Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad Program for 2004

Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction

In cooperation with University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Short Term Seminar Project

*Thailand and Laos:*

*Highlighting Southeast Asian Heritage and Culture*

*in the K-12 Curriculum*

Within the education community in the Midwestern U.S., this program
wishes to help raise the visibility and importance of Southeast Asia.
The school populations in these once-largely European-American cities
and rural communities are growing increasingly diverse, with Southeast
Asian children prominent among increasing numbers of Latin American,
Eastern European, Pacific Island, and African immigrant and refugee
children and children in multicultural families.

The richness of children's' heritage language and culture is important
for teachers not only to understand but also to integrate into the
curriculum for *all* children. For that to happen, teachers need better
teacher training programs and more professional development
opportunities to experience the cultures of children from Southeast
Asia.

This five-week summer opportunity will strengthen teacher training
programs which are just beginning to offer certification for Wisconsin
teachers to learn the Lao and Hmong languages. It will help teachers
develop an appreciation of the crucial role of heritage languages in the
acquisition of other academic skills and in helping children see
themselves as persons with distinct, complex, and valued identifies.

Not only immigrant and refugee children but *all* children in Wisconsin
need to have more experiences with diverse global languages and
cultures. The importance of Asia as an economic, cultural and historic
place makes it imperative for students to know its geography, history,
music, literature and modern-day peoples. The program will give a group
of K-12 teachers and teacher-educators an opportunity to gather
resources to enrich their teaching, including photographs, videos,
books, impressions, and most importantly, professional and sister school
contacts.

Weeks 1, 2, and 3 will introduce participants to Thailand, beginning
with the capital city Bangkok, the historical wealth of the Sukkothai
region, and then flowing almost immediately toward the diversity of hill
tribe cultures around Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, and Udon Thani.

By Week 4, the group will have the opportunity to visit the Ministry of
Education in the People's Democratic Republic of Laos and to investigate
education and language policy, teacher training practices from a
comparative perspective.

Finally, the group will return to Thailand to finish individual and
small group projects. Culturally-based curriculum development for social
studies, linguistically-based curriculum for heritage speakers, or
university-level curriculum for heritage language teacher training
programs will be three examples of units resulting from the travel,
further developed and shared when the participants return to the U.S.

The group will meet twice during two different weekend seminars at the
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee before embarking on the seminar. Upon
returning, they will meet once a month for four months to finalize the
curriculum projects to enable them to share with colleagues in a printed
monograph form, via created Internet pages, and with presentations at
conferences and professional development workshops for colleagues.