STP's International Programming Initiatives

December 7, 2023

by Diane Finley, STP President

Our guest columnist is Susan Nolan who has served STP in so many ways – it would take a whole column to mention them all. I asked her to write this in her capacity as Director of International Programming. Susan has raised the visibility of STP internationally in only a few months and I see great growth coming. We have always said that STP was an international organization and Susan is making that claim true.

International Programming
Susan Nolan

I am grateful to Diane Finley for the opportunity to contribute to her Presidential Letter. As a former STP president and the current Director of STP Programming at International Conferences, I have long valued the opportunity to work with STP to explore international aspects of psychology pedagogy, curricula, assessment, and policy. Just this calendar year, STP has co-sponsored international conferences in Aotearoa/New Zealand, Australia, Mexico, and Sweden. Already, we have plans to co-sponsor in-person conferences in 2024 in India and France, as well as a series of webinars in English and Spanish, co-sponsored with several other organizations, including the International Council of Psychology Educators (ICOPE). Of our 16,000 Facebook members, more than 7,000 are from outside of the United States.

Through STP and other teaching organizations, such as ICOPE, I have had the privilege of meeting psychology educators from around the world. One result of those connections is the International Collaboration on Undergraduate Psychology Outcomes (ICUPO) which I co-founded with STP member and former STP Presidential Citation awardee Jacky Cranney of the University of New South Wales (Australia). Jacky and I began this project with the goal of developing international foundational competences for the undergraduate psychology major, a goal we outlined in a 2022 paper with several colleagues.

A little over a year ago, Jacky and I recruited a team which comprised a central ICUPO committee of 13 psychology educators from 17 countries and a broader advisory committee, the International Reference Group on Undergraduate Psychology Outcomes (IRGUPO). More than 100 IRGUPO members come from more than 40 countries. Both the ICUPO and IRGUPO include many (approximately 30) STP members. (And we have been recruiting more and more of those involved with ICUPO and IRGUPO to become STP members; we are grateful that STP now facilitates expanded membership by recognizing that there are economic disparities among nations. Those from any countries not designated as high income by the World Bank may now join STP for US $5 rather than the US $25 for those from high-income countries.)....

To read the rest of this letter and past letters from the STP President, click here.

To read Diane Finley's presidential theme and task forces for 2023, click here.