 |
Well, the adventures in Lesotho continue. Lauren and I made it through our first full term and are now travelling during the school holiday. I wrote most of this report while in a small town on the Eastern Coast of South Africa, 190 kilometres north of Durban. The town is called Mtunzini, which means "place of shade" in Zulu. I wrote it in light powered by electricity while I listened to the hum of the refrigerator compete with the grumbling of the ocean. And now I sit here in front of a computer typing this report. Toto, we're not in Lesotho any more.
Trying to Keep Perspective
One of the big excitements at St. Rodrigue this past quarter was a visit from some of the Grinnell professors. I thoroughly enjoyed their visit-getting to see the world around me through their eyes, hearing their perspective on culture and education, and having some people understand first-hand some of the joys and frustrations that we experience every day. (They also provided much amusement).
I continue to learn so much from living in Lesotho, usually the hard way. I still struggle with how to work within an educational system I do not like. While my desire is to teach entirely differently from the Basotho teachers I spend my days trying to keep in mind that I need to use the knowledge I have to help my students excel within their system of education, rather than teaching in a way that would help them excel in a school in the United States. Their schooling is centered on the Cambridge exam and thus I need to teach with that goal in mind. I can not change the focus of their education and if I think too much about how I do not like the emphasis on the exam I get frustrated. Where I have freedom and optimism in my teaching is the way in which I try to help the students get to their goal. One of the ways that I think I can improve the students' chances on their exams, while making the process of learning valuable to their development, in addition to keeping myself from going crazy is to work on
problem solving skills and using small groups.
Problem Solving
At the end of the term the St. Rodrigue students took their exams and Lauren and I turned into marking machines. My students' results were mixed. My English language students and literature students did quite well, while my math students did very poorly. Understandably I had mixed feeling about the results. One of the reasons I believe that St. Rodrigue students have high failure rates in general is because they lack problem solving skills in the classroom. This makes for many frustrating moments on my end. In my English classes when we come across a new word, getting students to guess the meaning from the context is nearly impossible. In my math class when we look at a problem that deviates even slightly in form from the types of problems that we have been working on my students do not even know where to start. They will sit and stare at the problem waiting, expecting me to give them the steps they need to solve it. When I do not do this they are paralysed. To be a successful student I think you ne
ed to be a good problem solver because you need to know what to do when you come across something challenging or new. Good problem solvers are less intimidated by unfamiliar material.
Ok, so teach them problem solving skills. Easy, right? No. I think that trying to teach St. Rodrigue students to operate as problem solvers is to work against an entire culture. In the Basotho culture adults have the ultimate authority over anyone younger than them. You will often see an older person give a younger girl an order or a task when the two people d not even know one another. My students have grown up with clear expectatios about their responsibilities and what they should believe. They have had few decisions to make in their lives because there has always been someone there to tell them what to do. This social structure can also be found at school. During break a teacher will call to a student that she has never had a class with, will hand her money and tell her to run (literally) to the nearest shop to buy fat cakes (doughnuts). The student will not hesitate, she will go… running. In the classroom the knowledge that students have has not been created through self-discovery or social in
teraction; the knowledge has been received through dictation and memorization. A system of education that appoints the teacher as information dispenser and the student as information receiver does not produce problem solvers. It would be entirely unrealistic for me to think that I can in just five months undo a whole cultural and educational system and be able to create a little army of problem solvers.
So, if problem solving in the classroom is so foreign to my students why am I going to work on it anyway? Well, the students' education all comes down to one exam: the Cambridge. Until that point they take quarterly exams that are often too difficult, and frequently cover things that they have not studied… similar to their experience with the Cambridge Exam. The quarterly tests show what they have memorized, not necessarily what skills they have developed. We teachers feel pressure to teach them all the things that could possibly be on the test, which is impossible of course. I found myself teaching to the test like this as well. The problem is that this method of teaching does not prepare students for questions that are unfamiliar, or to answer questions to which they have forgotten the once memorized rule or formula. For these reasons I want to work on problem solving skills. Unfortunately I do not have infite time to work on these skills, and I do have topics that I need to cover. While improving
problem solving skills is one of my goals, I am still unsure how to work on skill development while also covering the necessary material at the same time. This is something I will need to keep working on in the next term.
Small Groups
Thinking about teaching problem solving is overwhelming and is laden with many problems as I have just explained. One of the areas where I felt successful…or at least on the right track… last quarter was with some of the small groups that I set up. I had some English and math groups that met mostly before school during study, while some others met during free periods. I experimented with the composition of my groups. Sometimes I required a certain group of students who I identified as having a common weakness. However, I did not want to assume that I could identify the problem areas of my 47 students so in an attempt to avoid overlooking anyone I also had open groups where anyone could come and ask questions and work on some excercises.
I really enjoyed getting to know my students better this way and I think that many, though not all, benefited from them as well. If I was looking for results only in their exams I would have been disappointed, though some did improve. I saw some small successes in other areas. For instance, one of my English groups met right before class on Wednesday. A few times we went over the same things I had planned for the following period. I then saw an unusual sight when we went to class. When I asked a question in class I saw many hands waving at me from the back of the classroom. This was unusual because the students are seated by rank (not a practice I believe in, but one the teachers and students expect me to follow), so the waving hands were attached to the students who had the poorest performances. It was amazing for me to see the excitement on their faces and to see students who never said a word in class to raise their hands. When Jean Ketter visited she pointed out that instances like that could help
to undermine the seating arrangements that I subcombed to, but did not like. Maybe I can undo the idea that the answers always come from the front of the room.
Another exciting aspect about the groups for me is that I can get the students to help one another. When I see some who are getting a concept I will have them work with the students who are struggling. When some of my better students come to the open groups I will use them to check other students' work and to make up practice problems and questions. Next term I am hoping to get a better feel of how the groups work best and how to structure them so that everyone benefits.
Whiteness
I know I have written a lot, but I need to make a few comments on what it is like to be white and from the U.S. while living in St. Rodrigue. Both Lauren and I have felt more frustrated with how our American whiteness dominates many of our interactions with others. There are times when I feel someone is trying to befriend me because of some status or power or I don't even know what, that is gained by having a white friend. On the other hand there are times I feel challenged because of whatever my skin color symbolizes.
In Lesotho, a recognizeable foreigner carries the burden of being asked for things many times a day: water, sweets, money, shoes, rings, anything. It is difficult to determine when the asking is part of the somewhat communal culture of the Basotho and when it is in response to my being white. It is disheartening when it is not only strangers and children who ask you for things, but your colleagues and friends as well. It is hard not to wonder about the motivation behind the way even a friend treats you. I do not want to question such things, but I find it impossible not to do so.
It is discouraging to have people you live and work with fail to see past your skin color and your nationality. People assume Lauren and I cannot clean because they "know" that everyone in the U.S. has servants to clean their houses. This is despite the fact that they see us doing our laundry and visit our clean (usually) house. Too often the Basotho teachers we work with do not refer to the reality they have witnessed from knowing us, but instead they refer to the knowledge they have already formed from movies, hearsay, and stereotypes.
I know that these observations are nothing new, these frustrations nothing unique, but they are the first time I have been so aware of my whiteness and all the weight that it carries. Though it is frustrating to be so aware of how I am judged before I open my mouth, to find that others construct my identity for me by a small part of who I am, I still find these feelings to be valuable. Being white in Lesotho makes me a minority and I wanted to experience that position, in part because if I continue to teach in the U.S. when I return I will be working with students who might feel much the way I do in Lesotho. I would like to think that after returning from Lesotho I will be better prepared to create a diverse classroom based on respect and understanding.
The End
I know this report was long and full of seriousness, so to reward those of you who are still reading I have included some pictures. Contrary to all of my ramblings in this report, life is still highly amusing at St. Rodrigue. These may give a better impression of my life in Lesotho than my pages and pages of words.
|
|
