Field of Study India: English

Syed Irshad Ali

Mr. Syed Irshad Ali teaches English at TS Model School and Government Junior College, Pegadapally, Jagtial, Telangana. He has 14 years of teaching experience. He has a master’s in arts and a bachelor’s in education.

Mr. Ali is a resource person for state-level training programs for English teachers. He participated in an eight-week online American English e-teacher program and MOOCs. He received the district-level best teacher award of 2022 for excellence in English teaching and his services during COVID-19.

Through his participation in the Fulbright TEA program, he is exploring new methodologies to engage students actively, emerge as a global teacher, and resolve local issues to serve the community. He wants to change the perspective of a conventional teacher. On his return, he would like to develop language skills of his students and colleagues by conducting language orientation programs. This, in turn, will enhance the confidence of his students and prepare them for educational and professional goals. He will share his Fulbright program learnings by participating in nationwide language forums.

Madhura Rajvanshi

Ms. Madhura Rajvanshi has been teaching English to middle school children of Pragat Shikshan Sanstha’s Kamala Nimbkar Balbhavan, Phaltan for the past 15 years. It is a Marathi medium innovative school situated in a semi-urban region of western Maharashtra. She also works as the education coordinator of the school and her work involves administration, planning creative activities in school, and teacher mentoring. She has a master’s degree in elementary education from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.

Ms. Rajvanshi uses art, storytelling, and music to make English learning interesting and relevant for her students. She has made a substantial contribution to children’s creative and independent English writing through the production of storybooks. She has delivered talks and written several articles on the same.

Through the Fulbright DAI program, Ms. Rajvanshi hopes to understand how English teaching is approached and learning spaces are organized in American schools. She aims to explore the constructive attitudes towards language teaching in the U.S. and see how they can be adapted to Indian context.

Ms. Rajvanshi will use her Fulbright experience and learning to create a structured program for teachers in her community for teaching English to non-native speakers. After her return to India, she will share it with the teachers through workshops and training programs.

Ashima Gupta

Ms. Ashima Gupta is a mentor teacher with the Delhi Directorate of Education. In her present role, she facilitates pre/in-service teacher trainings, develops content for secondary grade classes and observes classes in her mentee schools. She has been teaching English to the students of primary and secondary grades for fifteen years. She has a master’s degree in English from IGNOU and a certificate in TESOL core.

Ms. Gupta is actively involved in the planning of student development programs like student advisory board, sports meet at state level and spoken English project (Project Voices). During weekends, she provides career and spoken English counselling to students from disadvantaged families. She was honored with the Om Foundation’s Excellence in Teaching Award in 2017 for her efforts to provide students from underprivileged backgrounds with access to education.

During Ms. Gupta’s participation in the Fulbright DAI program, she plans to study the strategies to improve soft skills of students through co-scholastic activities. She believes, students’ interest in co-scholastic activities like sports, arts and crafts, and theatre, can be used for developing their overall personality, soft skills, and English communication skills. The findings and learnings from her project will help her transform the teaching learning scenario of government schools of Delhi. She intends to cascade her learnings to the fellow educators through workshops and training programs, hence benefitting her community.