Impact of the Fulbright teaching excellence and achievement program on participating U.S. secondary schools

The Fulbright Teaching Excellence and Achievement Program (Fulbright TEA) provides six weeks of professional development for international secondary teachers. They observe and co-teach classes with a partner teacher at a U.S. secondary school as part of the program. One important goal of this program is to build cross-cultural competence in U.S. school communities, which is often overlooked given that the Fulbright literature has primarily focused on U.S. teachers travelling abroad or faculty in higher education. To address this gap, we interviewed eight partner teachers and administrators to explore their perceived impact of Fulbright TEA on U.S. teachers, students, and school communities. The findings demonstrate that the participating teachers enhanced their teaching repertoire and cross-cultural competence and both they and their students regained appreciation of abundant resources in the U.S. The study indicates the cost effectiveness of Fulbright TEA in developing/enhancing cross-cultural competence of U.S. school communities.