Study Tour Programs

In May 2005 the Freeman Foundation funded InSites to conduct a two-year investigation of the study tour programs it funds for K-12 educators. InSites’ inquiry identified important patterns and relationships concerning study tour programs to help the Foundation and program leaders refine their approaches to building and sustaining high quality teaching and learning about Asia in U.S. elementary and secondary schools. The programs studied were primarily for teachers but a few were for administrators or mixed-role groups of teachers, administrators, policymakers, and others. Here are documents resulting from this study.

1. Making the Most of K-12 Educator Study Tour Programs to Asia (2006) (highlights (9/06): 80K PDF file, full report (06): 736K PDF file). This is the main report about the investigation of the study tour programs.

2. Summaries of K-12 Educator Study Tour Programs Funded by the Freeman Foundation (9/06) (536K PDF). This is a supplement to the main report above. It contains short summaries of each study tour program. Each summary includes a table identifying the geographic area served, countries visited, and number of tours offered per year. The description of the program’s purposes and activities covers key features of the three basic components of each study tour program: preparation; travel and in-country programming; and follow-up. We also include a description of other related activities conducted by the organization sponsoring the study tour programs.

3. Cross-Program Summary Data - K-12 Study Tour Programs for Teachers (9/06) (1.2MB PDF). This is a question-by-question analysis of the survey data for a sample of teachers in the study tour programs for teachers.

4. Sustaining Long-Term Attention to Asia that Makes a Difference for K-12 Students (2007) (highlights (3/07): 200Mb PDF, full report (5/07): 560 MB PDF). Following conversations about the above documents, we prepared this additional report  about sustainability of attention to Asia in K-12 schools/districts that matters for students. It focuses on sustainability from the perspective of how students’ attention is directed to Asia as they move through their K-12 years.

This report looks a several ways to define and think about sustainability.

In our conversations with NCTA and study tour program leaders, we heard at least five ways of thinking about sustainability:

• sustaining the interest and commitment of teachers who have participated in professional development about Asia to continue teaching about Asia with up-to-date content;

• sustaining attention to Asia among leaders within schools, districts, communities, and/or states to build a supportive environment in which students can learn about Asia and teachers can teach about Asia;

• sustaining students’ attention by addressing Asia across multiple grade levels and subject areas during their K-12 years;

• sustaining the momentum for attention to Asia on a broad national level; and

• sustaining programs at universities and in non-profit organizations to provide ongoing professional development and resources about Asia (including Internet-based programs and resources) especially for teachers.