Program
INTRODUCTION
People across the world recognize education as opportunity – as one of the most viable routes toward an enhanced standard of living and as a means to contribute to society. Most people also recognize that we live in a global community in which nations, institutions, processes, and people are intricately linked, and local conflicts can quickly spread and affect nations and regions across the globe.
At the same time, our interconnected world is becoming increasingly vulnerable to polarization, and since 9/11, this polarization has become most notable between the United States and some elements of the Muslim world. Unbalanced, inaccurate, or distorted images, often propagated through the mass media, have generated mutual stereotypes as well as mistrust and anger. Bridging this divide is critical to our common future, and fostering mutual understanding is key to accomplishing that aim.
As the world’s fourth most populous nation with a Muslim majority population that is larger than the combined population of Muslims in the Middle East, Indonesia is of particular significance to the United States in this time of troubling relations with the Muslim world. Since in both Indonesia and the United States, education is a primary social institution and schools are among the most prized of community institutions, embodying people’s hopes and aspirations for the future, this common commitment provides opportunity for Americans and Indonesians, particularly educators, to come together at the grassroots level for joint learning and exchange of ideas focused on the shared interests of schools – to provide students with quality education that prepares them for their future.
THE PROGRAM
Partnership for Schools (P4S) Leading Change: Indonesia and the United States is a “people-to-people” citizen exchange program designed to strengthen U.S-Indonesian ties at the grassroots level. Specifically, P4S brings Islamic boarding school (or Pesantren) educators from across Indonesia to the United States on a short-term professional exchange to work with their school counterparts in diverse U.S. communities. Through institute sessions at the East-West Center, U.S. school visits, and homestays with American families, Indonesian participants engage in cross-cultural dialogues and exchange with their American counterparts to stimulate communication, networking, and cooperation around the question, “How can schools best prepare youth to live and work peacefully and cooperatively with diverse communities – at home and across borders – in a fast globalizing world of the 21st century?”
Follow-on projects implemented by the Indonesians in their home communities will integrate “lessons learned” from the program and include practical plans for sustained exchanges between U.S. and Indonesian schools. Such exchanges might involve U.S. and Indonesian teachers developing joint lessons, school administrators sharing ideas on school management practices, and students collaborating online via a project weblog. In short, we envision a meaningful people-to-people exchange that builds ties between Indonesian and U.S. school communities, strengthens networks among participants, and creates opportunities for Indonesian and Americans to work together to envision a common future.
PROGRAM GOALS
• To enhance American awareness and understanding of Indonesia and to improve Indonesian perceptions of the United States by engaging Indonesians and Americans in informed dialogue and meaningful interactions at the grassroots level.
• To build K-12 school capacity in Indonesia and the United States to provide education that promotes a global perspective as well as mutual exchange and understanding. This will be achieved through training, field observations in U.S. schools and communities, and cross-cultural exchange of knowledge, practices, and resources during and following the program.
• To facilitate communication, networking, and cooperation between teachers and schools in Indonesia and the United States, facilitating continued learning about and with each other and establishing assistance mechanisms to support ongoing interaction.
PROGRAM EXPECTATIONS
Participants: 45 Pesantren leaders and teachers from across Indonesia and one representative from each U.S. schools hosting the Indonesians.
Learning components: In-country orientation in Indonesia, ”best practice” institute at the East-West Center, homestays and host school visits in diverse U.S. communities, debriefing and follow-up planning at the East-West Center, program dissemination by Indonesian participants in home communities, and follow-up classroom exchange projects between and among participating schools.
Duration: October 11-November 6, 2008. Pre-departure briefing in Jakarta (October 11-13); P4S “best practice” institute (October 14-18); U.S. school visits and homestays (October 19-November 2); visit debriefing and planning for follow-up exchange projects with U.S. schools (November 3-6); and program dissemination and implementation of exchange projects (ongoing).
Action Plans: Indonesian participants work with their American host teachers to develop plans for follow-up exchange projects involving their school communities.
Networking: East-West Center provides continued support to strengthen and sustain school-to-school partnerships formed through the program.
Dissemination: Working within and across school groups, participants share what they have learned with their schools and local communities.
P4S is a program of the East-West Center’s AsiaPacificEd Program for Schools, which supports global learning in schools through teacher professional development programs on as well as in Asia, cross-cultural learning opportunities in Asia for high school students, and visiting teachers programs that enable Asian teachers to work with their American counterparts in the United States. AsiaPacificEd also facilitates school-to-school exchanges as part of a service-learning initiative, providing U.S. schools with opportunities to support and work with schools as well as individual students in need in various parts of Asia.
Funding support for “Partnership for Schools” is provided by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA), U.S. Department of State.
The East-West Center (EWC) is at the forefront of educating people of the United States and the Asia Pacific region to meet the evolving demands of global change. Since it’s founding by the U.S. Congress in 1960 to strengthen relations and understanding among the peoples and nations of Asia, the Pacific, and the United States, the EWC has promoted the development of a stable, prosperous, and peaceful Asia Pacific community through programs of cooperative study, training, and research.
The thread of cooperative study runs through all EWC programs, whether conducted on campus or off, in the classroom or in the field, for students or for professionals. This concept views learning as a collaborative process to which each person contributes knowledge, experience, and perspective to benefit all participants. It recognizes the importance of establishing a basis for the comfortable exchange of ideas by building an environment of openness and trust, of shared community.
The East-West Center is unique among international institutions in its focus on community building at the campus level as a stepping-stone to community building at the regional level. While at the Center, participants learn, work and live together, and have opportunities to work with the local community. The EWC experience is one of grassroots relationship building, cultural exchange, shared experiences, and communal preparation for current and future leadership roles throughout the region.
Over its nearly 50 years of serving as a U.S.-based institution for public diplomacy in the Asia Pacific region with international governance, staffing, students, and participants, the East-West Center has built a worldwide network of more than 55,000 alumni and 600 partner organizations.
Centrally located in Honolulu’s Manoa Valley, the Center’s 21-acre campus is adjacent to the University of Hawaii. The Center also has an office in Washington, D.C.
