Education professor Shijing Xu has received renewal as Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in International and Intercultural Reciprocal Learning in Education for a second five-year term.

Her first term placed the University of Windsor at the centre of a thriving partnership focused on West-East reciprocal learning in teacher education and school education. Dr. Xu has built harmonious two-way learning bridges between schools and universities in Windsor and Toronto in Canada and the Chinese cities of Chongqing, Shanghai, Beijing, and Changchun.

Her program paired a dozen Windsor schools with 10 schools in Chongqing and two in Beijing through a formalized Sister School Network. Thematic monthly communication was facilitated by the use of online learning tools to connect students, teachers, and even parents to create cross-cultural learning opportunities for Canadian and Chinese teachers and their students.

The Sister School Network also provided reciprocal learning opportunities for Canadian and Chinese teacher candidates through a three-month international internship in each host country.

Xu plans to extend the reciprocal learning program to more schools and teacher education candidates in Canada and China, as well as beyond. She has established links with Walpole Island First Nation for the purpose of adding Indigenous voices to the learning network and will partner with an established UWindsor research group that collaborates with colleagues in other countries.