AY 2007-2008 Projects - Europe/Eurasia

Country                       Denmark
City                              Nuuk, Greenland
Host Institution           Inerisaavik (Center for Educational Development and In-Service Training)

Project Description
The EL Fellow will be a "traveling English teacher" who will spend approximately 75% of his/her time traveling and teaching English to students in grades 4-10 in schools in remote settlements (villages) located throughout Greenland. In addition, the EL Fellow will provide support for the regular lesson planning and classroom activities of the local teacher(s). Actual contact classroom hours will not exceed 20 hours a week. The other 25% of the EL Fellow's time will be spent in an office environment at Inerisaavik in Nuuk, the capitol of Greenland. When in Nuuk the EL Fellow will be involved in activities designed to institutionalize the "traveling teacher" concept as a method for teaching English in Greenland. This will necessarily involve program evaluation and planning. In addition, the EL Fellow may be involved in teacher training; materials development; workshop and seminar design; computer-based and on-line teaching and teacher training; in-service and pre-service training; and similar professional duties as may be specified by Inerisaavik. Most of the settlements where the EL Fellow will live and teach are in extremely remote locations with difficult living conditions. For example, travel to and from many settlements is by small boat along coastal waters, and many settlements have no running water or indoor plumbing. The majority of the settlements the EL Fellow will visit have populations of between 50 and 150 people. In such settlements the school would typically consist of 5 to 40 students. Even in such small settlements the school would typically have more than one teacher, although some of them may not have been educated as teachers. In many settlements Greenlandic would be the only language that is effectively used or understood. Many settlement schools do not have fully-trained teachers. In addition, many children leave the settlements at around age 14 to go to the "big cities" to continue their education. The level of English in settlement schools is often poor or even non-existent. Notwithstanding these challenges, children in the settlements are often more motivated, better behaved, and more focused in school than children in the "big cities." In addition, even small schools in small settlements usually have at least one computer with internet access. Although small schools and classes create challenges, they also create opportunities for individual attention and close student-teacher relations. Inerisaavik will be responsible for all travel and living arrangements for the EL Fellow both in Nuuk and in the settlements, and Inerisaavik will cover 100% of all travel, housing, and utility costs. While in the settlements, the EL Fellow will live in small furnished "service housing" available to visitors on official business. Such housing will be heated but will usually not have running water. The EL Fellow might have to shower at another location. Toilet facilities range from pit-style toilets inside buildings to buckets that residents put outside their living quarters for pickup by a sewage disposal service. The EL Fellow should be a recent TEFL/TESL master's degree graduate. Some previous TESOL experience and overseas teaching experience is preferred, but not required. The person should be physically fit with the mental and physical stamina necessary to live and work independently in small, isolated arctic communities where the weather and seasons dominate everyday life. Although this project is a challenging one, it offers a unique opportunity to an adventurous person to visit some of the most remote and beautiful places in the world. In addition, it offers a unique professional development opportunity, and will make a difference in the lives of Greenlanders and the future of the country in a globalized world where English language skills are necessary.

Project Objectives
Although Greenland is part of the Kingdom of Denmark, it has been a self governing overseas administrative division of Denmark since 1979 under "Home Rule" authority granted to it by the Danish government. Greenland thus has its own executive and legislative branches of government and is responsible for, among other things, education. The various components of Greenland's government are together called the "Greenland Home Rule Government." The native language in Greenland is Greenlandic, an Inuit language. When other languages are spoken, Danish is the second language and English is the third language. Formal instruction in English starts in grade 4 and continues through grade 10. Prior to grade 4 students receive English "language drips" (for example, sing songs and recite poems in English), starting in grade 1. In grades 1-10 there are no teachers who have been trained in TESOL or teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) or teaching English as a second language (TESL) in accordance with American theories and methods. In addition, virtually all teachers who teach English in these grades also teach several other subjects (in Danish or Greenlandic). Therefore, the English language skills of the teachers who are teaching English are often quite low. The "traveling teacher" concept has been considered but never tried in Greenland. The concept acknowledges that it is difficult to find skilled teachers who are willing to live in Greenland's settlements and that sending a skilled teacher to a settlement for three to four weeks will improve education in the settlements. The EL Fellow will teach only English, and the regular teacher or teachers in the settlement being visited will emphasize English lessons when the EL Fellow is there in order to take advantage of the EL Fellow's presence. The EL Fellow will be the first "traveling teacher," and thus the pioneer of the concept in Greenland. If the concept proves to be effective, the objective is that the Greenland Home Rule Government will endorse it and support measures and appropriate mechanisms to implement it in future years on a broader scale, including the direct hiring of a group of English-speaking teachers to be "traveling English teachers." The Greenland Home Rule Government places great importance on improving English language capabilities in Greenland and recognizes that adequate English language skills are necessary if Greenlanders wish to successfully engage in international trade and business and develop Greenland's potentially vast natural resources.

Time Frame
The EL Fellow will be expected to stop in Copenhagen on the way to Greenland for 1-2 days of orientation that will be arranged by the U.S. Embassy. The EL Fellow will then go straight to Nuuk for 2-3 weeks of orientation and work at Inerisaavik in Nuuk. The EL Fellow will then start a program of travel and English teaching that will involve, for example, living 3-4 weeks in one settlement, followed by 3-4 weeks in a second settlement, followed by 2-3 weeks back in Nuuk to debrief, analyze and evaluate the "traveling teacher" concept with colleagues at Inerisaavik. The EL Fellow will then leave Nuuk again to go to the same and/or new settlements, and this cycle of travel will be repeated multiple times during the 10-month fellowship. The travel schedule and the number of days spent living in settlements will vary, and the EL Fellow will need to be flexible and prepared for both longer and shorter stays. The actual schedule of travel will be determined by Inerisaavik in consultation with the EL Fellow after s/he has arrived in Nuuk. 

About the Host Institution
Inerisaavik (the Center for Educational Development and In-Service Training) is a public institution. Inerisaavik's departments for evaluation, development, education and research are the main elements of the Institute of Arctic Education at the University of Greenland in Nuuk. The primary goal of Inerisaavik is to assist the Greenland Home Rule Government in the fields of education and research. One of Inerisaavik's specific duties is to evaluate and improve a plan for school reform at grades 1-10 that was implemented in Greenland in 2002. One result of that reform is that Greenlandic children are taught both Danish and Greenlandic from grade 1, and English from grade 4. For all education in grades 1-10 Inerisaavik is also the institution responsible for producing and distributing educational materials; evaluating schools and students; conducting training courses for teachers; and carrying out relevant research projects in pedagogy. The EL Fellow will be placed in Inerisaavik's Department of Development and Implementation, which consists of a Department Head, a Course Coordinator, and eight Consultants who specialize in various disciplines (such as English, Greenlandic, math, etc.) The persons at Inerisaavik who will supervise the work of the EL Fellow are both Danes from mainland Denmark who have lived and worked in Greenland for many years and who are fluent in English. The current EL Fellow in Greenland has visited schools in three settlements in Greenland and is conducting a survey/study of the needs of teachers in Greenland to help Inerisaavik develop the "traveling teacher" concept. The work the EL Fellow is doing will help prepare the way for a successful traveling English teacher project. Although the traveling English teacher project is a challenging one, Inerisaavik has proven itself to be a reliable partner and the U.S. Embassy is confident that Inerisaavik will take good care of the EL Fellow. That said, some of the "service housing" provided by Inerisaavik in the settlements could be fairly primitive, and the quality will vary greatly from settlement to settlement. In addition, since it is anticipated that the EL Fellow will only spend approximately 25% of his or her time in Nuuk, the EL Fellow will be expected to store his or her personal belongings in a locked storage area at the housing provided by Inerisaavik when the EL Fellow is away from Nuuk and living in settlements. Although we are confident Inerisaavik will make every effort to give the Fellow access to modern facilities when transiting between settlements, the EL Fellow should be prepared to live for 6-8 weeks at a time in remote areas and be comfortable traveling alone with help along the way from persons engaged by Inerisaavik to assist the Fellow.