During the first three weeks of February 2018, Lorena Cartagena, a graduate of the Master’s program in Education, will travel to Austin, Texas, to visit an American school. She will sit in on classes and attend faculty and parent meetings. She will observe how the school is run.
She will interact with the students. The English teacher will observe both the teaching and learning processes. She will gather insights and ideas that she will likely apply in her own classes, thereby enriching her teaching practice.
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Cartagena had already heard about the Fulbright Program’s teacher exchange fellowship. Every year, the English department would notify her when applications opened. She knew teachers who had participated, but she never applied.
After completing her master’s degree in education at Universidad ORT Uruguay applied. In 2017, she felt the time was right. “I was confident about the goals I would pursue if selected and that I had the tools to make this opportunity a fruitful one,” Cartagena said.
It wasn't easy. The graduate was selected from among teachers from across the country. She underwent an evaluation of her qualifications and work history, followed by a personal interview with representatives from the U.S. Embassy, the Fulbright Commission, and members of the National Public Education Administration (ANEP).
The proposal
As explained on its website, the Fulbright Teacher Exchange Program aims to “contribute to the development of primary and secondary education in Uruguay through teaching and administrative experience at a school in the United States.”
Since 2002, approximately 300 Uruguayan teachers have participated.
Cartagena currently lives in Colonia del Sacramento, her hometown. She spends most of her time teaching English at the Regional Teachers’ Center of Southwest Uruguay. She also teaches at a high school, the Council for Education Training, and UTU.
She hopes that this experience will help her socialize, share, and reflect within a professional community, in line with her thesis topic:“The Differentiated Approach to Teaching English: Teachers’ Perspectives.” She also hopes to capture her experience in a written piece.
The Master's in Education: A Turning Point
Cartagena remembers her first day of class. She didn’t know what to expect. She was afraid she wouldn’t have the skills needed to complete the graduate program. However, she found people with whom she had a lot in common.
“Although we were a group of people from different fields, I realized—in a way I never had before—the synergy that occurs when diverse professions, ways of thinking, skills, experiences, and strengths come together to make us part of an unforgettable life experience,” he said.
For her, completing the Master’s degree in Education was a turning point: “I no longer see things the same way.” Now she observes and analyzes situations based on theoretical principles.
Keep learning
“Students today are not the same as they were yesterday,” Cartagena explained, noting that “their interests, plans, ideas, and learning strategies” are different from those she had as a teenager.
As he noted, training and professional development important today: “Technology is advancing by leaps and bounds, and the resources we use today are not the same ones students will use in the future we are preparing them for.”
In his view—and for that reason—“the teaching and learning process takes place in the present while envisioning the future.”