| India | Mexico | Hungary and the Czech Republic |

Program Content:

India is a growing force in the world of technology with much of its educational focus on mathematics, science, and technology. The purpose of the seminar is to provide an opportunity to U.S. elementary school educators to observe the process of curriculum development, its implementation in the classroom, and the training of teachers in various fields, including the humanities and sciences. The seminar will provide them a broader understanding of India’s school education system with particular reference to elementary education. In addition, the seminar will help participants to compare the elementary educational systems of India and the United States and will give participants an opportunity to analyze the challenges in two systems. The program will also provide the participants with a systematic inquiry into a range of Indian resource materials, and expanding the network of U.S. educators familiar with India.

The seminar consists of two phases, academic study and field visits. The five-day academic program in New Delhi, using a multi-disciplinary approach, will involve formal lectures, interviews, and discussions with prominent scholars and public personalities. The field visit phase of four weeks will take participants to Ahmedabad, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Varanasi, Shimla, and Agra, exposing them to educational systems at the state level, geographical diversities and cultures.

The seminar is designed to enrich participants’ knowledge by combining academic and cultural experiences. Visits to different types of schools and teacher training institutions will be interspersed with demonstrations of Indian dance and music. Activities will be developed to allow the group to view the entire process of curriculum development--from creation to implementation. Visits will also be arranged to non-governmental organizations working on developmental issues in both rural and urban settings. The program will allow the participants to pursue their individual academic interests and work on their respective curriculum projects.

Program Content:

The number of Spanish speakers in the United States continues to rise every year. The teaching of Spanish in the U.S. school system has become increasingly important, particularly since a growing number of state educational systems are introducing the teaching of Spanish at the elementary school level. For many educators and students who are native speakers of English, understanding and speaking the Spanish language has become an important part of daily life. This seminar will focus on the Spanish language and the history and culture of Mexico. The seminar represents one of the activities that support the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Secretariat of Public Education in Mexico and the U.S. Department of Education.

This program provides a unique opportunity to gain an insider´s perspective and understanding of the history, values and challenges that shape Mexican culture while giving participants a chance to practice Spanish as they deepen their knowledge on the origins and the impact of current issues such as migration and globalization. By visiting both rural and urban settings, participants will be able to mingle and share new experiences with local teachers, artisans, specialists and common people who construct contemporary Mexican society.

The seminar will begin with a pre-departure orientation in the United States and combine visits to indigenous communities, archaeological sites, schools, museums and markets with readings and lectures by specialists. As an integral part of the program, the seminar will also explore different expressions of Mexican folklore such as the production of handmade handicrafts, traditional cuisine, music, medicine and religious practices.

By the end of the seminar, participants will have a first-hand approach to local problems and expectations, allowing them a wholely different perspective on Mexico they’ll be able to share with their students and fellow teachers all over the country through their final projects.

Program Content:

The Fulbright-Hays Seminar Abroad to Hungary and Czech Republic aims at introducing the two European countries from both their historical and present perspectives. The organizers, the Fulbright Commissions in both countries, will draw from their experience in the fields of education and culture.

Hungary and the Czech Republic represent countries where school systems have undergone fundamental educational reform. These reform efforts have moved the two school systems from being highly centralized to being much more decentralized. Participants will have the opportunity to compare and contrast these educational reform efforts with educational reform in the United States, as seen through legislation related to the No Child Left Behind Act and the Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The systems within the Czech Republic and Hungary build upon one of the oldest systems of education in the world. Participants should gain immensely from the fact that both Hungary and the Czech Republic approach education from the unique perspective of being intertwined geographically, historically, and culturally with Western and Eastern Europe. They will learn about educational reform movements both within Europe as a whole and, more specifically in Central Europe.

The agenda of the seminar will include lectures by specialists covering historical, political, cultural, economic, and social backgrounds of the Hungarian and Czech societies. There will also be meetings with active participants of the reform efforts at all levels of education (including kindergarten, elementary school, secondary level, and higher education) and social educators (dealing with minority population topics and specific topics of socially excluded groups), librarians, museum educators, and non-profit leaders.

The participants of the seminar (U.S. educators) will have an opportunity to become acquainted with their counterparts within the Hungarian and Czech systems and thus gain first-hand information necessary for their curriculum development projects.

As the seminar aims at providing comprehensive information about the two countries, the participants will visit various parts of the countries and extend their perspective beyond the capital cities of Budapest and Prague.

In Hungary participants will be based in Budapest, and will make various field trips to places of historical, educational, and cultural interest: cities with more Western influence in the west of Hungary, and the more agricultural east. They will visit schools and major universities in Budapest, Debrecen or Szeged. The city of Pécs, where the first Hungarian university was founded in 1367, will be the Cultural Capital of Europe in 2010. It will definitely be among the cities participants of the seminar will visit.

In the Czech Republic the stay will cover Moravia and Bohemia. In Moravia, one week will be spent in Brno, where meetings will be held with representatives of the Czech Republic's most dynamic public university, outside the Moravian capital places visited will include several UNESCO World Heritage Sites: the Lednice-Valtice complex (two chateaus and Europe's most extensive landscaped countryside); the ancient Jewish Ghetto at Třebíč; and Telč, with its Renaissance chateau, Baroque townhouses and newly refurbished university centre. In Bohemia the group will stay in Prague for two weeks and visit Terezin (the site of the notorious Nazi “model” concentration camp, and Karlsbad (famous Czech spa and cultural center), and Kutna hora (a mid-size historical city with medieval traditions and contemporary education institutions). These visits will combine meetings with experts and gaining understanding of the historical context.

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