My Final Report

This is my final report to the State Department regarding my project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo this summer. It is in three parts: 1) A description of the project, 2) Recommendation for the future, and 3) My story. 

Description:

This program was developed after Bryce Smedley (Senior English Language Fellow) visited the Mole refugee camp in order to establish an English library. He found a large nucleus of refugees who wanted to increase their language skills and who were willing to help establish multiple programs and initiatives to do so. They lacked the confidence and basic skills to implement existing English curricula on their own. Bryce created a proposal to send an English Language Specialist into the camp for two months to help develop locally relevant English curricula and to model appropriate teaching and learning strategies that could then be perpetuated by the teachers in the camp. This was to be a unique project as such personnel hadn’t been placed on the ground level in camps previously.

Initially, the goal of the two month project was to help create a primary school English program and to bolster the small, existing English Club. Upon arrival, I discovered that there was an enormous interest in developing English programs throughout the camp, amongst a large percentage of the refugees. They viewed English development as way to secure a better living once repatriated back to the C.A.R., or even a vehicle to emigrate in order to build a viable future. A great deal of the refugees expressed a genuine disdain for what they characterized as a concerted effort by the Francophile elements of their country to dissuade their English language pursuits. This was prevalently echoed by the women who stated they were often openly prohibited from pursing their education in English.

Our first initiative was to train a cohort of peer teachers to establish a primary school English program. For the first four weeks, I taught general English courses attended by the primary students and their eventual teachers. This was necessary to shift their pedagogical focus – I have found that one of the most stubborn remnants of the European educational system in Africa and the Middle East is the notion that the teacher is an expert and his/her students are novices, which often entails a direct and harsh approach in the classroom. It is amazing to see these very sweet and gentle folks move into a classroom and change their demeanors so drastically. Therefore, we spent the first month reestablishing the classroom dynamic. I tried to model an engaging and interactive approach, with a great deal of praise, not only for correct answers, but for risk-taking and perseverance. To process this experience, the teachers and other camp leaders attended a six week Teaching and Learning Academy on Saturdays, where we openly discussed their ideas and philosophies on teaching and learning. In the process, I saw a great many shift their priorities to create more friendly and inclusive interactions. We spent two days discussing the role of praise alone, and they embraced the concept wholeheartedly. By the end of the third week, I would present a basic lesson for thirty minutes, then the peer teachers would take up to 15 young students each and move to a new classroom to practice and reinforce the concept. When the younger students left, I would then extend the lesson for the older students in attendance. By the end of the two month period, one of the camp leaders had recruited and trained 20 such peer teachers who would eventually work with more than 250 students. The peer teachers also learned the basics of lesson planning and a concept we called “peeling the onion.”  I found that they enjoyed teaching but were intimidated by the notion of creating lessons. They soon found out that every topic they addressed could be expanded very simply and logically. For example, when they did a unit on activities in the camp (framed in particular verb tense), a typical response might be “we go to church.” The peer teachers then learned to drill down into the concept and ask further questions like “what do you do in church?” This lead to a dozen or more sentences. In essence, they learned the value of depth vs. breadth, a skill that eventually allowed us to introduce a curriculum framework that they could augment and flesh out comfortably. We also focused on contextualized lessons. Our first endeavor was to journey out to their large gardens to do a lesson on vocabulary. Later we would go to the carpenter’s shop, the tailor’s shop, one of their shelters, and the market for similar lessons. Eventually, we trained a few of these peer teachers to work with special populations, i.e., blind students, the local police staff, and older adults.

The success of the primary school project taught us to important lessons: 1) The camp is a closed environment and good and bad things spread rapidly. In this case, the 250 young students would go to lessons with their peer teachers three times a week then return to their shelter pods and teach their friends and siblings. The camp literally erupted into English dialogues overnight. 2) We found that the young girls and women were interested in the program but were initially reluctant to attend. With the help of two of the camp leaders (teachers in the primary school), we created a Girl’s Empowerment Club. The older women came to help facilitate and we had more than 40 young girls participate immediately. Within a few weeks, we found the girls had begun attending the regular English lessons and the older women were attending the extended lessons.

By the fifth week, I was no longer teaching the basic or extended lessons – the five leaders assumed those duties. They began developing their own lesson plans, and after a few weeks, I reintroduced them to the curricula they had originally possessed but had neglected. They were completely comfortable with the curriculum frame as a general guideline, and were very creative in their applications and extensions of the lessons.

In the final two weeks of the project, we focused on creating a secondary school English program. For the past two and a half years, there had been no secondary school programs at all in the camp! Utilizing a conflict resolution curriculum developed in Rwanda (provided by Bryce Smedley), we established an English program for those secondary students and the older students in the camp wishing to improve their English skills. The program began in the last week of the project and had nearly 20 participants the first week.

In addition to the three programs we developed (the primary and secondary English programs and the Girls Empowerment Club), we also saw a dramatic rise in the English Club from seven regular participants to nearly 60. The English Club became the nucleus for all the other English initiatives. The bulk of the success of these programs was due, in large part, to the five leaders from the English Club who took eventual ownership of the various initiatives. This was a crucial stage of the handoff, and was made possible by Bryce’s early visit and his recognition of the potential of the refugees in the camp.

To help build and promote the programs, we hosted two camp activities: 1) On July 4^th, we held an American English day with more than 500 participants and guests. The day featured English games, skits, poems, songs, and descriptions of the new English programs. It was a great success. 2) The five leaders held an open house where the camp residents could come and visit the various classrooms in action.

Throughout the planning and implementation process, we had the full support of the camp leadership committees, the State Department, and UNHCR. Eventually, we were working seven days a week to bring the initiatives to fruition with total cooperation from all stakeholders.

In order to build more goodwill in the community that may often feel resentment over the resources provided to the refugees, I worked with UNHCR and the local ministry of education officials to identify six local schools and two sites where I provided teacher training and helped to establish two English Clubs. By walking through the communities, a good deal of the village came to recognize our presence and mission.

Manifest in all the programming, was the goal that the instruction was centered around American English and American cultural issues – a goal that the refugees had adopted before my arrival. The camp community was genuinely touched when they learned of the financial commitment the State Department had invested in them, and were eager to provide in-kind contributions to continue the relationship. First and foremost, the primary cultural value we worked on was that of respect, engagement, praise, and support in the classroom environment. The teachers in the camp and in the village schools all understood this philosophy to be an American imperative and embraced it completely. Having two months to work on it, we were able have the teachers practice these principles in classes with their students. The results were very positive and the teachers were happy with the pedagogical changes. I believe they will continue this progress and share with and influence their colleagues.

Throughout the project, the teachers and students in the refugee camp were in

contact with my home school, Moraine Valley Community College, through email and regular Skype calls. Staff of all levels, including our president, participated in the communication. This helped reify the educational values we had been working on, and once again the camp community felt valued and connected to another American organization.

Finally, most of the residents in the camp and in the village were very grateful for the attention, training, and resources provided by the State Department and UNHCR. They now have curricula and resources to continue their dreams of studying English and pursuing a broader range of future opportunities.

Recommendations:
Although we built the English programs to be almost virtually sustainable, there are several recommendations to insure their continuation and expansion. These recommendations are as follows: 1) The State Department and CALI (the Congo-American Language Institute) continue to provide curricular guidance and practical resources as the courses continue, 2) A stipend be created for the five education leaders who are committing more than 20 hours a week to staff the primary and secondary school programs and the Girls Empowerment Club – I provided a nominal stipend for all five for the summer work, and it would be prudent to continue in the fall, 3) I would like to visit the camp again for a period of three weeks, perhaps in December in order to help further develop the secondary school English program. It is merely a shell at this point as our primary objective was to get those students back into a classroom environment after a two year absence. By December, my school would commit to providing textbooks and other resources in an ongoing partnership with the camp. I have discussed this possibility (as only a possibility) with the camp officials and the UNHCR staff who are all very amenable.


No Fun, No Club

Although I lived and worked in a refugee camp previously, I was not prepared for the reception and unconditional support I received during this project. The refugees, camp leadership, UNHCR staff, and the US Embassy staff were all completely engaged and the results were incredible. Early on, we realized we had to change the local notion of teaching and learning, at least in the context of English instruction. The teachers all exhibited a very formal brand of pedagogy that was inconsistent with the American system and values we wanted to instill. It would take us a month to make the shift, but all credit is due to the refugees and support staff.

I spent a great deal of time modeling a more engaging, interactive method of teaching and they embraced it enthusiastically from the beginning. They enjoyed the emphasis on fun and praise and soon adopted the motto “No Fun, No Club.” I was impressed how quickly they adopted the new philosophy. It was amazing to point a group of people in a direction, give them a little guidance, then watch them take off and excel.

I was also very surprised by their ability to collaborate and problem solve. Despite the many challenges and personalities in the camp, they worked together well and put aside their egos and differences while helping to build these programs. This level of cooperation is unprecedented in my professional experience.

A typical day in the camp included doing presentations, working with small groups and peer teachers, arranging contextualized trips in the camp, and a great deal of planning time with the education leaders. They did a great job of adjusting to me and my schedule and I tried to adopt some of their circumspect grace and patience. My primary takeaway is that I want to work hard back here in my home institution to create a more inclusive and cooperative environment, truly utilizing a model of shared governance that I observed in the camp. Finally, I want to internalize a lesson I first learned years ago in my Peace Corps Experience – “If you go to Southeast Asia, you will learn about religion; If you go to South America, you will learn about politics; but if you go to Africa,  you will learn how to laugh!”