I vaguely remember the day that I decided I could be a teacher. I think I was in my bed at my Dad's house and it was late at night. It was after I'd graduated high school and I'm sure it was a night in which my mind was swimming with preoccupation about what the heck I was going to do with the rest of my life. I'm pretty sure that my thought process was something like this: math teaching is a respectable career, it involves challenging kids' minds and abilities, it's constructive toward society, it's interesting and definitely worth while, there're good benefits... I imagined myself lecturing to a group of twenty diligent, inquisitive, sedulous, focused individuals as they assiduously wrote in their notebooks. I then thought to myself about having great satisfaction having taught the twenty students something; on any given day I could have stimulated their creative thinking, been a catalyst to their interest in math, science or inquiry in general, or at least given them adequate tools to progress in their own interests. I thought to myself "I think I could deal with this."
That decision eventually metamorphosed to a transfer from my community college to university and then to a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics, and then to my joining Peace Corps. Here I freaking am, where I never thought I'd be. A teacher. A math teacher. I'm still super excited even though teaching isn't at all what I thought it'd be like.
Granted, teaching in Mozambique is probably different from teaching in the US, but the challenges associated with teaching are not what I expected. Lesson planning and grading are time consuming, but to be a good teacher, you can't do it half-heartedly. Lesson plans must be delivered in a way that is concise (fitting in 45 minute intervals), appropriate for the level of the class' knowledge of the given subject, (which is all over the board in all my classes), engaging (if not interesting), and fitted to the prescribed national curriculum. However, actually getting in front of the room, talking about math while keeping fifty teenagers listening and engaged for 45 minutes is another story. Who knew that some young people are more interested in things other than mathematics?! #sarcasm
As the only 9th grade math teacher at my school, I'm given free reign of lesson planning and sequencing to the prescribed national program as well as most evaluations. The fact is that, when I came here, even without much experience, pedagogical knowledge, a fluency of Portuguese, or many teaching resources, I'm still an adequately equipped teacher in this country, having a college degree. Some of my fellow teachers are still studying to get theirs. Still, I wish I had more experience. Knowing high school math and explaining it are two different things. I don't think I'm a bad teacher, but these kids would've benefitted more from someone with a better pedagogy background. Shoot, I knew I forgot my Master's degree back in America.
My lack of experience aside, another host of challenges that most public schools here face can be summarized as a lack of resources. Picture your high school but without electricity, or other devices to do science experiments; throw away all the text books, graphing calculators, OHPs, televisions, digital projectors, Bunsen burners, probes, chemicals, beakers, computers and microscopes. Do away with free, convenient, regularly scheduled transportation to and from school, place the nearest copy shop 17km away** and shrink your school to four modestly sized three-room brick buildings with (either hot or noisy***) tin or aluminum roofs. Now, equip each of the three-roomed buildings with an old chalkboard and around 13 desks (max of four students at each desk) and fill that school with about 400 K-10 students and 22 teachers. That's what the secondary school of Manjangue is working with. Students in 8th through 10th grade must study biology, chemistry, Portuguese, English, French, math, agriculture, physics, history, geography and physical education- a pretty daunting variety of subjects, even for alunos(students) with ample resources with which to study.
Part of what made subjects like Biology and Math interesting to me was the inventive ways the teachers at my schools used technology, and tangible objects to make the subjects come to life. Seeing the graphs of quadratic functions change with different manipulations before my eyes or an animated representation of trigonometric values corresponding to angles on the unit circle on screen via a digital projector cemented the important concepts into my brain. Looking at cells through a microscope, and dissecting bugs made Biology relevant and interesting to me. If all I had was a notebook, a pen, and a chalkboard to help me learn biology and math, the subjects, no doubt, would loose their luster and vibrancy. It's hard for these kids to find motivation to learn this stuff when it's only drawn in chalk- when the lack of resources doesn't do justice to the depth of the subject. It's little wonder why, to students that have nothing but the notes they take in class to study that some don't even bother.
Another challenge here is getting kids to believe that they can succeed in an academic environment despite the adversity. I can imagine that the kids aren't motivated, so they don't pay attention, so, they don't learn. Also, with a lack of emphasis on basic studying/ learning skills in the normal curriculum, a lot of kids don't know how to begin studying. Eventually they get discouraged and don't believe they're capable of learning, so they just don't study. Instead, they go to extreme lengths to elaborate cábulas (cheat sheets). The sad thing is that the practice is perpetuated by randomized provincial exams, and lax proctoring during finals****. During test days, I turn into a hard-ass to discourage cheating at all costs. I get heckled sometimes by students, saying "Professor Nick, você controla muito!" (you're strict!) as though expecting students to write a test without cheating is a lot to ask.
The kids are clearly capable of succeeding even with the challenges they face. I know, because, a lot of times, they do succeed. Without cheating! The trick is getting them to believe in their abilities, developing good study/learning skills and applying their knowledge in the classroom.
As if difficulties at the local level weren't enough. Other frustrations in the form of beaurocracy and politics on the macro level cause frustrating disadvantages for students. The way my director explained it to me is this: as Mozambique is a poor, developing country, it relies a lot on international aide. But in order to keep the flow of outside help coming, the state needs to see a steady yearly improvement in grades to show that relief organizations' money and resource aren't being wasted. The problem? Schools must have 75% of their students pass to continue to receive support from the government. The school administration's jobs also depend on it. The number of students that honestly demonstrate adequate mastery of the subjects in their grade is vastly below this quota (like, 15% of my students were passing last trimester) so the teachers agree to "help" students pass on to the next grade. The downside is the students are passed without fundamental background knowledge and, what happens a lot is they just fall further and further behind. Disadvantage: students. Some of my 8th grade English students have a hard enough time reading and writing Portuguese, let alone a learning third language*.
The challenges that this 38 year-old country faces, vis-a-vis public education, are many. However, it seems to be improving. Not to mention, it's not all bad. The students are full of life- so much energy, intelligence, enthusiasm and creativity. Most of the time they're loud little boogers, but they're awfully lovable boogers*****. They're the future of this country and, in their own way, I'm confident that they'll each contribute to make it better. I dare say, they teach me as much as I teach them.
A lot of people say that teaching is a thankless job, that a teacher doesn't reap the benefit of seeing the end result if his/ her hard work. I am beginning to understand the meaning behind this. It's up to me to do what I can while I'm here, until December, 2014 or so, and leave it up to my students to make the difference in Mozambique.
*-in Manjangue, as it is in a lot of Mozambique, the first language learned is the local language (Changana, at my site) and the second is Portuguese. Secondary schools push learning English and French in addition when some kids don't develop a proficiency in Portuguese.
** The pedagogical director used to have a copy shop down the street, but it stopped working in May. The closest one to me now is Chokwe and they charge 50% more per copy. :( I whine a lot.
***the metal chapas make the room ridiculously hot in the summer, make comfortable accommodations for noisy bats and messy birds and amplify the sound of rain tenfold. On the other hand, they're cheap and low maintenance.
****Provincial exams, in my humble opinion are illogical and a waste of time. They cater to a perfect world scenario where all students are learning the same things, in the same order, at the same rate, at the same time. The way they work is thus: teachers from schools all around the province elaborate tests for their grades and discipline and send them to the Ministry of Education. The ministry selects test questions, out the pool of all the tests recieved, and gives them to all the students in the province. A lot of times, the questions are too difficult, irrelevant to the subject, ambiguously phrased, or hard to understand. To counter this, the proctors all agree to "help the students". Here's an anecdote to illustrate what I mean. So, in July, at the end of the second trimester, I was asked by proctors to walk into each of the classrooms and explain the questions. Some bluntly asked me for the answers for five or six questions "so the kids had a chance to pass." Teachers, the authority figures and role models were telling kids that it's OK to cheat if it's a hard test. On one hand, the provincial exam is a joke, on the other hand, unscrupulous and non-constructive habits are reinforced where they should be vilified and discouraged.
***** To try to make class fun, and keep the kids awake and attentive, I employ some strategies, one of them being humor. When I ask a yes-or-no question and an excessive silence ensues, I quietly suggest, for the kids, "sim, Professor Nick" or "não, Professor Nick." Now, it's a rare day when I go without hearing someone yelling a salutatory, "sim, Professor Nick!" One new development is the students, out of the blue, calling me Senhor Capitão Nick (Captain Nick). Makes me smile.
My 9ª1 class shouting "hooray!"
Most of the windows are broken in the classrooms. A lot of the doors don't have latching mechanisms.
One of the brick classroom buildings.
My 9ª2 in front of my house.
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