Irene Osisioma, associate professor of teacher education at California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH), has been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship grant during the 2015-2016 academic year to continue her research on the way science is taught in her home country of Nigeria, the United States Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Scholarship Board announced recently.
Osisioma will be working collaboratively with educators at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka to develop and implement a professional development model and to teach a science methods course in order to enhance Nigerian teachers’ acquisition of effective instructional strategies.
“I am very elated and excited to have received the Fulbright Award to continue my research and professional development work in Nigeria,” Osisioma said. “There has continued to be a wide disparity between the way science is supposed to be taught and the way it is being taught in Nigeria. This has left a gaping need that those of us in the diaspora strive to meet.
“The Fulbright Award will give me an opportunity to contribute my expertise to meeting this need in Nigeria and I am very grateful for this. It is my sincere hope that this project will yield immeasurable dividend to California State University, Dominguez Hills and the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.”
Osisioma is one of approximately 1,100 U.S. faculty and professionals who will travel abroad through the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program in 2014-2015. The Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program is administered by the Council for International Exchange of Scholars, a division of the Institute of International Education.
The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. The primary source of funding for the Fulbright Program is an annual appropriation made by the U.S. Congress to the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Participating governments and host institutions, corporations and foundations in foreign countries and in the United States also provide direct and indirect support. The program operates in over 155 countries worldwide.
Osisioma has a Ph.D. in science education and bachelor’s degree in applied biology from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. She taught science courses at Nnamdi Azikiwe University in Nigeria before moving to the United States, where she first taught science through the Los Angeles Unified School District. She joined the CSUDH College of Education faculty in 2004.
This is Osisioma’s second award to work in the area of science education in Nigeria. She recently was awarded the Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship, which she begins this summer.
For more information about the Fulbright Program or the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, visit here.
