By Betsey Coleman, Fulbright Distinguished Alumna, 2011-2012

Betsey Coleman, an English teacher at the Colorado Academy in Denver, CO, spent nine weeks in Israel and the Palestinian territories last summer working on her website Teaching about Palestinian and Israeli Identity through the Arts as part of a Fulbright Alumni grant.  She began this site on her Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching Program during the spring of 2012 when she spent four months in Israel and the Palestinian Territories. 

Coleman continued her exploration of how arts improve learning, foster community projects, and provide outlets for people in difficult situations. The  website Arts and Identity contains an enormous variety (close to 50 portraits) of innovative resources - film, photographs and text - available for students, teachers, and anyone interested in experiencing and interacting with Israeli and Palestinian culture in new and engaging ways. Whether talking to graffiti artists in South Tel Aviv, video artists in Haifa, parkour boys in Qalqilya, circus performers in Nablus, a Druze filmmaker in the Carmel, or a Moroccan Mizrahi singer in Jerusalem, Coleman’s portraits of people engaged in expressing their diverse identities through the arts promote greater cross-cultural understanding which is crucial for helping to dispel stereotypes. 

In presentations at the University of Colorado Boulder, the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Arizona, the Denver branch of Facing History, Facing Ourselves and other local schools and places of worship, Coleman has described how the Palestinian and Israeli artists she met shared candid and vivid stories about ever-changing cultural worlds, evolving identities and common dreams of peace, normalcy, and prosperity. This is a revealing journey which explores a facet of Palestinian and Israeli identity rarely treated in mainstream media. 

In November, Coleman will include her website in a presentation at the National Council of Teachers of English in Boston. Current and future plans include developing ways and guides for teachers and students to use the site.

The Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching Program, which is sponsored by the the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State, provides U.S. and international teachers with the opportunity to spend three or four months outside their home countries to take courses for professional development, lead seminars and master classes, work with teachers in local host country schools and pursue individual research to complete a capstone project of relevance to their teaching. The application for the 2014-2015 program is now available and is due December 15, 2013. 

Questions regarding an IIE program? Please contact teachers@iie.org.

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In January 2013, the Institute of International Education (IIE) announced a new Brazil English Teachers Program, which will bring approximately 2,700 teachers to the United States over a three year period for intensive English language and teacher training. To date, 26 universities across 18 states have hosted participants in the program, who come from all states in Brazil. In June 2013, an article published in the Miami Dade College’s College Forum described the Brazilian teachers’ experience at Miami Dade College as part of the program. Click to view this article: "Powerful Partnerships". 

This program is a collaboration among IIE and Brazilian sponsor CAPES, a foundation within the Ministry of Education in Brazil whose purpose is to improve the quality of Brazil's faculty and staff in higher education through grant programs, the Fulbright Commission in Brazil, and the U.S. Embassy in Brazil. 

In September, the Institute celebrated Brazil-U.S. exchange programs at its annual gala dinner in Manhattan, New York. The Henry Kaufman Prize was presented to Her Excellency Ms. Dilma Rousseff, President of Brazil, for her emphasis on international education as a key driver of progress in Brazil. The award was accepted on her behalf by Minister of Education Aloizio Mercadante Oliva.

Questions regarding an IIE program? Please contact teachers@iie.org.

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