Years ago, I found myself committed to teaching non-western art, in order to expand our offerings in our program. While I had a graduate minor in cultural anthropology and had taken several classes in my undergraduate years as well, and thus had at least a basic theoretical framework of how to approach (and how to teach) material culture, I would be working with geographical areas I didn't have any scholarly background in. This happens to many of us who teach, actually. And, in fact, to many people who have non-academic jobs. You have to be able to learn on the job. And really learning means really knowing something new to the extent that you will be able to explain it to someone else. So how do you get this knowledge?
Of course, many universities offer enrichment courses over the summer, and many teachers continue to work on their higher degrees, whether over the summer in person or online whenever is convenient. If you are lucky, there will be some financial support from your employer, but generally, you front the money yourself and there is a bit of a tax deduction to be claimed on April 15th of the following year.
But there are really cool opportunities that are not always as well known or as obvious. I have been fortunate to participate in two of these, and will be adding another onte this summer. They literally changed my life and expanded the way I look at the world. I want to share some of these with the teachers on the list and invite you to suggest others (I am sure I have a lot to learn from you).
The deadline for some of these has passed, but you can bookmark these (or this diary) to look in the fall or next spring for summer opportunities.
The first deadline that comes up is in the fall, and it is for the Fulbright-Hays Seminars. There are three levels of these, those for elementary teachers, those for secondary school teachers, and those for postsecondary teachers, i.e. community college, university, and administrators. These have a focus on education, but along with visiting schools and/or universities, you will have incredible experiences in wonderful locations. And these are trips to really exciting foreign locations, with most or all expenses paid by the funding agency. These are opportunities for small groups of teachers, 14 or 16 plus two or so group leaders. They are really designed for people who are not specialists in a given area. The description for the elementary one for 2012 (to Mexico and Columbia), for example, states:
The goal of the seminar is to give participants a unique opportunity to explore the diversity of Mexico and Colombia, to familiarize with the origins of the many issues they face in different contexts (rural, urban and even global) and to understand the challenge of building a free and fair society. The seminar will begin with a Pre-departure Orientation in Texas in order to give participants an introduction to the country and start growing group bonds. Once in Mexico and Colombia, the seminar will combine visits to archaeological sites, schools, museums, natural parks, indigenous communities and markets with lectures and discussions by specialists on each topic. As an integral part of the program, the seminar will explore different expressions of Mexican and Colombian folklore such as the production of hand-made handicrafts, traditional cuisine, music, medicine and religious practices.
Participants will have the opportunity to mingle with artisans, teachers and other representatives of Mexican and Colombian society in order to better understand the historic roots as well as different aspects of present day Mexico and Colombia. By the end of the seminar, participants will have gained a deeper knowledge on some of the problems faced by Latino students in their classrooms, providing them with the means to relate and help them adjust to present conditions, thus improving bilateral relationships.
There were two for secondary teachers in 2012 (well, will be -- the application deadline is long past but the experience for those lucky people who were selected is still to come) -- Brazil and Uruguay, and one to India; for college teachers there were also two -- one to India and one to Dubai and the UAE. I participated in one which had both university faculty and space for a few secondary teachers, only one of whom applied and was accepted. That was in the summer of 2004, and took us to Malaysia and Indonesia. It was the most wonderful experience I could imagine, and followed on from that life-changing experience I talked about, which introduced me to Southeast Asia.
This was a program run by the Asian Studies Development Program and funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. I will return to the NEH in a minute, but in the meantime, let me sing enthusiastically the praises of the ASDP. They work with post-secondary educators largely, and include community colleges completely and have some really exciting innovative community college programs. Their focus is in undergraduate education, so university educators are welcome, but the emphasis is on those who teach undergraduates (of course those teachers who teach at R1 schools have participated at times). They run workshops that are a weekend or a week; they have summer programs on the mainland, in Hawaii (at the East-West Center, a gorgeous setting at the edge of the campus of the University of Hawai'i--Manoa), and in Asia. Each program is funded differently, and may provide different levels of financial support. There are also different deadlines for each of their programs; find the one you are interested in and take your chances. They are focused on introducing faculty who have little or no background in Asia to the culture, history, etc., of Asia. There is a strong interest in China, Confucianism and Buddhism, among the founders of the program, but they also have programs on India and a wide range of east Asian countries.
My program? An NEH Summer Institute for College and University teachers on Southeast Asian culture. All I knew about SE Asia was the Vietnam War, and the film "The Killing Fields." But in that time I learned about the history and religious setting of the mainland, including developing a strong desire to see Bagan (Pagan), an incredible site with 2200 temples, monasteries, and shrines still standing out of an estimated original complement of 10,000. I came back to my university and a couple of years later I was teaching Southeast Asian art in a regular rotation, developing a Chinese section of the class as well in a combination of book learning, interviews and conversations with colleagues, and a concerted effort to attend Chinese and other Asian presentations at conferences, including the College Art Association's one. This summer I am attending an institute offered by the Japan Studies Association, as my students are very interested in Japan and I have not really had the background to help them develop those interests in the arts so far. This, and subsequent study, will help me help them, These programs are essentially an intensive jump start, and as such they are amazingly useful.
On my sabbatical in 2001-2002, I traveled for a month in mainland Southeast Asia, managing to lay out an itinerary that provided me with experiences to reinforce and supplement the ASDP program I had taken part in six years before. While there, I focused my souvenir hunting (okay, I like to shop!) on traditional textile crafts, collecting textiles that represented the range of techniques, fibers, and social levels of Indochina (Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos, largely). I emphasized the translation of traditional crafts into tourist arts. In other words, I developed a theoretical focus that has made its way into my own research (I have given talks on this topic as well as producing a gallery show), and is actually part of a research trend in the study of the survival of indigenous arts.
The NEH (yes, I said I would return to their programs) provides (at least they did this year -- write your congress critter to make sure they continue fund this important agency!) both institutes (for teachers to enrich their content) and seminars (for people to study a specific subject as a learning group) for college teachers and a separate set for school teachers (including parents who are home schooling). These range in length from two weeks to six weeks, are largely in the US, but do provide settings all over the world -- last year in India, this year in Germany, Italy, and the UK, for teachers, various locations in Europe and one in Mexico for college teachers.
These are all amazing opportunities, and even though the deadlines for most of these have passed for this year, you should bookmark these links and check them through the fall, and apply for these programs when you have the chance. They can change the way you teach. And they can change the way you look at the world. Good luck with your applications!