Cultural Investigation and Digital Representation for Educators (CIDRE)

CIDRE is a professional development program for educators offered by faculty in the College of Education at NC State. The goal of the program is to prepare educators to better integrate cultural lessons into teaching through the aid of media and technology to ultimately build greater cultural understanding among students in their classroom or institution. The program is funded by the Triangle Community Foundation's Borchardt Fund which underwrites costs for approximately 15 Triangle-area educators per year (Chatham, Durham, Orange, and Wake counties) to participate in professional development and two weeks of international travel in a designated host country. Saturday classes are held at NC State before and after traveling abroad. Further work time, planned group excursions, and free time in the host country, allow educators to conduct investigations into cultural themes of personal interest, practice digital representations of those themes (e.g., maps, AR/VR, writing, documentary, analytics), and reflect on effective approaches to teaching culture with their peers. Past programs have emphasized cultural themes in England (2011, 2013-14), Finland (2016), Sweden (2017), Czechia (2018-19), and Germany (2022) for 145 educators. Our summer 2023 program will be based in Vienna, Austria (25 further educators). We are accepting applications for our summer 2024 cohort to be held in Argentina. The application form is currently open.

2022, Munich, Germany

2018, Prague, Czech Republic

2017, Stockholm, Sweden

2019, Prague, Czech Republic

2016, Helsinki, Finland

2013, Guildford, England

2014, Guildford, England

2011, Guildford, England