International Advisors

Lynn Baxendale has been working in the field of education for 30 years not only in the UK but also in Asia and Africa. She began teaching in 1975 and in the first 10 years of her teaching career taught young children in Scotland, trained teachers in Papua New Guinea and taught in a rural secondary school in Benin, West Africa.

In 1984, she joined a primary school with an ethnically diverse population in Glasgow. She worked as part of a team of four teachers including a bilingual support teacher teaching 4-7 year olds. The team worked in a totally integrated way developing participatory methodologies across the curriculum and exploring many of the values, skills and learning that are core to the framework of Global Citizenship. Over a period of years, they worked with other colleagues to incorporate the principles of Global Citizenship into all aspects of the school ethos.

Between 1988 and 2003, Ms. Baxendale combined periods of working in Glasgow with periods working in India, Pakistan and Madagascar where she continued to incorporate participatory methodologies and the principles of Global Citizenship into her teaching. Much of her work during these years was in curriculum development, working with colleagues to develop whole school teaching and learning methodologies and policies that incorporated the principles of Global Citizenship.

Lynn Baxendale joined Oxfam Development Education in 2003 as a Curriculum Adviser. This involves working with others to influence curricula and have Global Citizenship embedded in the policy and practice of formal education systems of the UK.

Paul Connolly is Professor of Education at Queen's University Belfast. He has researched and published widely in the area of social inclusion, diversity and the early years. His previous books include “Boys and Schooling in the Early Years” (2004, Routledge), “Too Young to Notice? The Cultural and Political Awareness of 3-6 Year Olds in Northern Ireland” (2002, Community Relations Council) and “Racism, Gender Identities and Young Children” (1998, Routledge). Further details on his research and publications can be found at: www.paulconnolly.net. He is currently involved in the Media Initiative for Children Northern Ireland that aims to use mass media and curricular resources to address issues of diversity and inclusion among preschool children (see: www.mifc-pii.org).

Rosemary Fieth is a British national. For the past 30 years, she has worked overseas with development NGOs and, since 1990, with UNICEF. Her work has taken her to very many countries, mostly in Africa but also in Asia, Central America and the Balkans. Her link with Sesame Workshop came when she was the UNICEF representative in Kosovo (2001-2005) and they worked together on a Sesame Street program for preschool children there, with a theme of peace and reconciliation and respect for diversity. She is now officially retired but currently doing some short term work for UNICEF in Geneva.

Dr. Marcella Lembert has a Bachelors of Arts from Anahuac, University of Mexico in Psychology, and holds three Masters of Arts from Stanford University in Child Development and Early Childhood Education, in Social Foundations in Education, and in Evaluation in Education. She also has a Ph.D. from Stanford University in Psychological Studies in Education. She is currently the Vice President, LATAM Philanthropy for Merrill Lynch.

She has worked in the education field for over 25 years and has had several publications as well as received a number of awards. Dr. Lembert has been a researcher of the National Council of Educational Fostering (CONAFE) and an Educational Officer for UNICEF in Mexico. Since 1992, she worked as Content & Research Director of the television program Plaza Sésamo, where she was in charge of developing the educational curriculum of Plaza Sésamo for Seasons IV, V, VI, VII and VIII and was Director for the project for several years. Currently, Marcella Lembert is an Executive Consultant for Tycoon Enterprise in the area of preschool initiatives. She is now working for CONAFE and the World Bank on a project for the development of content and DVD materials for preschool education in poor areas.

Debbie Lente-Jojola is a tribal member of the Pueblo of Isleta. Isleta Pueblo is located 15 miles south of Albuquerque, New Mexico in the United States. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education with a Minor in Early Childhood, a Masters of Arts from the University of New Mexico, in Guidance & Counselling, and is state certified as an Educational Administrator. She is certified in the State of New Mexico as a Teacher, School Counsellor and Education Administrator for K-8.

She is married, has three sons and a daughter. Her greatest joy is being called “Chee” (grandmother) to three beautiful grandchildren, ages, 14 years, 3 1/2 years and 3 years old.

Mrs. Lente-Jojola is the Program Manager for three early childhood programs in the Bureau of Indian Education. They are the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Family & Child Education (FACE) Programs, 60 Baby FACE programs and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004, Part C (birth -2) and Part B (3-5) in 60 tribal programs across the United States.

She presented in Santiago, Chile in 2004, as a member of the U.S. delegation presenting the FACE model as a “best practice” in indigenous early childhood education. Representatives from the Northern and Southern Hemispheres of the world were in attendance.

Her ambition, determination and focus for all Native American families and children is to continually advocate quality services and programs in early childhood. From a national perspective, she continually emphasizes providing quality educational opportunities for all children and families entering kindergarten, “ready to learn” despite any challenge.

Dr. Asha Singh’s main interests center on working with children using the medium of arts for education. In her work, she combines training in Child Development and Classical Dance with an interest in theatre to create modules for participatory initiatives that enrich interactions of teachers and parents with children. Dr. Singh’s research and outreach efforts are grounded in theater education techniques, which have been explored in a diversity of social classes and cultural milieus in her work over the last three decades. Besides teaching in the Department of Child Development at Lady Irwin College, Delhi University, she helped in founding the Theatre-in-Education company at the National School of Drama, India. Dr. Singh is also on the Managing Board of several Public Schools, and through her involvement with the National Council for Education & Research Training (NCERT, India), she has been part of various projects seeking to conceptualize creative curriculum designs. In recent years, she has also been working with children in the context of the aftermath of violence and ongoing political instability, using theatre techniques as a form of discussion and healing. Dr. Singh’s current association with Galli Galli Sim Sim, the Indian adaptation of Sesame Street, as Director, Education & Research, allows her to further pursue these multiple interests. Asha Singh holds a Ph.D. and Masters in Education & Child Development.

Spyros Spyrou is the founder and director of the Center for the Study of Childhood and Adolescence and president of the Center’s Board of Directors. He holds a BS degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MA and Ph.D. degrees in Socio-cultural Anthropology from the State University of New York at Binghamton. Currently, Spyros is an assistant professor of anthropology and sociology at Cyprus College; from 2000 to 2002, he also served as head of the Department of Arts and Sciences at Cyprus College. He has taught a variety of anthropology and sociology courses in the areas of race, racism, multiculturalism and research methods as well as courses devoted to the study of childhood such as “The Social Worlds of Children” and “The Anthropology of Childhood” at both Cyprus College and the State University of New York at Binghamton. Spyros is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Child Support Association, a non-profit, non-governmental organization which designs and administers various support programs for children; he is also actively involved in campaigning for children's rights both locally and internationally. His research interests include childhood, education and identity. His work has been funded by the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the State University of New York at Binghamton, the Bank of Cyprus, UNOPS and the European Commission. He has conducted fieldwork with various groups of children including Vietnamese refugee children in the U.S., Greek Cypriot elementary school children in Cyprus and Turkish-speaking children (including Roma children) who live in the Greek Cypriot community. Spyros also worked on an international television program for children (Gimme6) as an educational and research consultant, helping to design the program’s curriculum and conducting research. More recently, he has completed a research project on Greek Cypriot children’s knowledge about, experiences of, and attitudes towards foreigners and is currently the scientific coordinator of a two-year trans-national project funded by the European Commission that focuses on integrating children’s perspectives in policy-making to combat poverty and social exclusion experienced by single parent families. Spyros has published in the areas of childhood, identity and education in various peer-reviewed journals, edited volumes and encyclopedias. His most recent publication is a book, co-authored with Loucas Antoniou, about child labor in Cyprus during the first half of the 20th century.

Taka Tsurutani founded Future Institute Corporation in September 1999 and has been with the company as CEO.

He holds a BA in Social Systems from Saitama University. He completed the executive program at University of Tennessee. Prior to founding Future Institute, he was an independent researcher in Palo Alto, President of DH Institute of Media Arts in California and worked for Secom Co., Ltd as a corporate strategist.

Besides Future Institute, he plays strategic roles for many corporations including IQ Corporation, Ichigo Holdings, Visual Science Laboratory, Poplar Publishing, Neowiz Corporation Korea, and Education and Quest Corporation.

He also supports many non profit organizations such as Nissan Science Foundation as a selecting committee member, CANVAS as a trustee, and Children Art Museum and Park as an advisor.

He teaches Instructional Design at Tama Art University and International Negotiation Waseda University Business School. He advised the Japanese government for its digital television policy and pop culture policies as a committee member.

Anke van Keulen is a social pedagogue, trainer, developer and partner in Bureau MUTANT (Utrecht, The Netherlands). She is a specialist in pedagogical quality in early childhood centers, diversity and cross-cultural child raising. She has written various national and international publications. She has developed the program “I am me, you are you,” “Persona Doll” and “Parents and Diversity.” At the moment, she coordinates the project “Young children and Democracy” and “Learning Communities.” She is co-initiator and coordinator (2004-2006) of the European DECET network (Diversity in early Childhood Education and Training) in which ten European countries are involved. For more information, please visit the following websites: www.mutant.nl and www.decet.org.

Nina Vucenik was a co-creator of KidsDevNews, a website modelled on the Washington Post's KidsPost. The KidsDevNews content consisted of World Bank news and feature stories with integrated multimedia components. As part of the World Bank's outreach to young people worldwide, in 2004 KidsDevNews evolved into Youthink, a more comprehensive website targeting both teens and children.

Youthink (http://youthink.worldbank.org) is the World Bank's website for youth that introduces issues in international development to a teen audience focusing on topics young people care about. The website has an area for younger audiences. children ages 8-12, called 4kids, which presents development issues in an age-appropriate manner. Since development goes beyond economic growth, the website addresses other issues, such as H.I.V./AIDS, corruption, environment and gender, all of which influence a country's development and carry economic implications. Youthink presents facts and information as well as making these subjects relevant to young people by personalizing the content, explaining why they should care, how these issues affect them and what they can do about them.

In addition to serving as the Youthink editor, Nina is a writer on the World Bank's corporate web team, which is responsible for managing the Bank's homepage and other parts of the site. She previously worked in the Bank's corporate media relations team. She has a master's degree in International Relations and Communications from Boston University.

David Woollcombe is Founder and President of Peace Child International, the largest network of youth-led organizations in consultative status with the United Nations. He is the author of the landmark study, “The Role of Young People in Governance” and an acknowledged expert on the field of youth participation. He has consulted for UNDP, UNICEF, UNESCO and UNEP, the Moroccan Government and the European Commission on the best ways to create participatory structures that engage young people effectively. Working on a daily basis with a staff of ten young volunteers from 9 countries at the Peace Child International Center, he has 24 years of practical experience of what works and what does not work in youth participation. Mr. Woollcombe has an MA in International Studies from the University of Durham.