Michael Harcourt, WHS History and Social Studies teacher, has received The Fulbright-Cognition Scholar Award in Education Research. This award is for a New Zealand researcher or educator to pursue research in the US designed to have an impact on New Zealand student outcomes. One or two awards valued at up to US$37,500 are granted each year, towards two to five months of research.
Michael and his family will be staying in New York City for the first half of 2015. He will be studying the teaching of controversial historical events, especially ones about race relations. This will mean spending time interviewing teachers in New York city about how they teach 9/11, civil rights, slavery etc in multicultural classrooms and considering what New Zealand teachers can learn when teaching what is controversial for students in this country.
A fantastic achievement and opportunity. Congratulations Michael!