“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.”
Mark Twain
Below, you'll find a curated list of summer learning opportunities that allow you to travel and learn at the same time! I have participated in a few of these programs and have colleagues who have participated in others. These professional development courses are stipended, and most applications are due by March for participation the following summer.
This is a fellowship run by the US State Department and facilitated by IREX. A ten-week professional learning course about global education culminates in a symposium in Washington DC and an international field experience to learn more about foreign education systems. I participated in 2020-2022 (my experience lasted longer because the fieldwork was delayed due to COVID). My original placement was in Korea, but that was amended to Canada because of the pandemic.
Teachers can design their own unique fellowships with Fund for Teachers. Grants are given for summer travel and learning.
This is a fellowship run by the National Education Association. A professional learning course about global education culminates in an international site visit to learn more about foreign education systems.
This is a two-year fellowship facilitated by National Geographic, and is designed to help teacher leaders further student understanding of the dynamic forces that shape our planet.
The National Endowment for the Humanities offers funded travel and study opportunities for teachers. I've taken two summer courses through the NEH, one on American Women in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars (site-based at the New York Historical Society) and one virtual course on Japanese American Incarceration at Heart Mountain (normally participants gather in Wyoming, but due to COVID, last summer's session was all online).
This is by far the most comprehensive list of travel grant opportunities for teachers that I've encountered on the internet.