One useful strategy the Fulbright TGC had us use to help frame our travel was to devise a “guiding question” before we left. This insured that the travel would be more than just an adventure, it would be a gateway to research and learning.
To develop your guiding question you need to consider “what overarching themes or concepts you would be interested in exploring further during your international field experience. The topic you focus on should be relevant to your practice in your community ( an issue that affects your school, a curricular theme that you teach, etc)”.
For me, as a teacher librarian who also works with elementary student journalists, I knew I wanted to focus on how students in Morocco used technology to gather information and share stories.
Having a guided question helped by giving me something to focus on as I was bombarded by new experiences in the field.
It was not feasible for most of us to gather much specific data for our guiding questions during the 10 days we were in the field. But when we all gathered back together in Rabat for debriefing we did have the opportunity to share our guiding questions and collect data from each other.
Attached is an example of these, using my Information/Stories/Technology guiding question.
I know my home town, Tuscaloosa, AL has a long standing Sister Cities agreement with Schorndorf, Germany and Narashino, Japan (largely due to joint manufacturing ties). But it has recently expanded to include Sunyani-Techiman, Ghana! I can’t wait to find out more about that city. I have been to Ghana long ago but don’t recall much about it other than it is English speaking. I’m looking forward to learning more about it.
