Wenhao Diao, an Assistant Professor in the Department of East Asian Studies, has been awarded a Fulbright-Hays grant to support a project bringing Tucson educators to China. 

Diao's proposal for the 2017 Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad program, entitled “Education, Society, and Globalization in China: A Collaborative Teacher Training Program,” has been selected for funding by the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board and the U.S. Federal Department of Education.

Supported by a Fulbright-Hays grant of $88,263 and organized with the UA’s Center for Educational Resources in Culture, Language and Literacy (CERCLL), the project will enable local K-16 educators to spend four weeks in China in summer 2018 to gain insights into Chinese education and its aspirations for globalization, and discuss a range of issues related to gender, social justice, and globalization in both China and the United States.

The four-week in-country seminar will include language classes, field trips, lectures, small group workshops, as well as one-on-one exchange with Chinese K-16 educators. The goal is for these educators to effectively incorporate their first-hand experience from China into humanities and social sciences curricula in K-16 schools in Arizona. It will directly benefit educators at the Pima Community College, the Catalina Foothills School District, and the Tucson Unified School District. There will also be a few limited spots for our own EAS majors/minors who are committed to becoming K-16 educators.

The program will be a great opportunity to bring Chinese language, culture, and perspectives to many children and adults in Arizona and prepare them for an increasingly globalized world.

The proposal was developed by Diao in collaboration with Kate Mackay, Associate Director of CERCLL, a Title VI Language Resource Center at the University of Arizona. It received generous support from the Department of East Asian Studies and the College of Humanities. The program’s design was based on the successful experience from the Arizona-in-Shanghai program. It will be hosted by East China Normal University.