Exchange Stories written by Program Alumni and Host Schools

Czech List*

      By Jeffrey Herr
      Salt Lake City, UT

      Czech Republic, 2005–2006

"Travels with the Principal" chronicles my seven-week journey of exploration and discovery abroad.

Among the burning questions I have are: What do Czech or Italian or Russian fifth-graders study? What do their schools look like? Are their principals or headmasters grumpy and lazy, or smiling and hard-working?

As an administrator in the Salt Lake City School District who also happens to be afflicted with wanderlust, I was recently given a chance to find answers to some of these questions and more. The opportunity was provided by the United States Fulbright Commission when I was selected to study the educational system in the Czech Republic for six weeks during the 2005-06 academic year.

Applicants for a Fulbright are required to list three country choices. Since I am interested in seeing how the newfound freedoms have affected the educational systems in the former European communist bloc countries, I chose the Czech Republic (a free trip to Prague couldn't be a bad thing, I figured), Romania, and Lithuania. The CR won out.

The Fulbright recipient from the Czech Republic chosen to partner with me (to serve as host and guide) was Josef Janku, deputy headmaster of Strední prumyslová skola chemická (Secondary Chemistry School) in Brno.

Brno, you say? As a former history teacher, I knew where Brno was but not what it was. In fact, Brno is the second largest city in the Czech Republic. With a population of 400,000, it is the capital of Moravia, one of the country's three regions, located two and a half hours southeast of Prague.

The Strední is a secondary school (educating grades 9-12) specializing in vocational preparation for the chemical industry and academic preparation for the university level. While in Brno, I was housed at the faculty dormitory of the Communications Vocational School, which focuses on technology and telecommunications.

Following are modified excerpts, both educational and travel-related, from my daily blog, which can be found at www.travelswiththeprincipal.com.

March 20

Today was my first full day at the school, which is small but clean. All the doors are locked, even the main office, and everyone, including students, must be buzzed in by the doorperson. This security frenzy started after September 11. I told Josef that locking the doors would not fly in America because everyone there feels a sense of ownership. He found the public's insistence on having accessibility to everything nerve-racking.

Josef's school is run like a business, yet the place is warm and friendly. Here, administrators also teach. I will be teaching some English classes starting tomorrow.

March 21

I woke up with a bit of a stomachache from nerves, mostly because I haven't taught for about 10 years.But I miss the classroom and realize that I could evaluate teachers better if I were teaching myself.

I will teach about 10 hours a week and help fill in as a substitute as part of my administrative duties. The classes are 45 minutes each, except for chemistry labs, which can be as long as four hours because of the hands-on exercises.

March 22

Today was a day of strange food. Breakfast was raisin bread with butter and honey, and a dish called "Russian Eggs" made of shredded ham with a sliced egg on top. The ham/egg comes in loaf form and is supposed to be eaten with a spoon. The loaf is held together by a gelatin-type substance, similar to that found in a canned ham or Spam. Amazingly, it wasn't bad—not that I would like to have it every day.

Lunch was another surprise: potato noodles topped with a mixture of cinnamon, sugar, chopped nuts, and butter. Josef explained that once a week school cafeterias are required to serve a sweet main dish to satisfy federal nutrition guidelines. It was quite tasty, and I would certainly eat it again.

I taught twice today, substituting for an older teacher who is dealing with health problems. What's really cool is that the students stand when an adult enters the room. A student explained that it is done out of respect for the teacher's position.

March 25

Saturday. Josef and I left at 8 a.m. for a two-hour train ride to the town of Nové Mesto to cross-country ski, which I had never done before. I am now convinced that cross-country skiers are the best-conditioned athletes in the world. It's a very popular sport in the Czech Republic, which explains why the Czechs are good at it and we aren't. I was being passed by children too young to walk and old people on oxygen tanks. We put in 15 kilometers and I pulled every known muscle in my body and a few I wasn't aware existed.

April 1

I met Josef and our tech guy, Roman, downtown for the bus ride to Prague. The bus, run by the Student Agency, is the epitome of luxurious travel. It offers free coffee/tea/hot chocolate, and movies and/or music on multiple screens, all at a great price—cheaper than the train, and faster.

I sat next to a pleasant young woman, Veronica, who will work at the Grand Canyon this summer with her boyfriend. Her English was quite good, and I got to practice my Czech. She asked me about things to see in California and New York, including the World Trade Center Memorial. Suddenly I lost my composure. She was very apologetic, but I told her not to be, explaining that some things are very close to the hearts of Americans.

In Prague we stored our largest bags, but the theft and pickpocket problem is so bad that I had to lug around my camera bag and heavy attaché case.

Prague is an absolutely awesome and beautiful place. The metro system is easy to use, and the city center is everything I had heard it would be. No wonder that more people visited Prague in 2005 than any other European city.

April 17

Velikonocni Pondelí, or Easter Monday, is a huge holiday in Europe, especially in the Czech Republic, which has a most unusual tradition. Men and boys use a special handmade whip (pomlázka) decorated with ribbons to thrash women on their bottoms. The boys usually accompany the whipping with a rhythmic chant and then are given a treat. This is a rite used to ensure that women will be fertile, and it's considered bad luck if it isn't done. In an unofficial poll, I found that most girls didn't care for the ritual, but they all indicated they accepted the tradition.

For each woman a man whips, a ribbon is tied to his pomlázka. I noticed one fellow who had accumulated more than 200 ribbons. Wow.

This is a busy day for the policie, as it is also a day of heavy alcoholic consumption. Drunken men reminded me of deer-hunting season in Utah—you know, the time-honored tradition of combining beer and rifles in pursuit of a fleet-footed animal.

This is also a day for eating. Czechs enjoy their food and love to share it with company. They clean their plates, and you are expected to do the same as it is considered rude not to. Czech food is výborný (excellent) and lahodný (delicious), and by not sampling the local cuisine, you miss one of the most important components of the culture.

May 5

Today is my last official day in the Czech Republic. One of the most important things I have learned here is that some things are the same regardless of country, language, or culture. Kids are cute and wide-eyed about learning; teachers are passionate about teaching; parents worry about their children's future; and administrators must still toe the bottom line. The goal of education never changes: to enrich young minds and prepare them for the future.

Jeffrey Herr MA'96 is an assistant principal at East High School in Salt Lake City. He has a "beautiful wife," Debbie, four children, and two Labrador retrievers.

* Reprinted with permission from the Fall 2006 issue of Continuum Magazine, The Magazine of the University of Utah.

A Thailand-United States Fulbright Administrative Exchange

      By Jane Abbott
      Dean, Pikes Peak Community College, Colorado Springs, Colorado

      Thailand, 2005

The Fulbright administrative exchange, a program introduced in the last few years, is a bit of a challenge to apply for, more of a challenge to prepare for, and an experience of great rewards. Fulbright asks applicants to tell what they expect to do without the applicant knowing what country they'll be living in and what institution they'll be working with during their six-week exchange. Many have said over the years that expecting the unexpected is the basis for a sound cross-cultural experience, and so it was in our case.

My exchange partner, Arunee, academic vice president at Phranakhon Rajabhat University, a teacher-education institution in Bangkok, Thailand, first visited me at Pikes Peak Community College in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Through e-mail, we discussed possible housing arrangements and work assignments. Arunee wondered about the weather, and when it became clear that she would have to postpone her visit until October and November, she prepared for the worst, pulling out the heavy wool coat she had worn during four months of study in Michigan as a graduate student. She also borrowed a hat any Moscovite would be proud to own from a friend and figured maybe she could tolerate the cold. In the meantime, I read Arunee's application and noticed that we shared the difficulty of presenting total quality management (TQM) and strategic planning to a not always willing group of recipients. We had both been English majors at one time, although I realized with chagrin that my inability to speak Thai was going to be a hindrance.

When Arunee arrived at the small Colorado Springs airport, she took a deep breath as she walked into the bracing air at more than 2000 meters. She soon got used to it, and she learned quickly to use the fledgling bus service in Colorado Springs to go to the mall and buy warmer clothes. She also adapted quickly to life in an apartment near my house, and commented toward the end of her stay that in addition to learning a lot about many things, she had the time to simply relax once in a while, which she never has a chance to do when she is at work in Thailand. I, with my long title as Dean of Library Services and Educational Effectiveness, was in the middle of helping plan a South Asian week in conjunction with International Education Week. Dr. Pad, as everyone soon learned to call her, fit right in, participating in a related fashion show while wearing Thai national dress. Pad did comment that it was the first and last time she would ever be on the catwalk.

At work, Pad looked carefully through the Pikes Peak Community College literature and decided what programs, support systems, and groups she wanted to further explore. These included a number of programs not readily found in Thailand, especially support services for various student populations, including those with disabilities and learning challenges. Dr. Pad met with the person in charge of credit for prior learning; the directors of the math and writing labs; the tutoring center director; the head of OASIS, an organization that supports first generation and academically struggling students; the director of advising, both for new students and continuing students, etc. Colorado Springs, Colorado's second largest city, is home to five military installations, and Pad met with the director of military programs as well. She also learned about the strict registration system at Pikes Peak Community College, which requires all students to undergo placement testing and advising before registration. Pad has said to me both in Colorado and in Thailand that she was especially impressed with the focus on student success at the community college, that she thinks Pikes Peak does its best to insure that students succeed. Pad commented, however, that it wasn't easy to find something tasty at our college to eat for lunch, and she politely tried the expensive and bland offerings at our café that most of us have long found less than palatable.

On weekends, we went on short and longer excursions. We toured the Garden of the Gods, just near our respective dwellings, more than once. It is a free park full of towering sandstone formations, roads, trails, and interpretive walks, and is a destination for any tourist who comes to Colorado. For us, it was right next door. Pad also liked the turning leaves that come with fall in Colorado, and she learned quickly that she had to take her photos before the leaves fell off the trees.

One chilly, foggy day we had planned to take the three-and-a-half-hour cog railway round trip to the top of 4000 meters Pikes Peak. I admit that I could have quite happily stayed home next to the fireplace, but Pad said she was ready to go, that it would be an adventure. So, off we went, loaded down with hats, gloves, shawls, heavy socks, and extra coats. Pad had her camera. It didn't look as if we would see anything at the top, but amazingly, just as we got there, the clouds and fog opened up, and we could see 7,000 feet below. And---we needed most of the extra clothes we took to the top.

We were also able to attend an assessment conference for two days in Denver, our state capital, with a number of faculties working on outcomes assessment, an area I supervise. Pad commented that such activities that support faculty success are also important and could be adopted and/or adapted by her university in Thailand. She also liked the week-long training that takes place at the beginning of every semester and is required for all faculties, focusing on continuing updating of faculty skills, for instance, in advising. During the time that Dr. Pad was in the United States, she also took a five-day trip to the University of Northern Colorado to investigate a possible visit for her Thai doctoral students, staying with a Thai host family. She also took a trip to Washington D.C. to meet with the assistant director of the department of accreditation there, and she took a trip to visit the School of Education at Columbia University.

When I arrived in Thailand and at Phranakhon Rajabhat University the second week in January, it was the middle of the night. I was taken to a very nice new apartment on campus, the only one in the entire complex that has a bedroom air conditioner. I can't tell you how grateful I have been for this kind gesture and the understanding that it would make me more comfortable. I soon also got used the large airplanes that leave the international airport very nearby and just make it over the university buildings. The apartment looks over a klong and a little farm on the other side that makes it seem quite rural in the middle of Bangkok. I had been in Thailand several times in the 1970s, but needless to say, Bangkok has changed a lot since then.

Life at Phranakhon was busy and varied, and more than anything, I have been grateful over and over for the kindness and helpfulness of a core group of administrators and professors I've met here who have generously taken me places, made sure that I never missed a meal (!), and helped me learn about higher education in Thailand. As I have said here publicly several times, Thailand's obvious commitment to higher education and to education in general is impressive and something from which the United States (and other nations) could learn a lot. Phranakhon itself is part of the Rajabhat University system which since 2004 was transferred from being an institute to being a university in order to accommodate the government requirement that all teachers, past and present, have a teacher's certificate.

While I was at the University, I visited a number of Phranakhon student interns at libraries at other universities, visited student teachers at their posts at various schools, went with English majors to a bi-lingual school, and visited other institutions of higher learning. I also met with the director of the 10 community colleges in Thailand and the president of their board. Two visits to community colleges in different parts of the country were real highlights of my stay in Thailand. We drove to the northeast and spent a couple of days in a peaceful river town on the Mekong, Mukdahan, which is just across from the second biggest town in Lao. A bridge connecting the two is almost finished, and I imagine life will change considerably once it's complete. While there we visited Mukdahan Community College, an institution on its way to success with a dynamic director and staff. In Uthai Thani, which is in north central Thailand, we later visited Ban Rai Community College and also had a tour of the area, including its beautiful hilly surroundings and the local handicraft center with exquisite textiles. The community college students also learn to weave these textiles from the women at the center.

Perhaps the highlight of my visit to Thailand was being involved with a project of one of Pad's graduate students in a village in northeast Thailand called Mekdum. The student obtained a grant for a community development project which to be honest, reminded me of my Peace Corps days in Nepal. Many dignitaries came to the local school, including the president of Pharnakhon, and in the morning they had a roundtable discussion about how the school, doctoral students, and community members could improve the village and surrounding populations. In the afternoon, there were seminars discussing local issues, and they were all very well attended by people of all ages. The school children also had many of their OTOP (local handicraft) goods on exhibit and for sale. I felt that the commitment of everyone involved insured that the community will grow and work together. To strengthen the participation of those of us from the university, there was also a string tying ceremony at the local temple that really made me feel blessed.

Thailand is naturally a really beautiful country, and the reputation that Thais have for hospitality could not be more deserved. I appreciate the way that Buddhism is part of almost everything that people do. Ceremony is also important, and it lends credence to the most simple interaction. The constant presence of temples and the understanding of Buddhism everywhere support the respect that people have for each other, and I will miss the understood code of conduct that is always observed.

The graduation ceremony I was fortunate enough to attend as a front row guest underscored this relationship among Thai people. The crown prince delivered the diplomas to every student in a highly stylized ceremony for which the students had to practice for five days. Even though their interaction with the prince was just a second or two, and it was not at all personal, it is something students and their families will remember for a lifetime.

Once in a while, I wondered where we were going, why, and what we would do once we got there. That always sorted itself out, but occasionally I thought having that information would have been helpful. On the other hand, if I had known Thai, I would have known! What I have found most surprising is how hard and what long hours people work, especially Pad. To be honest, I see women doing this a lot, and perhaps culturally it isn't as necessary for men. Pad almost always works seven days a week and stays till at least 7:00 p.m. every night, but she never complains, and she feels it is the only way she can complete all her work. I admire her work ethic immensely.

Finally, Pad and I have both agreed that we were both fortunate in what we have learned from each other and our institutions, and that we really have become friends in the process. We have had great professional and personal conversations, and I believe I can say that we really respect each others' opinions and judgement. For us, working through the exchange has been rewarding and has taught us how to support each other in foreign cultures. I think we both also feel lucky that we had the opportunity to expect the unexpected and grow a lot in the process. We are grateful to Fulbright for this chance.

Taking Risks to Make Connections: Fulbright Administrator Exchanges

      By Roberta Felker
      Superintendent, Wisconsin Heights School District

      Turkey, 2001

My time here as an explorer and cultural ethnographer was rich and intense, warmed by the smiles and hugs of children, enlightened by back-and-forth conversations with teachers and administrators, enriched by my inclusion in family dinners and cross-country bus trips. Many, many things felt familiar: the exuberant voices of students in the halls between classes, colorful bulletin boards proudly displaying student work, holiday celebrations, and the palpable test anxiety. Two things have given me special cause for reflection and will, I hope, give the school community cause for celebration.

First, my Turkish colleagues at the Foundation School were characterized by a lively and seemingly universal eagerness to learn, to become smarter, better teachers. Every teacher took the risk of sharing her or his ideas and inviting open dialogue and still more impressive of inviting me into the classroom to be part of their teaching close up. They were excited about discussing the strengths of the Turkish curriculum and open about acknowledging the stumbling blocks. They seemed as comfortable with critical reflection as with the laughter and Turkish coffee that often accompanied it. We had real conversations that hold the promise of changing us and the way we live in the world.

Second, the school's culture of hospitality blurs the line between school life and 'real life' in a way that encourages safety and nourishes community. The silent language of Turkish hospitality was in evidence everywhere in the school, from the quiet chatter on the mini-buses that all school employees share on the way to and from school to the more lively chatter in the lunchroom where all school employees and students share their noon meal.

Parents, teachers, students and administrators exchange hugs as routinely as homework assignments. Weekend field trips find families and faculty in the pool and at the breakfast table together. The flow between the worlds of home and school is easy, integrated and rational; teachers and learning impact the larger arenas of living just as smoothly as the warm and protective Turkish home life influences the classroom. I found myself immersed and then engaged in this web of hospitality.

Both teachers and administrators explicitly nourish the capacity to connect with educators from other cultures through programs such as the Fulbright Exchange Program.

My Turkish exchange has convinced me that together we can work to break down structures of national and institutional separation to share our hopes and dreams and help all our children to learn.

Accentuate the Positive: Administrator Exchange in the UK

      By Rebecca Kimberly
      Mayfield Heights, Ohio

      United Kingdom, 2000-2001

The six weeks I spent in England flew by there was so much to learn. Yet, I felt as if I had been away from home for a long time! Never having been abroad before, I could only expect to see the England that I had seen on TV, in the movies or read about in books. As you might expect, some of those images proved true to life and some unrealistic.

Shirley Junior School, a school of 500 pupils in grades 2-5, where I 'shadowed' the deputy head teacher, was in a high socioeconomic section of Southampton, the port city from which the Titanic set sail on its fateful voyage. Except for day visits to three other schools and some meetings, I was immersed in the daily lives of the students, parents and staff at Shirley. Even though I was from the colonies, I was treated like royalty, being invited to dine in a dozen different homes throughout my visit. Here, here for English hospitality! One dinner even included a thoughtfully planned Thanksgiving Feast (including Pilgrims!). My exchange partner, Ms. Dawn Barton-Hide, was here in March, and we tried to treat her as well as I was treated.

All in all, there are more similarities than differences when comparing our schools and governments. Of course, the differences are striking and memorable. The children loved to hear me talk so they could hear my accent. They loved the sound of it! One day near the fifth week of my stay, a pair of Year 5 (grade 4) girls came bouncing up to me and said, 'We think you have an accent.' I replied lightly, 'Oh yes, indeed I do.' Then, after glancing a little nervously at each other, they squealed, 'Do you think we have an accent''

My response, 'Absolutely!' sent them off with giggles, saying, 'We have an accent!'

My appreciation for all the resources and open, thoughtful democratic policy we have in our schools, state, and nation has deepened as a result of my experience in England. I can see the influence of the background of our forefathers. Also, I developed a sense of appreciation for the life-style and choices to which I have been so accustomed throughout my life. Learning from my study of history about suffering and hardship in England during World War II had given me a basic idea of what the English had to overcome as a result of the war, but looking at the vastness of the areas bombed and hearing a first-hand version of the experience of being evacuated as a child from London deepened my admiration for the resiliency of the English people.

Everyone to whom I have spoken about my trip has commented on my enthusiasm. I found the experience to be very renewing, refreshing and invigorating both personally and professionally.

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