Sponsored by the Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs of the United States Department of State, the Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching Program recognizes and encourages excellence in teaching in the U.S. and abroad. It is part of the Fulbright Program, which promotes international understanding.
The Global Teacher Programs Division of the Institute of International Education awarded $224,036 to the Center for International Education, Development and Research at the IU School of Education for its first time running the program.
Taina Wewer is a class teacher in bilingual instruction of Finnish and English, a language teacher of English and German and a teacher trainer in Turun Normaalikoulu, the Teacher Training School of Turku University in Finland. She has been teaching for more than 20 years.
IDS What has your experience been like as a Fulbright Distinguished Teacher?
Wewer It is such a pride and pleasure to be selected from a large group of applicants to participate in this prestigious program. At the midpoint of the program, I can look back and state that I have gained a number of wonderful experiences, both cultural and educational, and that in my case, the overall aim of Fulbright to promote understanding and connections between nations has realized itself.
I have made connections with U.S. teachers that will come to Finland next spring within this same program, and my sincere wish is to be able to be as hospitable and helpful to them as people in Bloomington and IU have been towards me.
I’d like to thank, especially, the CIEDR staff and the Bloomington Worldwide Friendship organization that arranges various events to signed-up foreigners that for some reason or another have landed in this town. I believe there are numerous new friendships I can take home with me.
IDS How do American students differ from the ones you are accustomed to teaching?
Wewer I have observed elementary school lessons and routines, and I am tempted to say that the children are similar to the Finnish kids, but the education system is totally different in its emphases.
There are differences in school meals, having recesses, contents of school subjects, class sizes, both area and number of students, assessment systems and equality.
In Finland, children most often walk or bike to school, they get a free school meal, which is homemade healthy food, and they have a 45-minute lesson and 15-minute break after that. Additionally, Finnish kids entering high school have studied, at minimum, two foreign languages from the third grade onward.
IDS What is the focus of your research project?
Wewer My research project looks into academic language, which is a continuation of my prior investigations in bilingual instruction, but this time, the focus is more on the learners with immigrant background.
Since literacy training in the U.S. forms a substantial part of basic education and there are lots of students learning English as a new language, I applied for the program to gain more information on the American approach.
In the global educational discourse the significance of academic language, and specifically training students to be operational in academic language, has been increasingly acknowledged in recent years. According to prior studies, good academic language proficiency is one of the most decisive factors leading to educational achievement.
Therefore, raising teacher awareness of how to enhance and scaffold students’ learning of the conventions of academic language is important. My research contributes to the raised teacher awareness of the theoretical background knowledge and the variety of methodological choices that promotes students’ academic language and simultaneously helps the new language learners to achieve better at school.
IDS What is it like being with the other Fulbright teachers?
Wewer The group spirit among us is amazing. We have had several multicultural and international dinners as well as informal gatherings with mouth-watering dishes such as chicken curry, melanzane, shrimp rice, vegetarian lasagna, Moroccan lamb couscous, Chinese dumplings and moon cakes, apple pie and Finnish apple dessert, to mention a few.
Some teachers brought ingredients and spices to alleviate the gastronomical culture shock, so we have tasted many dishes we normally would not be introduced to.
Learning to cook exotic dishes from fellow Fulbrighters was one of my pre-departure wishes, but so far that has not happened. I’ve been blessed with ample tastings, though.
IDS How does living in the United States and Indiana differ from Finland?
Wewer This is my first visit to the United States and, after this, the only continent I have not yet visited is Australia and the South Pole. Finland is, as a society, very similar to the U.S so it has been very easy for me to fit in and function in this environment.
I have enjoyed tremendously the cultural opportunities in Bloomington and IU. So far, I have seen one play, musical, ballet, symphony orchestra concert and two jazz performances. And I’ve got tickets to the opera “La Bohème” this weekend. The quality of these mostly student-driven performances has stunned me.
The other day I experienced the first tornado alert of my life — how exciting! In Finland, we don’t have severe natural disasters apart from occasional strong storm winds and mini-sized, very rare tornadoes called trombi.
IDS What is one part you miss from Finland? Why?
Wewer I do not particularly miss anything from Finland, apart from my family.
Four months is short enough a time to survive without familiar dark rye bread, a proper showerhead or my own car and hairdresser, but a pair of posh wellies I just ordered online to get along in the rainy Indiana fall.
Weather is warmer than in Finland at this time of year, but some of my fellow Fulbrighters from closer to the equator are freezing already. I am not afraid of the approaching winter. I am used to high fluctuation in temperature. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!
