story by Claire Miller
In spring 2024, 22 teachers from 21 countries participated in the Fulbright Teaching Excellence and Achievement Program at Georgia State University – a six-week, highly selective initiative funded by a $264,000 U.S. Department of State grant that brings teachers from other countries to a host university for professional development.
The international teachers take classes with university faculty on instructional practices, general education topics and subject-specific classes in civics, English as a foreign language, math, social studies and special education. They're assigned to and shadow a host teacher in a local school district and spend time interacting with students.
They also participate in cultural activities around Atlanta, including visits to local landmarks – the Georgia Aquarium, the National Center for Civil and Human Rights and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center, among others – and opportunities to spend time with local families in their homes. Fellows can also participate in community service projects with local partners, including the Atlanta Community Food Bank.
“We hope the fellows gain a more profound and authentic understanding of the U.S. and its strengths and weaknesses, explore the Civil Rights Movement and leave with a sense of U.S. public school organization and classroom practices currently being used,” said Susan Ogletree, director of the College of Education & Human Development’s (CEHD) Center for Evaluation and Research Services and the CEHD’s principal investigator on the Fulbright award.
Georgia State has received Fulbright funding from 2022-2024, and it has provided professional development for 92 international teachers in that time. The university will host another 23 Fulbright teachers in spring 2025.
Though the program is focused on giving the visiting teachers a more in-depth understanding of teaching and learning in the U.S., it’s also an opportunity for Georgia State and Atlanta-area educators to learn about other countries’ educational and cultural practices.
“The Fulbright program provides an exchange of cultures, ideas and experiences for the international teachers, university faculty and students, host teachers in the public schools and their students,” Ogletree said. “The world is no longer siloed, with international relationships being built and maintained through social media outlets like Facebook and WhatsApp. Having global connections is invaluable for all participants, as is understanding one another on a global scale.”
Augustina Mtui, who has been teaching English to students ages 13-17 in Tanzania’s Meru district for the last 17 years, participated in the Fulbright program this past spring. Her experiences in the program not only gave her new ideas to implement in her classroom, but also gave her a network of fellow educators who have similar teaching goals.
“Irrespective of the differences in our education systems, we all strive for excellence – particularly in teaching English language as a second or foreign language,” she said. “My fellow Fulbrighters from Burkina-Faso, Ghana, Cameroon and Egypt share the common experience of having classrooms in our home countries with a large number of students, and we shared different tips that help in classroom management and engagement. I learned the benefit of having classroom culture and consistence of practicing social emotional behavior to our students.”
The Fulbright program at Georgia State is an interdisciplinary team effort among the CEHD, the College of Arts and Sciences’ Intensive English Program and the university’s Office of International Initiatives. Fulbright team members include Ogletree; Ahu Kostak-Bulat, the program’s principal investigator from the Office of International Initiatives; John Bunting, co-principal investigator and director of the Intensive English Program; Sue Kasun, co-principal investigator and professor in the CEHD; Chantee Earl, co-principal investigator and clinical associate professor in the CEHD; and Gwen Benson, co-principal investigator and CEHD retired associate dean.