09.16.05

VCU literacy professor recruited to help boost Macedonia’s struggling economy

By Mike Frontiero
VCU School of Education
Sept. 16, 2005

A U.S. government effort to strengthen the economy of war-torn Macedonia is receiving assistance from VCU School of Education Professor Emerita Judy S. Richardson, Ph.D. Through the International Reading Association and USAID – an independent federal agency that extends assistance to countries recovering from disaster, trying to escape poverty, and engaging in democratic reforms – Richardson is working with teacher trainers in Macedonia to lower the dropout rate of vocational education students.

The Balkan nation is still recovering from the collapse of the former Yugoslavia in 1991 and an armed insurgency by Albanians in 2001. Unemployment remains a critical economic problem with more than one-third of the workforce without a job.

Dr. Judy S. Richardson (second from right) and a fellow volunteer (third from right) with a pedagogue, teacher, students, and principal of Dimitria Kuposki School in Veles, Macedonia.

As part of a five-year project that began in 2003, Richardson and professors from other universities in the U.S. and Europe are making periodic visits to Macedonia to share creative and innovative teaching strategies with teacher trainers so students are more engaged in the classroom.
“Vocational education in Macedonia is more lecture driven than hands on,” said Dr. Richardson. “We want to turn that around. You tend to lose students early on if you don’t capture their attention.”
Lowering unemployment and improving economic development are essential for Macedonia to gain membership in the European Union.
Dr. Richardson plans to return to Macedonia in October 16. She will visit five schools and facilitate teacher training for approximately 200 secondary vocational education teachers.

Dr. Richardson at St. Jovans' Orthodox Church, a landmark building in Ohrid, Macedonia.

Dr. Richardson is founder of the “JSR Literacy & Technology Innovations Fund.”
 
The fund is intended to support faculty and students with financial resources to design and implement instruction that incorporates literacy and/or technology innovations. The scholarship covers the cost of a conference where innovations can be learned, to employ a student assistant, or to provide money to purchase necessary resources for such implementation.

Literacy, for the purposes of this fund, is defined as reading, writing, and discussion skills. Technology, for the purposes of this fund, means the electronic environment that includes computer and on-line skills. For example, the development of instruction that facilitates the use of study skills in a computer environment would qualify.

Recipients might include: Master of Education students who are practicing teachers, Ph.D. students in the Instructional Leadership track who are practicing teachers, and School of Education faculty in any department.

For more information, contact Dr. Richardson at (804) 827-0351 or jsrichar@vcu.edu.

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