Teachers Build Bridges of Mutual Understanding

“There is one lesson that is impossible to find in a textbook, and that is the lesson of tolerance,” said Ambassador W. Robert Pearson, President of IREX, as he addressed the first 2012 cohort of Teaching, Excellence, and Achievement (TEA) fellows at the program’s closing ceremony. “That is the lesson you will teach when you return home. Every life you touch is going to be a lasting legacy for which you will be proud.”

When 88 master educators from every region of the world came together last week at a four-day workshop in Washington, D.C., they shared more than the teaching methodologies they had cultivated over the course of the six-week program: they shared a new sense of mutual understanding gained from the partnerships they had forged with schools across America.

“The TEA program has not only changed my professional skills, it has changed my life,” said Farosatmo Rushtova, a TEA teacher from Tajikistan. “The people you have chosen to be a part of this program have become like our mothers, like our brothers, like our daughters. They are more than professionals.”

Through their participation in the program, selected teachers from around the globe gain both professional development and cultural insight through graduate-level training at a U.S. university and field experience at a local middle or high school.

TEA teachers participate in interactive sessions on student-centered learning and assessment, peer-reviewed lesson plan development, and trends in instructional technology. At their field placements, TEA teachers observe a U.S. classroom and school setting, and engage students through culture-based lessons.

At the culminating event of the program, participants showcased the teaching skills they learned and discussed strategies for re-entering their home country classrooms. The participants also reflected on the impact the program had on a personal level as they prepare to return to their respective countries.

For Carlos Andres of Colombia, the program was more than a professional development opportunity; for him, TEA was also “an opportunity… to have a different view of the world and [its] cultures.”

The Teaching Excellence and Achievement Program (TEA) is funded by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State and implemented by IREX.