The Astor International Travel Fellowship program, a group of 14 high-performing New York City public school teachers, travelled to Buenos Aires under the leadership of Dr. Mark Alter last July. Their main goal was having the opportunity to visit local schools and clinics, and explore the field of special education in Buenos Aires.
This cultural immersion and education program was created for New York City school teachers, thanks to legendary philanthropist, Brooke Astor. The group of 14 U.S . teachers were fully sponsored by NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development which is that the Astor Fellows program be an all-expenses-paid experience for the teachers.
The 10-day trip program in Argentina focused in learning about Argentina’s public and private special education systems. The fellows participated in on site visits, guest lectures with policy makers, non-profits organizations, public and vocational schools. They were particularly interested in seeing how students with disabilities were included in different schools levels.
The visits covered venues with people of a range of different topics and age groups, such as National rehabilitation Service and public schools that have a progressive cohort related to inclusion.
Guest lectures included an Introduction to the Argentine Education Policy presented by
Dr. Andrés Delich, former Argentinian Minister of Education. From a social perspective, Dinorah Otero gave a lecture on Inclusive Education along with parents, children and families. A remarkable moment was the talk with members of APADEA, the Autism Parents Association in Argentina. They explained the history of the organization since the 80´s, and how parent´s advocacy is crucial for the person with disabilities development.
Also, as the teachers work with many students who do not end up pursuing college, and they were interested in seeing what vocational education looks like in Buenos
Aires, they visited a group of students a public technical high school.
Their visit to Buenos Aires had impact on Argentine media as local newspaper, La Nación, came to NYU Buenos Aires to interview participants about their views and perspectives on their experience and expectations of the program.