a humane educator and solutionary writer from Los Angeles. She’s been a long time resident of Asia, teaching for several years in both rural and metropolitan cities of South Korea and China. Travel has offered transformative journeys that have reshaped her passions for influencing social justice for both human and nonhuman animals through community education and solutionary writing in creative and nontraditional spaces.
