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Education Professors from Lander and British University Participate in Faculty Exchange

Oconnor-Dava.jpgDr. Dava O'Connor, chair of Lander University's Department of Teacher Education, will travel to England this spring and spend a month at the University of Winchester as a guest lecturer on special education. She will also take part in ongoing research and public presentations.

O'Connor is an associate professor and instructor of special education, and coordinator of Lander's special education program. She also supervises teacher candidates during the practice teaching phase of their education.

She is excited about her visit to Winchester, which begins on April 27. "It will give me the opportunity to collaborate on research and exchange perspectives on American and British approaches to special education," she said.

In the weeks before O'Connor departs for England, she and Lander will play host to Allison Goddard, senior lecturer in Primary Education in Winchester's Department of Education, Health and Social Care. She will arrive late in March and, for a month, will be a guest lecturer in Lander's College of Education and meet with public school teachers in Greenwood and neighboring communities.

Goddard will also attend a national special education conference in Nashville, Tenn. While at Winchester, O'Connor will be a guest at a British special education conference.

For O'Connor, Lander's 2009 Distinguished Professor of the Year, this will be a return visit to England. She has escorted Lander students, most of them education majors, on study trips abroad to visit schools and observe classroom techniques in England, Ireland, Wales and Italy.

The O'Connor-Goddard exchange will be the second Lander-Winchester faculty exchange in a year. Last spring, Dr. Debra Natvig, director and professor of Health Care Management at Lander, spent two weeks at Winchester. Her exchange partner was Dr. Neil Marriott, dean of Winchester's Business School, who came to Lander in late March and, in addition to his role as a guest lecturer, he made speaking appearances in Greenwood.