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Fulbright New Zealand hosted a study group of 15 American
elementary school teachers in July, on a two week study tour of New Zealand
as part of the US Department of Education’s Fulbright-Hays Seminars
Abroad programme. The teachers visited first New Zealand and then Mongolia
on a six week, two country comparative seminar on the theme of ‘A
Day in the Life of - Exploring the Origins of Communities’.
The New Zealand leg of their tour was organised by Fulbright New Zealand in conjunction with Odyssey Travel, a not-for-profit company specialising in educational travel. The two week programme was designed to give a broad overview of New Zealand’s geography, history, people and culture, and took in the length of the North Island and much of the South. In Auckland participants visited the University of Auckland, Auckland War Memorial Museum, Otara Market and the Waitakere Pacific Arts and Culture Centre. They then travelled to Northland to see the Waitangi Treaty Grounds and other historical sites around Russell, were welcomed with a pōwhiri at their first school visit to Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Kaikohe (a Māori language immersion school), visited the Ngāpuhi tribal council and walked in the Waipoua kauri forest. The group then travelled to Rotorua where they visited forestry research sites, the Agrodome sheep show and Waimangu Volcanic Valley. They stopped at Tongariro National Park en route to Wellington, where their programme included visits to Te Papa Tongarewa museum and Parliament, where they were hosted by Hon Anne Tolley, Minister of Education. In the South Island the group visited the iconic World of Wearable Art Museum, a winery and an aquaculture facility in Nelson, went whale watching at Kaikoura and visited the International Antarctic Centre in Christchurch before departing for Mongolia. In addition to the many sightseeing and cultural visits, the teachers made individual school visits in Rotorua, Wellington and Christchurch, to schools with particular points of interest including language immersion, special needs and environmental programmes. Vicki O’Neal, a 2nd Grade Teacher at Lincoln Elementary School in
Baxter Springs, Kansas, summed up her unique experience as “an opportunity
not just to visit New Zealand as a tourist, but to view it through the
eyes of a Kiwi. I have been given so many diverse experiences and seen
and done things that many in New Zealand will never get to do. I feel
[this trip] will be part of me and my teaching for years to come.”
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