Just Footprints in the Sand? Questioning Sustainability of an IRA International Project

Abstract

We begin our story of an International Reading Association (IRA) international education reform project at the volunteers' first meeting in the Republic of Macedonia, a southeastern European country north of Greece, south of Kosovo and Serbia, east of Albania, and west of Bulgaria. Three voices contribute to our story: Jill's (first author; initially the project's lead volunteer), Judy's (second author; a volunteer and Fulbright Scholar who came onto the project soon after), and Violeta's (third author; an educator who initially experienced the project as a member of a school team). As our story unfolds, we each share what we learned about how the complex political, economic, and social structures of Macedonia affected project outcomes and sustainability and what this might suggest for other similar school reform efforts.