International Education Week: Teaching Cultural Awareness in the U.S. and Ukraine

When Greg Adler, a history teacher in San Jose, California, met Ukrainian teaching fellow Natasha Kanarska through the Teaching Excellence and Achievement (TEA) program, he didn’t realize the extent to which this educational partnership would globalize each of their classrooms and schools.

Greg and Natasha began their collaboration through the U.S. Teacher Exchange component of the TEA program in 2009. Through the program, Greg visited Natasha’s school of 500 students in the small town of Ladyzhyn, Ukraine. In Ladyzhyn, Greg and Natasha brought together over 40 English teachers, as well as members of the local Department of Education and the Ladyzhyn English Language Association, to discuss best teaching practices and student assessment strategies. The visit was such a success that, during a dinner with the mayor of Natasha’s town, Greg suggested extending the partnership beyond just teachers to connect the students of Ladyzhyn and the U.S. The mayor enthusiastically supported the idea.

After about a year and a half of coordination, preparation, and paperwork, Greg welcomed four Ukrainian students making their first trip abroad to Santa Teresa High School in San Jose. Each Ukrainian shadowed an American student they stayed with during the two-week exchange, giving them the chance to experience American academics, as well as electives not usually available in Ukraine, such as photography, drama, guitar ensemble, and American sign language. The exchange was by no means one-dimensional: each Ukrainian student gave presentations to the Santa Teresa students on their country, culture, and school system.

“I… observed how their visit [has] impacted my students, whose worldview hardly extended beyond the city limits of San Jose,” says Greg. “Now kids [are] talking about wanting to visit Europe someday and trying to use the Ukrainian from the lunchtime language lessons. The day they left I had one student already asking if we were going to have students from another country visit soon.”

US Teacher professional development and international fellowships are now conducted under the Teachers for Global Classrooms Program, a sister program to the Teaching Excellence and Achievement (TEA) Program, funded by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State and implemented by IREX.

For more information about professional development opportunities and the upcoming application cycle for US secondary school educators, please visit Teachers for Global Classrooms.