3 days ago
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Since 2019, seventy Belizean teachers have joined Participate Learning, a programme that places international educators in classrooms in the United States. For the teachers, it is a chance to gain experience abroad. For their students, it means learning from someone who can share Belize’s culture alongside their lessons. The programme began in 1987 and now recruits teachers from several countries. Recruitment Manager for Latin America Ronald Ramirez says its original idea was simple: help students learn about the wider world from the people teaching them every day.
Ronald Ramirez, Recruiter for Latin America: “Well, participating learning initiated in 1987. The first years of the program we used to hire university professors. We used to hire university professors to teach at the university of UNC, University of North Carolina and Greensboro College. So we used to hire teachers to go and teach to these three universities in North Carolina because we wanted to give university students, college students, that cultural aspect. We wanted them to learn about different cultures, not only their own culture, the United States culture, but international cultures about, you know, Latin America and Europe. So by 1990, they switched. They stopped hiring college professors, they stopped hiring university professors, and they switched to primary and high school teachers.”
Ramirez says Belizean teachers have made a strong contribution since the country joined the programme seven years ago.
Ronald Ramirez, Recruiter for Latin America: “The level of professionalism that the Belizean teachers have, the ability to adapt to different settings, to different professional settings, because Belizean teachers when they go to the United States obviously they’re going to encounter a totally different school system. And we have found that Belizean teachers adapt very easily to different settings. We believe that obviously, I mean, the language is not a barrier. I mean, since English is the first language of the people of Belize that’s a great thing for participants to learn because knowing the language helps the teacher adapt quickly to the new culture. So that’s one of the things.”
Ramirez did not say how many Belizean teachers are currently working in U.S. classrooms through the programme, or how many are expected to join its next intake.
English (US) ·