Congratulations to all my friends for accomplishing seminar 2.
I must say, I was very interested to see all the similarities found between developing countries when it comes to education. I was impressed how if we could simply take out the name of the country and replace it with another developing countries it will not really matter.
I personally was in a catholic christian school called Sacree Coeur where I spend my first years of primary school. For me it was a nightmare because I could not cope with the educational system. I had always felt that it was me to blame for this, for not putting a lot of effort, for not being able to memorize. When I transferred to an international school AIS, it was an eye opener for me. I was actually getting As on my report card. I realized how significant it is to to have an educational system to suit the needs of the students beyond the scope of the curriculum. There are many skills I have acquired from school that I still use today in my masters program.
When I became a teacher, it was my dream to work back at AIS, to give it what it has given me, but after researching I have discovered that since I do not hold an international passport I cannot work there. This presentation has also clarified some questions regarding a few teachers that have crossed my path, especially my IB physics teacher who let one of the bright students explain to us higher level theory of relativity which was part of our curriculum. I remember explicitly that he said, you better find a seat next to Adam Caroline if you want to understand "theory of Relativity." It was a shock to me, and a more vivid shock was when I found out that the next year after I graduated he became our detention disciplinarian and left teaching altogether. This has now been explained on the idea that the qualifications of teachers does not matter in Egypt.
To be honest, I never knew we even had Islamic Schools in Egypt, this was a new piece of information I discovered about my own country :)
I loved Othman's presentation about Yemen with all its images, and I really look forward to visiting it someday.
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I did not understand the relationship between child mutilation and teacher education from Merriam's presentation. For me this topic is horrid and it breaks my heart each time it is spoken of. I was volunteering in a rural area in Egypt as a math, social studies and living values teacher for a group of girls in 1st secondary. When it was time for living values, we discussed hygiene because they only showered once a month due to the lack of water supply to the village then of course the topic of boys got opened. Well two things left me speechless until this day. First, the idea that the entire family lives in one room where everyone has sexual intercourse with anyone and the girl has no say (meaning that the uncle could be living in this house and sleeps with the girl, so does her father and brothers). In addition was their mutilation and how it was a celebration even though they hated it, they kept referring to it to be similar to what boys go through. They had no idea that when that happens to girls its different than boys.
Looking forward to see the differences between developing and developed countries.
I must say, I was very interested to see all the similarities found between developing countries when it comes to education. I was impressed how if we could simply take out the name of the country and replace it with another developing countries it will not really matter.
When I became a teacher, it was my dream to work back at AIS, to give it what it has given me, but after researching I have discovered that since I do not hold an international passport I cannot work there. This presentation has also clarified some questions regarding a few teachers that have crossed my path, especially my IB physics teacher who let one of the bright students explain to us higher level theory of relativity which was part of our curriculum. I remember explicitly that he said, you better find a seat next to Adam Caroline if you want to understand "theory of Relativity." It was a shock to me, and a more vivid shock was when I found out that the next year after I graduated he became our detention disciplinarian and left teaching altogether. This has now been explained on the idea that the qualifications of teachers does not matter in Egypt.
To be honest, I never knew we even had Islamic Schools in Egypt, this was a new piece of information I discovered about my own country :)
I did not understand the relationship between child mutilation and teacher education from Merriam's presentation. For me this topic is horrid and it breaks my heart each time it is spoken of. I was volunteering in a rural area in Egypt as a math, social studies and living values teacher for a group of girls in 1st secondary. When it was time for living values, we discussed hygiene because they only showered once a month due to the lack of water supply to the village then of course the topic of boys got opened. Well two things left me speechless until this day. First, the idea that the entire family lives in one room where everyone has sexual intercourse with anyone and the girl has no say (meaning that the uncle could be living in this house and sleeps with the girl, so does her father and brothers). In addition was their mutilation and how it was a celebration even though they hated it, they kept referring to it to be similar to what boys go through. They had no idea that when that happens to girls its different than boys.
Looking forward to see the differences between developing and developed countries.
Caroline, I am so happy that these presentations clarified a lot of your educational experiences and provided information that you did not have before. I want to focus on two points that you raised. The first is your statement: "I realized how significant it is to to have an educational system to suit the needs of the students beyond the scope of the curriculum." This has to be a key component of teacher education, that teachers take the time to know their students, find out what they need and move on from there. A teacher education system should ensure that teachers make this part of their practice. The second point was the seemingly unrelated issue of FMG that Miriam raised. I too wondered where she was going with it, but her presentation and your story have me thinking: does teacher education prepare teachers to deal with these cultural realities? How can we prepare teachers to help students and themselves negotiate practices that seem to go against human rights principles. I suppose this is where the issue of social justice comes in.
ReplyDeleteif we go back to the first statement made: I realized how significant it is to to have an educational system to suit the needs of the students beyond the scope of the curriculum. well beyond the scope of the curricula must be in reality the culture, habits, way of doing things, discrimination, harassment, FMG.. and as part of society and if a teacher really wants to help change it.. then he/she needs to know more about the culture and the people not just the curricula
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