Teaching Excellence and Achievement Award (TEA) Program

Teaching Excellence and Achievement Award Program (2007-2010, 2012-2013)

Lead Faculty: Drs. Farnoosh Shahrokhi and Supriya Baily

Additional Contributing Faculty: Cara Bremer, Nora El-Bilawi, George Flowers, Megan Garnett, Rachel Grant, Dawn Hathaway, Priscilla Norton, Beverly Shaklee, Sherry Steeley, and Beverly Woody

Funded in 2013: $183,000
Total Funded: $1,084,000

Since 2007, Mason’s Education Leadership Program and the Center for International Education have hosted six Teaching Excellence and Achievement Award (TEA) Programs serving a total of 175 educators from 40 countries. Funded by the International Research and Exchanges Board/U.S. Department of State, the TEA Program provides U.S.-based professional development for secondary-school teachers from Europe, Central and South Asia, South East Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, Near East and Western Hemisphere. Each year, the TEA Program engages a cohort of approximately 20 teachers in 6 weeks of academic programming on Mason’s campus, field visits to local public schools and cultural excursions. The academic component of the program includes seminars on pedagogy, practice and leadership; content-specific courses on ESL and social science methods, assessment and curriculum; and a course on instructional technology. Both school-based and university faculty are actively involved in delivering the program. Mason received its sixth TEA grant in 2013.

The TEA Program includes on-site visits to local k-12 school to see U.S. educational practices in context.

TEA Fellows gather informally at their residence in Fairfax, VA.

TEA Fellows participate in cultural visits to the nation’s capital.