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University of Wyoming

TWO UW PROFESSORS RECEIVE FULBRIGHT SCHOLAR AWARDS

University of Wyoming College of Education professors Francisco Rios and Lydia Dambekalns are the recipients of Fulbright Scholar awards to lecture and conduct research overseas.

Francisco RiosRios, head of the Department of Educational Studies, will teach at Catholic University of Valparaiso in Valparaiso, Chile, from March through July, 2005. Dambekalns, an associate professor in the Department of Secondary Education, is currently assigned at the University of Latvia in Riga, through next February.
The two UW professors are among approximately 800 U.S. faculty and professionals who will travel abroad to more than 140 countries for the 2004-2005 academic year through the Fulbright Scholar Program. Established in 1946 under legislation introduced by the late Sen. J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, the program builds mutual understanding between the people of the United States and other countries.

Recipients of Fulbright Scholar awards are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement and demonstrated leadership in their fields.
Rios' focus in Chile will be multicultural diversity in teacher education and also problem-based learning in diversity and multicultural education.

Rios traveled to Chile last year to meet with the staff from the country's Ministry of Education, who are working on diversity related issues relative to the nation's indigenous communities. He also presented his research work at an international congress on teacher formation hosted by the University of the Border in Temuco. While in Chile, Rios also met with faculty and students in informal settings, presenting ideas related to teacher preparation at two universities, Catholic University at Valparaiso and the University of Atacama in Copiapo.

"Given these experiences and the positive reception that I received while there, I was encouraged to return for a semester to work with students and faculty at the university level," Rios says. "They especially valued the perspective around diversity and equity that I brought to them. They also are keenly interested in establishing stronger linkages between their universities and the University of Wyoming. I think we all agree that the international perspectives we can gain would be of great value.

"Personally, I look forward to learning more about the Latin American perspective and about Chile with respect to education and teacher preparation," he continues. "I look forward to increasing my ability to speak Spanish at an academic level and also to forging professional relationships that are, as always, the most important part of any international experience."

Lydia Damblekalns

Dambekalns is currently teaching at the University of Latvia as a faculty member of Education and Psychology, working with two colleagues, one in art education at the undergraduate level, and another in curriculum (which is called educational science) at the master's level.

"Both my colleagues are very well connected internationally, and we are in similar professional organizations. It is exciting and interesting to be in Latvia at present, because they have just now joined the European Union and are working on agreements in higher education to share degrees among universities in Europe," Dambekalns says. "Like many small countries formally occupied by the former Soviet Union, they face a number of challenges as an independent nation. As such, they are undergoing significant curriculum reform."
Dambekalns also will work with the Ministry of Culture in its review of national standards for art education. During her Fulbright experience, Dambekalns will gather primary source information about the European educational system to inform the international education class she is currently developing at UW. She also will assist her Latvian colleagues with examples of democratic curriculum structures that are used in the U.S. educational system.

"I also hope to forge possible connections for the future exchange of scholars and students between Latvia, possibly the Baltics, and UW," she says.
The U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, with additional funding from participating governments and host institutions in the United States and abroad, sponsors the Fulbright Scholar Program. In its nearly 60 years of existence, thousands of U.S. faculty and professionals have studied, taught or conducted research abroad through the program, and their counterparts from other countries have engaged in similar activities in the United States. Four Fulbright scholars are visiting UW this semester.