Teacher Exchange

Active 2007-2013

The Teacher Exchange (TEX) program fostered significant teaching partnerships by enabling international educators to team-teach in northern Uganda and North America. North American teachers would visit Uganda for six weeks over the summer each year. In a reciprocal exchange, Ugandan educators visited schools in North America the following winter. In addition to facilitating a mutual exchange of skills between Ugandan and international educators, the program exposed these teachers’ students to a world outside their borders.

The program worked with over 150 American and Canadian teachers, creating long-term learning opportunities that develop capacity for whole school communities. This cross-cultural collaboration benefited all participants, making classrooms more competitive, one teacher at a time.

Program testimonials

“I see the world differently. The world to me now is bigger than just one tribe or one country. I have learned to look beyond my boundaries.”
– Ugandan Teacher

…

“Its opened up a whole new understanding of the world. We read about things and see things in books, but to actually hear from someone else who has a different view of the world has been eye-opening.”
– Ugandan Student

“Being in constant conversation about how things are done here vs. in Uganda has caused me to reexamine things that I consider to be routine, norms or mundane. It causes me to ask the question, why do we do things this way?”
– American Teacher

“I learned that everyone should be open minded to diversity and learning about other cultures.”
– American Student

“This has fueled me to become the type of teacher who strives to increase global awareness in my classroom and really show my students what it is like to be a student on the other side of the planet with so few resources and so many more obstacles against them. My students really relate to this (since by American standards, they are the lowest of the low), and I’ve found that this exposure has increased academic motivation for success and also has grown a level of compassion within many of my students and a desire to help others in any way we can.”
– American Teacher

Program testimonials

By the numbers

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