Welcome to Team Nepal's Website

In The World Is Flat, Thomas Freedman describes how modern technology is flattening the world that Christopher Columbus once discovered is round. As jobs become outsourced and local job markets become global, it is important for educators in the twenty-first century to help students navigate their way through the world. Social networking sites such as Myspace, Facebook, Friendster, as well as web 2.0 tools such as blogs and wikis help people around the world live and function together online. Much of these technological advances are penetrating their way to Nepal's geographically isolated environment. Teachers in Nepal face the struggle of balancing traditional customs, while introducing their students to the rest of the world. Team Nepal hopes to investigate how the East meets the West in Nepalese classrooms.

In our three week visit to Nepal we hope to collaborate with school administrators, teachers, parents and students from schools throughout the country. We will visit schools sponsored by the Madhav Ghimire Foundation, which is a nonprofit organization developed by a university professor to provide scholarships for disadvantaged girls in Nepal. Team Nepal will visit six public as well as private schools in the towns of Bandipur, Bhaktapur, Sankhu, Pokhra, Gorkha, and Chitwan. We will investigate the various approaches teachers use in teaching, while also observing traditions that are deeply rooted in Nepalese culture. Since being culturally competent means having the capacity to function effectively in other cultural contexts, these activities will facilitate the fellowship goals of expanding our understanding of cultural knowledge, developing cultural awareness, and gaining a deeper understanding of cultural sensitivities.

We will investigate how students learn, how students interact in the classroom, and how teachers in Nepal accommodate for issues of caste and gender divides. We feel that by exploring these issues, we may gain insight into our own challenges in America and better respond to issues of race, culture, gender and social and economic status.