My interest in the topic of happiness and well-being was sparked during my time as a Fulbright Hays Seminars Abroad Fellow in Finland during the summer of 2024 (see a blog post I wrote reflecting on that experience).
I continued to learn and build upon this interest throughout the Fulbright Teachers for Global Classrooms program, resulting in my "Project Happiness" unit plan, which I implemented as an 8th-grade expedition at Watershed School in the 2nd trimester of the 2024-2025 school year. Hoping to continue building on and refining this work, my guiding questions for my field experience in India are as follows:
What teaching methods, practices, or policies do educators and schools use to support student happiness and well-being in India?
How do Indians define and experience happiness in daily life, and what cultural values shape their perspectives?
What lessons from Indian education and culture can I bring back to my school’s efforts to foster students' happiness, hope, and resilience?
Additionally, I'm interested in how this focus on happiness intersects with the way societies remember and interpret their histories—particularly those that are painful or contested:
How do the legacies of historical conflict—and the ways they are remembered—shape daily life and well-being in India?