[Localization] Empowering teachers

[Clytie Siddall]

On 17/06/2008, at 1:07 AM, Yama Ploskonka wrote:

>
> Thoughts on this subject, on _how_ to make it happen?
>
>
> Clytie Siddall wrote:
>> Hello everyone :)
>
> <snip>
>
>> By the way, as a teacher and community-project officer myself, I  
>> think
>> you need to empower the teachers first. Make sure they understand the
>> opportunities they have, and how those tools are going to help them
>> achieve more of their goals.
>>
>> I have often seen excellent advances in teaching tools either mis- 
>> used
>> or ignored, because teachers don't understand them, or haven't got  
>> time
>> to learn how to use them properly. Let's avoid that trap, by  
>> involving
>> teachers in the planning phases, and making sure they have enough  
>> time
>> and help to get the most out of what we offer.
>>
>> In some countries, too, we will have to overcome very stilted  
>> teaching
>> methods (rote learning, chalk and talk), so we need to allow time and
>> effort for awareness-raising and learning very new ideas/practices.  
>> This
>> time and effort always pays off enormously, because you are opening  
>> the
>> door to further independent learning, and teaching people how to work
>> together.

Some specific suggestions from what I found worked best in  
multicultural community projects:

1. Involve the key community enablers, in this case teachers, very  
early on in your planning. Ask them what they are trying to achieve,  
and what they need to achieve it. Make it a private session so they  
can talk freely about problems and even their own anxiety about change  
and technological demands. Listen much more than you talk.

2. Wrap the whole process around the goals and steps they formulate in  
that session. Make it clear that if change is going to happen, they  
will be driving it. They can set the pace, and will have ample  
opportunity to learn about anything new. Set an initial and achievable  
goal (e.g. showing them basically how to unpack, plug in and boot a  
laptop, then get each teacher to practise it until they get it right  
and feel confident about it), and achieve it thoroughly. Reinforce  
that success. Anything is achievable if you have the resources, and  
the steps aren't too big in between. (A following step would be  
getting them to create a lesson plan for passing on those skills. Make  
sure there is someone available for backup in the first lessons.)

3. When you finish formulating your community plan, with consulation  
with the community, make sure it is public, and make it clear that  
anyone can make suggestions or express concerns. Just like farming,  
you need to allow for local situations, add more fertilizer here,  
prune a bit there, even remove whole trees where they don't flourish.  
Everything is adaptable, and success relies on the participation of  
the community members. Have the plan displayed in public, and amend it  
as you go, showing where the changes occur, attributing them to local  
people who suggested or helped with them.

4. Your teacher group will need to acquire some specific technical  
skills. Judging from earlier contact, you can also decide if they need  
to acquire some more student-centred teaching skills. Then you plan  
your train-the-trainer around the skills required. Work with small  
groups, privately. There is bound to be one or more teachers who  
either display facility with the new skills, or have previous contact  
with computers (however small). Use this person or these people to  
head up smaller groups, and pass on what they know and learn. I always  
emphasize that everybody had to start from the beginning at some  
point, and that we all make mistakes: if we don't make mistakes, we  
don't learn much. I share personal experience of my own mistakes: I  
have quite a repertoire by now. ;)

5. Run your train-the-trainer sessions almost parallel with early  
lessons for students. Each train-the-trainer session involves  
"homework" where the teacher prepares a lesson plan to pass on what s/ 
he has learned. Before the next train-the-trainer session, the teacher  
will present that lesson, and then discuss what worked, and what  
didn't, in that following T-t-T session. This allows for dynamic  
learning: you adjust as you go along. You can also find out, this way,  
what they are finding most difficult, and spend more time on that.  
Don't go on to the next lot of new skills before the first lot is  
working and being transferred successfully. This reduces the pressure  
for quick but guesswork success, and makes for long-term true  
understanding and success.

6. As this process goes on, your teachers will increasingly take  
charge of it. When you listen to their suggestions, and act on them,  
you are helping them feel less helpless and anxious about change, and  
more in control. Get the teachers to help with or even make the  
changes they suggest, offering appropriate ways to achieve them.  
Ideally, once you leave this community, you want the people you've  
trained to be able to continue the process. So they need practice in  
doing that, before you leave.

7. Get feedback from the consumers: parents, students, other community  
members. Are we still on track with the goals they want to achieve? Do  
they have any worries about these changes? Reinforce successes, and  
link them with goals (for example, few parents in any region need  
reminding that computer skills will give their children better  
opportunities, and community leaders are always happy to be reminded  
that progress in such a project makes them more independent, and gives  
them a greater chance of attracting further development grants in the  
future).

8. Last presentation: summarize briefly the goals you have all worked  
together to achieve. Have at least one presentation of the new skills  
by a local student. Make it clear you believe this community can  
continue to build on what they have learnt, and remind them of the  
follow-up and feedback mechanisms you have created. Link the current  
project to future goals.

9. Follow-up: part of your resources needs to have been allocated to  
follow-up: formally, 3, 6, 12 and 36 monthly. Informal feedback should  
include email contact and a suggestion/problem mechanism like an issue  
tracker. For formal feedback, if possible visit the community and meet  
again with the key people, discuss progress. If visiting is not  
practical, arrange a videoconference, teleconference etc. Allow time  
for unplanned discussion. Check that the community is still on-track  
for its goals; if not, find out what the problems are and how they can  
be addressed. Advocate for the community if that is needed. By the 36- 
month checkup, they should need no further support in this area, and  
you both have learnt a lot about how things work for that community,  
and how they can make things work in a wider world.

This is probably all basic community-development work, generally- 
known, but I'm happy to go into details on any part of it. I'd also  
stress that when you're working with rural communities, it's very  
important not to give the impression that you know more than they do,  
just because you have more formal education and you come from the  
city. It can be difficult to break down some of these prejudices  
(country people have often been marginalized and patronized by  
institutions based in the cities), but I found it helped a lot just to  
spend time with people socially, share family stories, talk to people  
as an equal (or in the case of elders, with appropriate respect) and  
show respect for their own knowledge and understanding. I always felt  
I learnt far more from communities I worked with than they did from  
me. :)

I hope you don't mind me sharing all this. I also hope it is useful. :)

from Clytie

Vietnamese Free Software Translation Team
http://vnoss.net/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=projects:l10n



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