KDP International News
KDP Moving Forward as NGO

Kappa Delta Pi at the United Nations
Kappa Delta Pi (KDP) strategic planning for its upcoming biennium is going global. With a commitment to the internationalization of education, KDP representation at the United Nations (UN) began January 2010 with Kathryn De Lawter, Ed.D., and Margaret Vallone Gardineer, Ph.D., as the representatives for the 45,000 KDP members who represent 30 countries.

United Nations LogoKappa Delta Pi’s decision to affiliate with the United Nations as a non-governmental organization (NGO) came to fruition January, 11, 2010, when Faye Snodgress signed an agreement after Kappa Delta Pi’s application for Association with DPI was accepted. Each NGO identifies only one interest on its accreditation application. KDP designated Education from 46 categories, including children, youth, women, families, conflict resolution, social development, poverty, and human rights.

KDP joining the NGO community at the UN is a major step in globalizing its’ impact on educational settings around the world. Since establishing its first international chapter in Canada in 1981, KDP has expanded its resources to provide services to chapter counselors and members throughout the world. The recent survey to identify members’ experiences and dispositions regarding global education is another step toward internationalizing KDP. As an NGO affiliated with the UN and the Committee on Teaching about the UN (CTAUN), KDP is positioned to raise awareness and collaborate for global learning. Evidence of this is the KDP/CTAUN Conference, “It’s Our World: Lessons for Peace and Reconciliation” scheduled for Saturday, November 6, 2010, at the Shortridge Magnet High School for Law and Public Policy in Indianapolis, Indiana.   
              
UN-affiliated NGOs send their representatives to weekly UN briefings, large forums organized by the UN Department of Public Information (DPI). Information may be accessed at www.un.org/dpi/ngosection. Briefings consist of four or more panelists from around the world with experience and expertise on the currency and history of the topic. Participants can listen in English, French, Chinese, Spanish, Arabic, and Russian, the six official languages of the UN, and are provided with panelists’ biographical information and a summary of the topic.  After hearing panelists’ multiple perspectives on the topic, NGO members engage in an extensive question-and-answer period with the panelists. Briefings this year have included:

  • Faith Series: Building Bridges between Cultures: A Closer Look at Hinduism
  • The Moroccan Jews and Their Legacy of Survival
  • Prevention, Prosecution, and Protection: Focus on the Trafficking of Women and Girls
  • Equal Rights, Equal Opportunities—Progress for All: Arab Women 15 Years After Beijing
  • Water for a Healthy World: The Challenges of Producing Clean Water
  • The Impact of Cultural Expression as a Means of Resistance during the Transatlantic Slave-Trade
  • Girls’ Education: An End to Poverty?
  • Making Cities Healthier: What Can Civil Society Contribute?
  • Finding a Workable Solution to Internal Exile: A Look at the Plight of the Internally Displaced
  • Freedom of Information: The Right to Know
  • The Impact of Migration on Families around the World
  • We Can End Poverty: The Millennium Development Goals at Ten
  • Many Species, One Planet, One Future: A Celebration of Biodiversity
  • High Tide, High Crime: Piracy and Other Crimes of the Sea

KDP Charters First Chapter in Asia
The newly chartered chapter at City University of Hong Kong represents two firsts for Kappa Delta Pi. It is the first chapter in Asia—which inducted 23 educators during a formal initiation ceremony in September 2009. In another first, Sir David Santandreu Calonge, an educator from this same chapter, was KDP’s first international recipient of the Teacher of Honor award (see story immediately below). Read more >>>
First International Educator Selected as Teacher of Honor
Sir David Santandreu Calonge

荣誉教师
Kappa Delta Pi is pleased to announce its first international Teacher of Honor award recipient—Sir David Santandreu Calonge, all the way from City University of Hong Kong! Serving as the Senior Education Development Officer of the Education Development Office, David is among a select group of educators to earn the Teacher of Honor designation this year. Read more >>>

See what international press is saying about David and Kappa Delta Pi!
CityUNewsCentre

Sing Pao Limited


Kappa Delta Pi made the news in NYC when KDP members from Manhattan College attended the 11th annual Protecting Human Rights conference, sponsored by the Committee on Teaching About the United Nations (CTAUN). Click here to read the write-up of the event!
Executive Director Attends CTAUN Conference
Executive Director Faye Snodgress attended Teaching Human Rights—Global to Local, a conference hosted by The Committee on Teaching About the United Nations (CTAUN), which brought together members of various educational and community groups at the Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia.

This conference focused on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Civil Rights, and Rights of the Child, and United Nations Action and Support and recognized the 60th anniversary of the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

“KDP Laureate, Eleanor Roosevelt and UN Chairperson of the Commission of Human Rights, once said that ‘Human rights must begin in the home,’” Director Snodgress said. “It also begins in the schools. Education is essential for peace and human rights. Children and young adults have a strong sense of justice and fair play. Learning about those whose rights have been abused or denied can spur their action. For example, Students Against Landmines formed worldwide to heighten awareness and raise money to adopt a minefield. Without recognition of human rights, we can never have peace.”

As the world faces more complex sociological, economic, and environmental challenges, the need for greater involvement and interdependence of its citizens grows. KDP recognizes this need as well as the potential of communities that already seek to make a difference to join together in exponentially making that difference. For that reason and to be proactive in its approach to global education awareness and preparation, Faye and the Executive Council have added global initiatives to the 2009–2011 strategic plan. They have set the pace for KDP’s approach to teaching and learning in the 21st century by collaborating with overseas universities and schools, applying for a U.N. grant, and participating in global-education related conversations, such as the CTAUN’s conference, Teaching Human Rights.


KDP Partners with University of Taipei
Kappa Delta Pi signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the University of Taipei, Taiwan. Then Society President, Dr. Karen Nicholson, represented KDP at the ceremony. She also delivered a speech to the university’s education faculty and gave a series of workshops on multicultural education.
Taiwanese universities principals from Taiwan
KDP Past President Karen Nicholson poses with graduate students, faculty, and K–12 educators and administrators from several Taiwanese universities, for whom she presented an extended workshop on Multicultural Education Issues.
At KDP Headquarters in October 2007, KDP members provided the delegation of school principals from Taiwan with three professional development workshops. That visit launched collaboration between Taipei Municipal University of Education and the Society.

Taipei Municipal University of Education will be establishing a new KDP chapter in 2009. If you are interested in establishing an international KDP chapter, please contact us at membership@kdp.org for information and assistance.