Foreign exchange: school leaders find tangible benefits in their overseas educational study missions - Cover Story

School Administrator, Jan, 2004 by Carol Brzozowski

"To make that connection with somebody from another land has encouraged me to pursue additional visits through Fulbright," says Egan.

Hosting foreign school leaders can help to break down stereotypes.

John Morton, superintendent in Newton, Kan., hosted female educators from Oman in 2002 and earlier handled arrangements for two groups of British educators. Morton himself gained some cultural understanding.

The women from Oman never had spent a night away from their husbands, so the superintendent did some on-the-spot juggling to place the visitors together in the home of a female administrator in Newton to accommodate their wishes. "They were a little nervous, being so far from home," Morton says. "As the week went on, they became more comfortable."

The students in Newton were fascinated with the Oman educators, who were proficient in English. "It broke down a lot of stereotypes," Morton says. "People are people, schools are schools and kids are kids. Some of the same issues they face in their schools are the kind we face as well."

Unvarnished Insights

Administrators who have traveled abroad on the ISS and Fulbright trips say they appreciate the tours are not "sugarcoated."

On a trip to France, Miles Turner says his tour guide raised questions about the quality of his own country's schools and mentioned that dissatisfied parents often pull their children out of public school and place them in a private one. "He did not feel (France's) public schools were of a significant high quality," Turner says. "I don't think he was patronizing us, but he was pointing out that they had a lot of problems with the number of hours teachers and administrators worked and the amount of pay they received. It is not a highly respected or paid profession.

"I thought the parallel was interesting with American schools where school districts that are underfunded frequently face a challenge for the more wealthy students who exercise choice and go to private school."

Egan heard frank talk on his Fulbright trip to Japan about the disturbingly high rates of suicide among students and bullying.

"That was part of the reason they were going to go from a six-day (a week) educational program to five days and they were going to eliminate some of these testing standards because they felt the pressure they were putting on the kids was causing a lot of the bullying, social problems and discipline problems in the schools," says Egan.

Stronger Appreciation

School administrators often return from foreign study trips with an appreciation for the democratic decision making of public education in this country.

The educational systems of the United States, Canada and England are unique, says Barham of the Virginia School Boards Association, in that policies are decided by lay elected board members compared to top-down, national government dictates in other countries.

Based on her trip to China, Collier, a former district superintendent in Texas, notes: "I felt like everything was coordinated at the central level, but it seemed to be very driven by who you knew. I didn't have the feeling that your own individual hard work and initiative was going to pay off in quite the same way."