Outreach Conference: "Germany's Changing School Populations" November 2006
About 60 Fulbright Grantees (teaching assistants, teachers, journalists) and Alumni (Young Leaders, teachers) and high school principals met in Cologne for a three-day conference to take a comparative look at the school systems and integration efforts in the United States and in Germany. The program started with a visit to the Turkish-Islamic Union Mosque and the Cathedral in Cologne, a key note speech of a Member of Parliament Dr. Lale Akgün before the opening evening reception, where the mayor of Cologne Ms. Angela Spizig welcomed the program participants to her city. The second day opened with introductory statements by Angelika Rieber, Manuela Scharfenberg and Prof. Dorothee Schneider before the participants split up in several workshops. These workshops then resulted in a list of recommendations suggesting ways and ideas on how to use the existing resources to enable schools to even better integrate their diverse school populations. The last day ended with a visit to the Stadtgymnasium Porz which presented a model class room and provided an excellently organized opportunity to meet with their students and teachers. The conference showed that the various networks and grantees and alumni do cooperate well when it comes to finding best practices examples, on diversity and integration in schools.
This program was made possible by a special contribution of the U.S. Embassy in Berlin.
