Contact: Maridith Geuder
An educational training program developed by a Mississippi State faculty member is helping a former Soviet republic address national issues of corruption and violence.
T. Steuart Watson, university professor of counselor education/educational psychology, is working with the Republic of Georgia to implement a three-year project. His work takes place under the auspices of the National Strategy Information Center, a Washington, D.C.-based public policy institute.
Watson, director of MSU's school psychology program and co-author of a 1998 handbook on reducing school violence, has developed several nationally used manuals on problem-solving and crime reduction. A frequent consultant to U.S. school systems, he now is testing his approach on a former communist state in Southwest Asia that was home to Joseph Stalin, the Soviet Union dictator who died in 1953.
"We're attempting to teach the citizens of Georgia how to accomplish grass-roots change," Watson said. Begun this summer, his work initially will target teachers in a country of some five million that's still in the throes of political and economic reforms.
A well-established black market economy makes the Georgian effort both challenging and necessary. "Because people are accustomed to buying and selling black-market goods, there's a limited tax base," Watson explained. "As a result, public institutions suffer."
Georgian teachers, for example, receive annual salaries equal to about $25 U.S. dollars. Despite the paltry sum, some teachers in the project haven't been paid in a year, he said.
To help counteract the effects of these negative situations, Watson is beginning with a core group of classroom instructors in the capital city of Tblisi and the country's Black Sea port city of Batumia. From these bases, he plans to expand the approach to students.
The goal is to instill the benefits of reduced corruption on both personal and societal levels. "The idea is to make an impact by starting young," Watson said. "We know that long-term change will take 20-30 years."
An evaluation component of his project will measure the changes in attitudes and behavior over the period of the project. Watson said his research team also is implementing similar programs in Mexicali and Tijuana, Mexico, where local governments face similar issues.
Watson said international experiences such as these would enable him to broaden his classroom experiences for students in MSU school psychology classes.
"From the varied experiences we expect to encounter would evolve concrete examples of what is happening psychologically and educationally to students in these other cultures," Watson said.
NEWS EDITORS/DIRECTORS: For additional comments, contact Dr. Watson at (662) 325-7101 or tsw2@ra.msstate.edu.