Bruce Edwards receives Fulbright-Hays Grant for study in Tanzania

Bruce Edwards has received a $66,000 Fulbright-Hays grant, “Facilitating Educational Cooperation with Tanzania,” from the U.S. Department of Education.

Bruce Edwards

The associate dean of international programs and distance learning and an English department faculty member, Edwards has previously been a Fulbright Fellow in Nairobi, Kenya, and recently participated in a U.S. State Department Citizen Exchange Grant facilitated by the Great Lakes Consortium.

In summer 2005, Edwards will serve as project director for a study trip to Tanzania that will enable a select group of northwest Ohio university faculty, graduate students involved in area studies, K-12 teachers and a skilled videographer to learn about East African history, cultue and economics. They will also examine communication tools, such as the Internet, that contribute to ongoing exchanges with Tanzanian educators and citizens.

The team of educators will meet with Tanzanian teachers, public policy experts, government officials, artists and businesspeople. They plan to acquire unique resource materials such as indigenous arts and crafts and video documentation of arts-and-crafts production techniques, as well as video interviews with key Tanzanian officials and policymakers.

The project will consist of a five-week seminar that will help educators enhance and expand their East African curricula. The team will develop strategies for teaching Tanzanian history, art, economics and social studies, become mentors and peer resources to colleagues and create an ongoing, online resource center to facilitate a continuing dialogue.

According to Edwards, planning for the trip and preparatory training for possible participants will begin in the fall.

Bruce Edwards (left) talks with students in Kenya during his previous trip to Africa. Robert Omedi Ochieng (center) is now a doctoral student in communication studies at BGSU.