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Children from a school in The Gambia.

Dr. Mira Berkley and Dr. Barbara Mallette from SUNY Fredonia’s College of Education will discuss their recent experiences while traveling to The Gambia during the next of the spring 2009 series of international brown bag luncheons. The event will take place Monday, March 9 in the Fenton Hall English Reading Room (room 127) from 12 to 12:50 p.m.

The pair’s week-long “Study Visit to The Gambia” took place in December 2008 and allowed pre-service teachers and teacher educators to become immersed in Gambia’s culture, climate and geography.

They visited homes, markets, schools and a cooperative garden compound. In order to “let the full experience be in The Gambia,” participants were advised against researching the country ahead of time.

Berkley and Mallette were part of a group comprised of 40 people from around the world including England, the Czech Republic and the U.S.

“Everyone who goes on the trip experiences something slightly different, depending on their backgrounds, but everyone gains,” said Steven Caldock, a colleague from the University of Plymouth in England who accompanied the Fredonia professors on the trip. “It can often be a life-changing experience and has many opportunities both educationally and personally.”

Gambia is a country located in Western Africa with a population of approximately 1.7 million people. At slightly less than twice the size of the state of Delaware, it is the smallest country in Africa and is less than 48 km wide at its widest point. Its official language is English, it is ruled under a republican government, and it has a market-based economy whose chief export is peanuts.

The College of Education at the �������� prepares early childhood, childhood, middle childhood and adolescence educators for the significant instructional challenges that await them in this century.