Binational Centers Academic Directors Annual Meeting

September 17, 2009

Annual BNC Academic Directors Meeting

With the support of the U.S. Embassy Public Affairs section, the Binational Center in Buenos Aires, ICANA, was able to host the 9th Annual BNC Academic Directors Meeting on September 17th and 18th.  Two representatives from the academic departments of 12 BNCs attended the conference.  During this event, participants shared their experiences and exchanged ideas in the field of English Language Teaching, the main source of income for the BNCs.

This year there was a particular emphasis on the leadership role of academic directors within their respective BNCs.  The IRO presented a workshop on Technology Literacy in the EFL Curriculum and an overview addressing the most recent BNC meeting held in Washington DC by the State Department was administered by attendees. TESOL and ARTESOL matters were also discussed, in addition to the approval of the current ECCE (a common exam for children attending BNCs in Argentina, designed and administered annually.)

A concurrent session on Access Scholarship Best Practices was attended by BNC teachers and representatives who first implemented the Access program in 2009.  They eagerly shared their insights with the additional BNCs who will be joining the program in 2010, bringing the total number of Access scholarship students in Argentina to over 600.

Upon the conclusion of the 9th Annual BNC Directors Conference, the attendees praised the Embassy for consistently enabling this meeting to take place every year.