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Florida. Matthew worked for several years in the water and sanitation sector in Honduras, including one year with a Fulbright Fellowship. He currently studies pathogen removal in wastewater treatment ponds and microbial risk in wastewater irrigation systems in Bolivia. Ms. Colleen Claire NaughtonColleen Naughton is a doctoral student at the University of South Florida in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. She is advised by Dr. James R. Mihelcic. Colleen was part of the Peace Corps Master's International Program where she served and conducted research in Mali, West Africa for three years as a Water and Sanitation Engineer. Her research was focused on "Monitoring and Evaluation of an Appropriate Handwashing Technology." Colleen's dissertation research involves a human and embodied material energy analysis of the Shea Butter process; mapping the Shea Butter belt using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to estimate the area and population that work with and consume Shea butter; and quantifying emissions of carbon black from the smoking and boiling of shea nuts.

The pursuit of justice has concerned human beings for centuries and, despite its importance, often remains outside the boundaries of our educational systems. This article reports on a study of an action research seminar for a group of teacher leaders in a position to instigate positive change within their educational context, and make their actions occasions for justice. In order to better understand the textual data generated by the teacher leaders, we devised an analytical lens that draws from modern rabbinical scholarship, eco-political (socio-political) studies, and existentialism. We found at this intersection that, despite the teacher leaders recognizing injustice, and at times protesting against it, their ability to act, formulate solutions, and conduct action research -and even their very concept of justice -was heavily influenced and constrained by the dominant political regime of the US educational system. An explanatory framework emerged that sheds light on the dynamic interplay among justice, politics, and beliefs, while also revealing the constraints to pursuing justice from within a leadership structure. We conclude that for action research to be a means for teachers and teacher leaders to begin to modify their practice so they are sensitive to the voices of the marginalized, to see their actions as opportunities for justice, and to provide collaborative experiences that help other teachers develop their ways of thinking, acting, and interacting in pursuit of justice, those who teach action research must be willing to do the very same.

Challenges from globalization, population growth, and climate change require science, technology, and engineering (STEM) professionals to have global competency. However, the impact of international experiences on STEM students’ development of these abilities has not been well studied. We assessed the effects of international research experiences in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and Europe on the development of global competency for STEM graduate students from the United States. Research placements in LAC were generally field-based, involving interactions with community members, while placements in Europe were mostly lab-based. Surveys and interviews with participants before and after their trips revealed increases in intercultural abilities for students from all groups. Students who traveled to LAC had higher intercultural abilities before the trip but experienced smaller gains than their counterparts who traveled to Europe. Despite the value in community-based activities for students outside of university settings, more effort is needed to eliminate students’ barriers to understanding communication styles in their host communities.