Post-Trip Reflection

When I arrived to Brazil, my essential question was how does the structure of the Brazilian education system impact the teaching profession? In general, I found that the status of the teaching profession in Brazil struggles to rise due to low pay and challenging working conditions. These obstacles are held in place by structures of time and space that limit professional growth. This seems to be especially true for English teachers.

I knew that I would be spending time in a language school in my host city, but I did not understand what was really meant by language school until our group visited a Centro Cultural Linguistico (CCL) in Brasilia. Public language schools provide free supplementary language classes to students. In Brazil, students attend their regular comprehensive schools in the morning (7-12), afternoon (12-5), or evening (5-10). Those who extend their language learning to a CCL will study English, Spanish, French, or Portuguese in one of the three sessions in which they are not in school. They attend one three-hour class or two ninety-minute classes per week. This would be a revolutionary idea in the United States. Our society tends to resist learning languages more than anywhere in the world. I found it so refreshing to be among students and teachers who share my passion and sense of urgency for learning how to communicate with people who speak a different language.

I spent eight days at a CCL in Teresina. There were advantages and disadvantages to my placement. I was able to meet a large number of students because they only came to class once a week. Every day I interacted with two or three new groups of students. Unfortunately, it was difficult to form strong bonds with the students when I only saw them for an hour. But I got to know the teachers, especially the English teachers, very well. I was disappointed that I was unable to spend time in comprehensive high schools in Teresina. I had hoped to be able to compare my experiences between English classes in language schools and in the high schools. If I were to start the experience over again, I would insist on following the teachers to the different schools in which they teach to develop a deeper understanding of the differences between schools.

I was shocked to learn that most of the English teachers that I met teach in three, four, or sometimes five different schools. This occurs for a couple of reasons. First, the salaries are so low that teachers need to combine jobs to make a living. Second, English is only offered once a week in comprehensive schools, which does not add up to enough sections of classes to create a full time position. And it certainly isn’t enough time for students to learn a language. One impact of constantly moving around from school to school, from early in the morning to late at night, is that no time is left to collaborate with colleagues. English teachers in most of Brazil are simply never grounded in a single building long enough to build professional relationships and share ideas and resources with each other.

The challenges that English teachers in Brazil face in their jobs were most clearly revealed on one of our last days in Teresina. Our host teacher arranged a meeting with English teachers from all over the city. We met in a school auditorium with about fifty teachers who do not teach in language schools. We talked for two hours about the many challenges that English teachers in Teresina face every day. They mentioned widespread student apathy in English classes in the public schools. They said that students often prefer to study Spanish because they feel that it is much more likely that they will use it in their lives. (Students in the language schools choose to be there and are thus much more self-motivated).  They also complained about the low quality of the government textbooks. They are forced to teach with a grammar-focused approach. They know that this is not effective, but do not have the resources or the needed professional development to change the curriculum. (The language schools choose their own textbooks and teach with a communicative approach).

The teachers we spoke with that morning were thirsty for opportunities to improve their practice. New teachers receive no mentors and there is not a system of evaluation in place that encourages professional growth.  I shared with them that many teachers in the United States share similar frustrations with our education system. Mandated curriculum that doesn’t meet the needs of students, minimal time to collaborate with colleagues, ineffective evaluation systems that overemphasize standardized test scores, and student apathy can be found across our country. In addition, in both Brazil and the United States, if you ask high school students what they want to be when they are older teaching is far from the top of the list. But, there are some significant differences between the problems that teachers in our two countries face. Teachers in the United States do not typically teach in three or more schools. And while teacher salaries in the United States should be higher, proportionally, we are much better off than Brazilian teachers.

Centro Cultural de Linguas

The break room in CCL.

During my eight days in Teresina, I spent the majority of my time at the Centro Cultural de Linguas (CCL). CCL is part of a system of supplementary public language schools in Brazil. Students attend their regular schools in the morning, afternoon, or evening and attend CCL one day a week for three hours or two days for an hour and a half. In this particular language school they teach English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese.

Joselia, our host teacher, outside a CCL classroom.

Our first day in Teresina was a busy one. We arrived to the school in the afternoon and co-taught in seven or eight classes before the night was over. We developed a routine which involved a hastily drawn map of the United States with each of our home states, Washington and South Carolina, outlined in marker. We then went on to describe the weather, our schools, and other interesting facts. With the lower level classes we were more limited to basic conversation, but with the advanced groups, we got into some pretty deep discussions about cross-cultural stereotypes, college admissions, and the student debt crisis.

Hanging out with CCL teachers after class.

There are some notable differences between Brasilia and Teresina. Piaui is the poorest state in Brasil. And there is really no industry in Teresina outside of health care and education. While Teresina is a very modern city, complete with shopping malls, riverside parks, and nice hotels, there is a much higher level of poverty than in the capital. Students at CCL choose to be there (in addition to their regular schools), but it is not easy. They have to buy a book for the year (about $60 USD) and often pay an extra bus fare to and from language school. That keeps many kids from attending and makes it a struggle for most of the rest.

One advantage to being an a language school for a week was that we got to meet a few hundred different students. Every day we spoke with new classes. We also got to know a few of the teachers very well as we visited their classes. A downside to our schedule was that we didn't get to form very strong relationships with the students. We only saw them once for about half an hour. We also didn't get to spend much time in regular schools. I would have liked to sit in classes in public high schools in Teresina to compare and contrast with the language school and with schools in Brasilia. I guess I'll have to go back for that!

EdWeek Teacher Article

I wrote an article that went up on the Education Week Teacher website yesterday. It mentions the TGC program and some of my pre-trip thinking about global education. The full text is below. The link to the website is here. Let me know what you think.

Published Online: July 3, 2012

Global Education: Bringing the World to Your Classroom

By Noah Zeichner

I love to travel. In my eight years of teaching, I have seized several (free) opportunities to see the world. Travel has enriched my teaching, allowing me to bring international experiences directly back to my students.

This year I participated in the Teachers for Global Classrooms fellowship, a program of the U.S. State Department.

I joined 64 teachers from around the country in completing an online course on best practices in global education. In February, we attended a global education symposium in Washington, D.C., accompanied by administrators from our schools.

And I just returned from an eye-opening trip to Brazil with 10 other TGC teachers. We spent two weeks observing and co-teaching in schools (both public and private). Other teachers in the program traveled to India, Ghana, Indonesia, Morocco, and Ukraine.

One takeaway from my fellowship experience is a clearer understanding of what teaching global competencies might look like in practice. The Asia Society and the Council of Chief State School Officers have produced a series of global competence matrices (PDF). I started using these matrices this year as a way to evaluate my own curriculum. Recently, I've been embedding competencies into my student assessment rubrics.

The four main elements of the global competence matrix are:

• Investigate the world.
• Recognize perspectives.
• Communicate ideas.
• Take action.

We should be teaching our students these skills, and of course, mastering the competencies ourselves. They probably sound familiar: Some call them 21st-century skills, and others refer to them as the new basics. Students need to go beyond their comfort zones and actively learn from (not just about) people who have different worldviews.

This is not a call to throw out the curricula that we are currently using. On the contrary, it's an opportunity to enhance our practice and create a more rigorous and meaningful learning environment for our students.

In teaching U.S. history this past school year, I have worked with colleagues to revise our Progressive Era and Great Depression units, incorporating more opportunities for students to develop global competencies.

Investigate the World and Recognize Perspectives

Progressive Era unit: After a look at Teddy Roosevelt and the creation of the national parks system, students learned about differing views on the management of public lands a hundred years ago (focusing on John Muir, Gifford Pinchot, and Richard Ballinger). Students analyzed and debated the decision to dam the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite. We tried to push students to recognize their own perspectives within the spectrum of preservationist, conservationist, and laissez-faire attitudes.

Great Depression unit: We redesigned our Great Depression unit to follow an arc that led to a study of the Great Recession of 2007-09. We began by looking at the causes of the 1929 stock market crash and the widespread bank failures that followed. Then we moved on to study the "alphabet soup" of New Deal programs and the impact of the depression on people's everyday lives. Next, we compared different economic perspectives on the causes of and responses to the Depression, including a theoretical comparison of capitalism and communism.

Communicate Ideas/Taking Action

Progressive Era unit: We finished the unit by turning to the present. Students studied the current debate over the Keystone Pipeline project. After role-playing a town hall meeting on the pipeline issue, students wrote letters to President Obama that showed an understanding of multiple perspectives and incorporated the history of American conservationism and environmentalism. We hope that the President will be impressed by the level of global competence in the 100 letters, especially the act of sending them.

Great Depression unit: Similarly, we ended the Great Depression unit in the present. We looked at the recent economic recession, focusing on the collapse of the housing bubble, and the growing income inequality gap. Students debated three perspectives on economic policy:

• The call for a "New New Deal" and increased taxation of the wealthiest Americans.
• A focus on deficit reduction and tax cuts.
• A call for a new, more just system altogether.

Background materials included rhetoric from the Obama campaign, the Republican Party's economic platform, and the Occupy Movement. We hope that students take action by personally engaging with these important issues, and that those who are eligible voters will feel informed enough to participate in this November’s presidential election.

But you don't have to be a social studies teacher to incorporate the global competencies—the matrices address numerous content areas.

And you don't have to take students across international borders. You can help your students practice the skills of recognizing different perspectives and communicating ideas effectively in your own classroom, engaging the diverse perspectives found in your own community and school.

There are also easy ways to connect with classrooms around the world. You can start by simple class-to-class communication and then advance to collaborating with classes in other countries on specific projects. (I've listed some of my favorite resources below.)

The time to take global education seriously is now. Whether you believe we need to prepare students to compete economically with students from other nations or that graduates need to have the skills to collaborate with others to solve complex problems, the global competencies are critical. Some resources follow:

Collaboration with Global Classrooms

• ePals—The recently revised ePals website matches you with classroom partners around the world who share your interests. You can join pre-existing projects as well.
• iEARN—Students and teachers in more than 130 countries are engaged in collaborative projects through iEARN.
• See this list from the World Affairs Council in Seattle for more resources.

Professional Development and Curriculum

• Global Education Conference is a free international online conference for educators. The third annual event will take place November 12-16, 2012.
• Primary Source offers global education curriculum resources and professional development for K-12 teachers, including fantastic resource guides for a variety of countries and topics.
• Facing the Future touts this motto: "Critical thinking. Global perspective. Informed action." You can download materials on their website for hands-on lessons about global issues across the curriculum.

International Travel

• Teachers for Global Classrooms (TGC)—Applications for the 2012-13 TGC fellowship are past due, but I encourage any teachers who are interested in the topic of global education to apply next year. The fellowship is a program of U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and is administered by IREX.

Teresina

Welcome to Teresina

Walking into one of Teresina Airport's two gates.

Perry and I arrived in Teresina on the 14th. When we were in Brasilia, when we told people we were going to spend a week in Teresina, the reaction was always the same: "Oh! It's so hot there!" They usually shook their heads in disbelief that we were going there. That's all of the information I could get out of people. And none of them had actually been to Teresina.

Getting to Teresina was hard work. The airport in Brasilia was hectic and we had to stay alert. During the hour that we were in the airport, our gate changed four times. We ran up the stairs and down the stairs, trying to figure out where our plane was. At boarding time, a long line formed. At the departure time, we boarded the plane. We
took off about an hour after the scheduled departure time. It was a two-hour flight to Teresina.

Well, the predictions were accurate. The moment we stepped off the plane, we felt the heat. During our week in Piaui state, the high was usually in the upper 90s, but it felt much hotter due to the close proximity to the equator. But there is much more to Teresina than the weather...

Back in the USA

I've been back home for almost a week. After finishing up at school on Tuesday, I have spent the past three days spending time with my family and sleeping off the exhaustion that I brought back with me from Brazil. It was an intense two weeks!

I will be posting some reflections on my trip over the next few days. I encourage you to also take a look at my colleagues' blogs. Each of us had a different experience in Brazil. Their links are on the right of the page under Brazil Blogs.

Chris, who was in Rio, posted some videos of our first few days in Brasilia. Check them out:

Teresina, Piaui

Perry and I spent the past couple of days co-teaching MANY English classes at the language school in Teresina. Much more on that later. (I have limited internet access this weekend.) We are on the coast today. Tomorrow we will be visiting the Parnaíba River Delta by boat.

Schools in Brazil

Public school hallway.

Private school hallway.

The school system is structured a bit differently in Brazil. What we call elementary and middle schools in the U.S. are combined as "ensino fundimental" in Brazil. High school is "ensino medio" and is equivilent to our grades 10-12. State governments oversee elementary schools (k-9) and municipalities manage the high schools. Students are required to attend school for 200 days a year, usually beginning in February with a 3-4 week winter break in July. This year, most kids in Brasilia will only have one week of vacation and will attend school on Saturdays for the rest of the year due to a recent 52-day teachers' strike.
About 10% of k-12 schools in Brazil are private. Most Brazilians consider private schools to be far superior to public schools. Public universities, however, are much better than private colleges. To get into a public university you have to score very well on a high stakes entrance exam, the vestibular or the ENEM. Most students in Brasilia who are accepted are from the upper classes and graduated from private high schools. When you hear that public universities in Brazil are free, you might assume that students from lower socio-economic classes have good access to higher education. But that is not the case here. In fact, many well-off parents of students at the University of Brasilia buy their kid a car since there are no other major expenses. The parking lots at U. of Brasilia are filled with BMWs and Audis, and they don't belong to the professors.

Most public schools provide uniforms, books, and supplies to their students. The poorest families can also qualify for the Bolsa Familia, which is about $20 USD a month. This program began in 2003 under President Lula (although it was developed by others before him). They receive this stipend only if their child attends school every day. The government also provides meals and transportation cards.

Due to overcrowding, many schools have three schedules every day: morning, afternoon, and evening. Students attend one session (7-12, 12-5, or 5-10). It is very common for students to go to school in the morning and then take language classes (most commonly English or Spanish) at a language school a couple days a week. Teachers often teach multiple sessions and work at multiple schools.

Despite major challenges, there have been some significant improvements over the past 20 years. In 1993 only 42% of students in Brazil completed primary school and only 28% finished high school. In 2009, those numbers were 71% and 55%. A problem that continues to persist is the huge shortage of teachers. 26% of teachers have just a high school diploma, and in some more remote areas of the country, not even that. The federal government wants to invest a lot of money in teacher education in the next few years and they are designing some interesting programs. I will write more about teacher preparation in a separate post.

In Brasilia, we visited a public high school, an elite private high school, a public language school, and a teacher preparation program. I will write about each of these experiences in upcoming posts. For the next week I will be observing and co-teaching in public schools in Teresina, Piaui. Teresina is in the northeast, the poorest region of the country. I expect to see a sharp contrast to the schools in the capital.

The Brazilian "Midwest"

View from the TV Tower. Notice how symmetrical the city design is.

I arrived to Brasilia last Sunday morning. It was a long trip. I left my house in Seattle at 7:30 AM caught a flight to Atlanta and met the rest of my group there. Then we had an 8-9 hour flight to Brasilia. When we arrived, we took advantage of the beautiful sunny weather right away and walked around. Our hotel, which was the nicest hotel here back in the '80s (Princess Diana stayed here), is across the street (a  busy 6-lane highway) from a TV Tower and park. You can take an elevator up to the top of the tower for free (which we did). There was also a Sunday market taking place nearby, which we perused for a couple of hours.

For those who don't know why I am in Brazil, let me explain. I am part of a new program called Teachers Without Borders. It is affiliated with the Department of State and administered by a non-profit called IREX. There are about 65 teachers in the program who are traveling to six different countries (India, Indonesia, Ghana, Morocco, Ukraine, and Brazil). We are here to learn about Brazil's education system and to deepen our own thinking about global education. It is an amazing opportunity.

Brazil is a huge country, the fifth largest in the world both in area and population. There are five distinct regions: the north (Amazon), Northeast (poorest region), Southeast (most populated), South (wealthiest), and Central-West (where the capital is). Tomorrow, I will be traveling to Teresina, a city in the northeast, for a week.

Brasilia is a strange place. It is a planned city - construction was completed in 1960. The buildings remind me of some of the World's Fair structures in Seattle (completed in 1962). They were intended to look futuristic and there is a big emphasis on concrete. Almost every building seems to be designed by Oscar Niemeyer, who is currently 104 years old. He is considered a sort of national hero here. He uses a lot of curves in his buildings and as I mentioned above, a lot of concrete. He also helped design the UN headquarters in New York.

Brasilia is a UNESCO World Heritage Site - the only city built in the 20th century with that designation. It feels like an aging city; many of the buildings look dated and feel like they opened in 1960. Some have compared it to the Epcot Center at Disney World.

The master plan has the city organized into "superblocs." A superbloc contains housing, a church, a park, and often a shopping street. Everything is coded with numbers and letters. Some of the apartment buildings were originally designated for government officials, bank employees, or other specific groups of people. Today, Brasilia is very expensive. A 3 bedroom apartment will cost $1500 to $1800 a month or will sell for $500 million USD. That is a lot when the average income in Brazil is about $800 a month (many civil servants and professional make much more than this of course). Minimum wage here is about $300 a month.

The "Blue Church"

Sign in a Super Bloc

Brasilia has the highest per capita income in Brazil. If you are poor, however, you probably work in Brasilia (as a maid or porter perhaps), but don't live here. There are several "satellite cities" 30-40 kilometers outside of the capital that face much higher levels of poverty, crime, drug abuse, etc. They were originally created after construction workers squatted in Brasilia when their work was completed in 1960. The workers were given land outside of the city in order to remove the slums. Today there are new problems in the capital. There are about 2,000 homeless people (only in the past 5-6 years) and a rising number of crack cocaine users (also a recent problem).

I learned most of what I now know about Brasilia from our tour guide, Roberto (r is pronounced with an h sound). He is a native of Brasilia and has given us an honest interpretation of his city's history. He acknowledges that many find Brasilia cold, but points out that most visitors never go into the neighborhoods. They often just visit government and office buildings. I have to say, by my 4th day here, the city is growing on me. Maybe it's the weather (upper 70s and sunny EVERY day) or maybe it's the people (very welcoming).

Typical superbloc apartment building.

A church in a superbloc.

The National Cathedral

The National Cathedral's ceiling.

The Congress building.

The source of my refreshing coco water.

Roberto doing his thing.

The new World Cup stadium under construction.

Ready to go to the U.S. Embassy and the Congress.

Brazil in the News

Thanks Chris, for sharing this video. I love the second speaker. Giving advice to U.S. presidential candidates, he says, "You need to think in a more global way. I know it's difficult, but give it a try." Duh.

What do YOU know about Brazil?

Back in December, when I found out that I would be travelling to Brazil, I realized that I really didn't know much about the FIFTH LARGEST COUNTRY in the world. And as I have talked with friends, family, and colleagues about my upcoming trip, it seems that in general, many other people (at least in Seattle) don't know very much about Brazil either.

Despite taking multiple Latin American history courses in college and even living in South America for a year, my understanding of Brazil was limited to what I have seen in films like Central Station and City of God. I decided that I needed to learn as much as I could about my host country before I leave in June. Here are some of the books and other resources that I'm using for my self-taught crash course.

Brazil is hosting the World Cup in 2014 and the Summer Olympics in 2016. People all over the world, including the United States, are going to be paying much more attention soon - I hope to get a head start with this trip (and reading list).

"Brazil on the Rise" is written by a New York Times correspondent. Some reviewers accuse him of being too critical and negative about Brazil. He claims to have vetted his ideas with Brazilian colleagues and family. I'm giving it a chance (I'm only a couple of chapters in). So far, I'm enjoying it.

I had a hard time getting into this book - it's a bit dry. On the back cover, the first review says it is "for the corporate executive facing his or her first long flight to Sao Paolo..." For some reason, that's wasn't a selling point for me. But it covers a lot of ground in about 150 pages. I'm going to give it another try. I really do want to understand the incredible surge in Brazil's economy. Last year, Brazil passed the UK and became the world's 6th largest economy. And they are on pace to pass France and enter the #5 spot. (The USA, China, Japan, and Germany are ahead of France and Brazil on the list.)

I read NACLA's (North American Congress on Latin America) magazine often in college when doing research for my Latin American history classes. It's a great publication. I just downloaded a few articles from the March/April 2011 issue and hope to read them on the plane. The articles focus on the transition from Lula to Dilma Rousseff's administration (Brazil's first female president).






I am not going to carry a guidebook with me to Brazil, but I did download the PDF of the first chapter of the Lonely Planet Brazil guide, which focuses on history, culture, and food. And I picked up the Lonely Planet Brazilian Portuguese Phrasebook. I plan to try my best to master some basic phrases. I speak Spanish pretty well, which helps, but learning Portuguese has proven to be a challenge so far.

I checked out the Pimsleur short course (eight 30-minute lessons) from the public library and have been listening (and repeating) in my car. I really like the approach of this course. You listen to a short conversation between two people. They break down each phrase into individual words and syllables. There is time for you to repeat everything a couple of times and just as you are about to forget something from a few minutes earlier, they bring it back. I am going to spend some time during my commutes home this week to finish the course.

Perry, my colleague from South Carolina, told me about this podcast. I had to register on the SurvivalPhrases website to be able to download the first ten lessons for free. They are short and sweet and go over the most essential phrases as the name of the site implies. All ten lessons total about an hour.

I like to be informed when I travel. I hope to be able to integrate what I am reading about Brazil's history, economy, and culture into my reflections on this blog over the next few weeks. I hope you join me.

Hello! In one week I will be leaving for Brazil as part of the Teachers for Global Classrooms fellowship program. I am in the process of trying to grade essays, write sub plans, and take care of various tasks that will allow me to leave for the last two weeks of the school year. Crazy times!

In February, I attended a Global Education Symposium in Washington DC with the 64 other TGC fellows. In addition to seeing the new MLK memorial at night, which was a certainly highlight of my trip, I had a chance to meet the rest of my Brazil group as well as the other teachers who are travelling to India, Indonesia, Ghana, Morocco, and Ukraine.

It's hard to believe that we will be reunited (in the Atlanta airport) in just a few days.