This week is my last full week at home in our village. In all the cleaning out and winding down I have become a bit nostalgic about our service. We are still asked from our blog followers/friends/family: Why Peace Corps? Why South Africa? Why education?
Why did we join the Peace Corps? Kevin and I both had a need to get out and see something, do something, experience something that was outside of the box we had lived in our whole (albeit short) adult lives. We wanted to have an international experience and most of all we both respect service of one’s country. The military wasn’t my cup of tea and it did not interest Kevin either. However, both Kevin and my families have a strong line of military service in there somewhere, so this type of service seemed to fit us well. In researching many working/serving abroad opportunities, Peace Corps seemed to be the right fit.
Why South Africa? Why education?
To answer these questions, I borrow a small write up from one of our fellow volunteers. The post dates way back to February, 2010. (Thanks Karen!)
So many have asked: Why are you needed in South Africa? Isn’t it a wealthy nation with plenty of resources?
Well… I wondered the same thing. But I’ve learned. (I’m getting ready to recklessly spout off, so to any of my fact-lovers, please feel free to correct me at any time!)
In 1994, Nelson Mandela (and others) brought democracy to South Africa. One of his priorities was improving the quality of education for all South Africans. His goal was daunting, when you think of how the South African democracy has come in behind: almost 50 years of Apartheid.
So, from 1948 to 1994, the severity of segregation between South Africans had a huge impact on the education system. Unfortunately, black South Africans were given a very, very low quality education. How low was the quality? The following is from Alistar Sparks’ The Mind of South Africa:
Verwoerd explaining to Parliament in 1953: (Verwoerd served as Prime Minister to South Africa from 1958 until his assassination in 1966; he is often called, “The Architect of Apartheid)
Education for blacks should not clash with government policy, he said, and should “not create wrong expectations on the part of the Native himself.” Then, he went on:
Racial relations cannot improve if the wrong type of education is given to Natives. They cannot improve if the result of the Native education is the creation of frustrated people who, as a result of the education they received, have expectations in life which circumstances in South Africa do not allow to be fulfilled immediately, when it creates people trained for professions not open to them, when there are people who have received a form of cultural training which strengthens their desire for the white collar occupations to such an extent that there are more such people than openings available.
Blacks inevitably saw this as education for inferiority, and their view was substantiated by the disparity in state expenditure on schooling for the different races. In 1953, the year of the Bantu Education Act, the government spent $180 on each white child in school compared with $25 on each black child. Many of the best black teachers quit rather than participate in an educational system designed, as they saw it, to condition young members of their race for an inferior station in life, and this contributed still further to the decline of black education. This perception of calculated inferiority, indeed of bending young minds to an acceptance of inferiority, made education one of the most explosive grievances in the black community, and it provided the spark for both the 1976 student uprising in Soweto and, to a somewhat lesser degree, the great national convulsion that shook South Africa in the 1980s. (196)
Ok, this kind of sets the stage, huh?
So, when Nelson Mandela (and others) set about to reform the South African education system, they had almost 50 years of extremely low-quality education to deal with and the entrenched mindsets that go along with it. South Africa has had three generations of poor quality teaching in the rural areas of South Africa and the educators teaching in South Africa today (or at least the ones over the age of 30), received the poor-quality training under the “Bantu Education Act.”
While the South African Department of Education has developed a very good curriculum (in my opinion), the current educators have had little guidance in implementing it. Most educators seem overwhelmed with the new curriculum, having been “teaching the same way” for 30 or more years, and are reluctant to change. (And who isn’t reluctant to change?)
The changes in the education system have proved exceedingly difficult.
Enter Peace Corps.
In the late nineties, Bill Clinton and Nelson Mandela worked to bring Peace Corps volunteers into the South African education system to assist South African educators with the new curriculum. And that is why we are here.
For the past ten years, Peace Corps volunteers have been working with the South African education system. My group, however, is the first group allowed to actually teach within the schools. (In former years, the volunteers weren’t allowed to teach because the unions argued for South African teaching jobs; now the teacher shortage is in such a crisis that volunteers are allowed to actually teach classes.)
Which is what I’m doing—teaching in South African schools.
On more than one occasion people have asked us if we feel like we have made a difference and what we have done throughout our service. Recently we have had to do a Description of Service document that forced us to really take a look at these questions. Here describes my last two years of activities through the four School and Community Resource Project goals:
Goal 1: South African educators at the primary level will strengthen their classroom practices and their teaching in Maths, Science, English, Lifeskills, and Information Technology.
Classroom practices, English teaching skills, and information technology were Casandra’s Goal 1 focus. In strengthening classroom practices, Casandra participated in team teaching and model teaching where she demonstrated best practices using positive reinforcement, and student centered teaching. In collaboration with other PCVs she also provided traveling classroom management workshops to combat the use of corporal punishment as a management technique.
In supporting educators teaching English, Casandra taught how to appropriately use English as a Second Language teaching techniques and tools. Casandra also showed her love of reading, books, storytelling, and general literacy through model teaching. Incorporating music into teaching English was a natural move for her in connecting South African culture with language learning.
To support educators with disabilities, Casandra gave personalized basic computer skills lessons. These lessons catered to those educators who claimed they were unable to use computers to enhance their teaching due to disabilities.
Goal 2: Primary School Management Teams (SMT) will implement the Whole School Development Program by strengthening management practices.
Casandra’s primary outcome in working with the SMT was to implement new practices in regards to updated curriculum and policy including, but not limited to: Inclusive Education (administration of funds and best practices), Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements, Learner Attainment Implementation Plan, and general management roles and responsibilities.
Goal 3: The School Governing Body (SGB) will strengthen the partnership between school and community.
Participation in SWOT analysis, Representative Council of Learners (RCL), and appropriate budget practices were the focus for Casandra in working with the SGBs. She helped to train RCLs from twenty schools with regards to their roles and responsibilities as members of the SGB.
Goal 4: Community members will establish extracurricular school-based and community-based programs for in-school learners and out-of-school youth.
Through appreciative inquiry, Casandra was able to find community counterparts to establish programs relating to perma-gardening, fruit and shade tree planting and care, and life skills for young women.
Additional Activities:
Throughout her two years of service, Casandra participated in many school and community based programs. The community library served as a great source in connecting with the local community including adults, out of school youth, and students. The library was the focus of many initiatives such as an English club, after school tutoring, monthly community programs, and distance education assistance. Also, the school library provided many opportunities for improvement; securing and cataloguing books, orienting educators to the available resources, and encouraging student use were among them.
In addition to these four official goals, we feel like one of the biggest differences we have made is simply being a part of our community. Many people do not see “whites” as coworkers, friends, family, etc. I think we have changed that view, even just a little, for the community in which we live. Score!
