The four-week Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad (GPA) program enabled a group of educators to spend 4-weeks in a study tour of India. The program, titled “Integrating South Asia and Diversity in New Jersey Classrooms: The Roots and Routes of Ethnic Communities” focused on ways to integrate India into the social sciences and humanities curriculum in New Jersey classrooms. A key objective was to enable a set of participants to foster the creation of a critical learning community of educators in New Jersey who actively integrate language and curricular materials on South Asia at all levels in their teaching.The program was originally designed to cover India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka but was finally restricted to India due to covid conditions.
This GPA is a project within the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (CoAHSS) at William Paterson University of New Jersey. Its two program co-directors are from Social Sciences (Dr. Kalaramdam from the Department of Community and Social Justice Studies, and Dr. Rajender Kaur from the Department of English and the interdisciplinary program of Asian Studies). The other participants in this program were eight current K-12 teachers from northern New Jersey including the Paterson school district (identified as a ‘high-needs’ district in New Jersey) and surrounding areas, and two other faculty from WPUNJ engaged with our Asian Studies program.
The program engaged the educators in experiential and reflective learning about India – its histories, political economy, diversity, and the ways globalization has shaped it. Participants visited a number of historical sites, met with intellectuals, artists, activists, institutional leaders, and school children and teachers in several Indian cities across India. Topics covered included religious pluralism, secularism, education and equity, caste, gender and sexuality, popular education, and environmental justice. To further facilitate contextual pedagogy, the program also enabled participants to gain insights into how South Asia has been and continues to be, a vital part of New Jersey. Hence, the theme of ‘roots’ and ‘routes’ has been chosen to highlight the diversity of South Asian communities in New Jersey and trace their histories of migration and cultural transmission from South Asia. Additionally, the program increased the cultural and linguistic competency of K-16 educators through regular instruction in one local language, Hindi.
A major outcome of the program is the generation of a rich repertoire of materials including lesson plans for creating new teaching modules about South Asia and integrating diversity within the curriculum in New Jersey schools, colleges, and universities. Here are some examples of Lesson Plans developed by participants.
The FHGPA India Trip (cities visited inlcude Delhi, Amritsar, Jaipur, Udaipur, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Kancheepuram, Puduchery and Kolkata)
Teaching Asia Conference (held on Decenber 8, 2022)
William Paterson University
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