ABOUT CULTR
Located at Georgia State University in downtown Atlanta, the Center for Urban Language Teaching and Research (CULTR) is the first Title VI Language Resource Center (LRC) in the Southeastern United States. CULTR’s mission is to promote and enhance the global skills opportunities for all learners and educators to establish diverse, enriching and successful career pathways. CULTR has created a unique identity around serving “Languages For All!” through initiatives supporting language proficiency, cultural competence and professional development initiatives across urban and underrepresented communities. Led by its core values of access, advocacy, outreach and research, CULTR has gained a national reputation for innovative language learning opportunities as part of a 21st-Century global education.
Location
Georgia State University in Atlanta, GA
Focus
Enhance the global skills opportunities of urban and underrepresented learners and educators
Impact
Supported by grants under Title VI of the Higher Education Act, the LRCs create a national network of resources to promote the teaching and learning of world languages
Objectives
CULTR’s initiatives fall into four central objectives: professional development, career readiness, advocacy and research.
- Professional development centers on increasing learning and growth opportunities for language teachers and building communities of practice.
- We promote career readiness through language study and the development of global skills vital to academic and career preparation for all 21st-Century students.
- Our advocacy initiatives aim to increase awareness of the national need and support for language education and global skills preparation among parents, schools, communities and the private sector.
- We strive to conduct and disseminate meaningful research on access to Dual Language Immersion and the learning, teaching and assessment of Less Commonly Taught Languages (LCTLs), which can be translated into improvements in practice.
CULTR’s current projects and initiatives for the third grant cycle (2022-2026) fall under these four objectives, including the creation of THRIVE Videos to build communities of practice among language educators, hosting the annual Global Language Leadership Meeting and World Languages Day events, Teacher Professional Development Workshops and others. Research includes a national Dual Language Immersion mapping project and the study of motivation, assessment and linguistic urban landscapes, all in relation to the teaching and learning of LCTLs.
