BACK TO PARADISE OR
PROBLEM Learning to teach in Samoa.
Masters of Teaching
Internship Case From Four Months in Samoa in 1999
Felicity Yorston SID 9527150
My stay in Samoa was a mere four months, but, in this time I experienced two systems of education and operated as a teacher and learner in both. In Samoa the schools adopt a formal system of education where at home and in the community an informal system of learning occurs. On the surface these systems appear to function independently, but on closer inspection are intertwined and influence one another.
My understanding of the culture which influences these systems is informed by experiences and observations inside the school and classroom, but to a greater extent, within the community. The opportunity to live with, and participate in, a Samoan family enhanced my cultural understanding of how learning and teaching occur in this society. I was able to observe the traditional system of informal education and understand the learning processes that naturally occur at home. With this knowledge I was able to see how the cultural values and attitudes taught by one system were reinforced by the other. This cultural insight gave me the opportunity to more fully reflect on my own teaching practice and what strategies would be appropriate for teaching the Samoan child in the Australian classroom.
During my internship I was responsible for one yr11 English class in a Catholic co-educational secondary college Yr9-yr12 in Samoa. The school was small with only 450 students, 19 staff, and a purely academic curriculum. Well positioned in the hills overlooking Apia, the capital, the school was surrounded by lush tropical forest, with a view of green treed slopes, descending to a turquoise band of sea and white capped reef.
Responsibilities for this class included; deciding what to teach (as there was no syllabus or textbook forthcoming), grading each student’s effort in class, on a weekly basis, and writing and marking their end of term exam. I also held coaching classes and detentions with this class. The majority of my teaching insights relate to experiences with this particular class.
While at this school, ( I visited 2 others; primarily in an observational role) I taught other classes and filled in for teachers who were away, or studying (two were completing their Teaching Certificates at the National University and often missed periods 4&5), or for teachers who had extra curricular school responsibilities, such as coaching the rugby team.
The subject I taught the most lessons in, other than English, was Social Science to the top classes in yr 9 and yr10. These classes I found particularly enjoyable because the students seemed quiet bright and enthusiastic compared to my yr 11 class. I also learnt more about Samoan culture, as one of the units was based on this topic, and the students were eager to share their knowledge with me. There was no shortage of student participation and I found classroom management easy, and motivation and confidence not a problem for these students.
The formal system of educationThe formal system of education in Samoa primarily adopts the teaching method of ‘chalk and talk’. Most classes involve the teacher writing on the board in English and then explaining the notes in Samoan, English, or a mixture of both. The students play a passive part in this process, as they are the recipients of the knowledge the teacher imparts. Learning is teacher centred, with the students having little or no input into what they learn. There is little student-teacher interaction or peer interaction and no independent exploration, or self directed learning in this structured environment.
This non-interactive process of learning originates at home, and in the community, where an informal system of education is in practice. This informal system of education is a traditional one concerned with passing on the basic skills and knowledge that are necessary for the maintenance of group identity and life. This form of education is not a progressive one, encouraging change or individualism; rather, it enforces conservatism and conformity. The family is the most important unit in the community and ones responsibilities towards the family take priority over any individual interests. Each member of the family has roles and responsibilities which must be carried out for the preservation of the family.
In the Samoan family a child is not merely a recipient of care but an active contributing member (Finau 1993:50) on a daily basis. Children contribute to the family by preparing food, caring for younger siblings, cleaning, washing, gardening, feeding the animals. The skill and knowledge required to perform these tasks is learnt informally by watching and imitating older siblings or parents
These duties begin at an early age and even the youngest member of the family has a functional role to play, like picking up the rubbish. As children grow older their responsibilities and duties change and become more complex . Duties, such as preparing the food, involves finding wood, picking, husking and grating the coconuts, peeling the green bananas, etc. and can take 2 hours or more, and this, before the cooking even begins! Because of these family obligations ‘homework’ is often a lesser priority than home work and the accumulation of the necessary skills to achieve these endeavours.
An example of how effective this informal learning is was emphasised to me when I was at home with the family. The eldest son and I had seen the meat prepared for dinner many times: his mother or elder sister would chop through the bones cleanly with a knife. When I was left alone to perform the same task, the results were disastrous. I ended up with splintered bones and mangled bits of flesh.
The next time it was my turn to cook I enlisted help and asked the 14year old son for assistance. Even though he had never cut the meat before he was able to repeat the same clean strokes as his sister. While I would have preferred the process explained to me with a demonstration, he had learnt by watching, doing, trial and error, and in a real life activity.
This situation identifies how the processes necessary to learn are different for the individual but can also be culturally based. Some of the learning processes for Pacific Island students and Aboriginals, who come from a similar culture based on informal learning, have been outlined as the same:
It is suprising then when you enter the Samoan classroom and find most of these learning processes have been ignored and an academic curriculum is in place: transferring knowledge that has little or no relevance to students daily lives. The skills and knowledge taught have no real life application for the majority of students, unless they intend to pursue a tertiary education.
Thaman suggests we look to "Culture as a source of solutions….to answer questions about teaching and learning: content as well as method "(Thaman1992:11). Although the current curriculum is developed by the Samoan Education Department, it still includes content more relevant to a New Zealand student, and while the method of instruction might appear outdated, it serves as a hidden curriculum: reinforcing attitudes and values important in Samoan society.
These values not only influence classroom interactions but all aspects of school life. The school reinforces the informal education received at home and often the roles and responsibilities are transferred from home to school. For example at school the teacher takes on the role of the parent, providing guidance, love, discipline, and a role model for what is considered appropriate behaviour in Samoan society.
In Samoan society it is expected if a child does something wrong or misbehaves , it will be beaten by the parent. If this doesn’t occur there is thought to be something amiss with the parent; that they don’t love their child enough to teach them right from wrong. This attitude continues into the school, where beating a student is the normal form of discipline for misbehaviour, despite corporal punishment being illegal.
I witnessed many occasions where teachers would hit a child with a stick or broom, for what seemed to me minor misdemeanours. On one occasion a student retaliated and the dispute ended in the principals office. The principal asked the girl rhetorically: "When you do something wrong at home what happens? Your parents beat you." The implication being that at school the teacher becomes the parent and has the same rights as the real one, to serve what ever punishment would occur at home for misbehaviour.
In this way Australian schools are perceived to have a lack of discipline by Samoan students and parents alike (Horsley, Young:1999.) Students expect physical discipline and if a teacher does not comform, their behaviour could be perceived as neglect (lack of love for the student to teach them right from wrong) By my refusal to implement corporal punishment I may have been unwittingly sending this message to my students.
When there was too much talk or I was unable to get the class’s attention I’d write ‘respect’ on the board. I’d then ask the class to tell me how they show respect to a teacher, i.e. by not talking when the teacher is talking , doing what the teacher asks etc. Although this worked as a form of classroom management, it also succeeded in cancelling any independent learning that might have been occurring, returning all attention to the teacher as director of learning. The concept of ‘respect’ has so many hidden cultural connotations, that its use ( as a classroom management tool) could inadvertently encourage unwanted patterns of behaviour. It has been suggested that In Australian schools teachers experiencing discipline problems with Samoan students explain to the student how his/her behaviour is unacceptable and ask them to demonstrate the appropriate behaviour( Horsley 1999)
Other forms of respect or "faaloao" a young person will show an elder or teacher include; bowing down when crossing the path of an older person and saying "tulo" (excuse-me), never eating while standing up, serving food to the elders first, vacating a seat for an older person on a bus, never interrupting a conversation between adults.
On occasions I would sit down, with the aim of creating a more relaxed informal atmosphere, which I thought would foster students confidence. I’d also ask students to stand when they spoke ( because they were so quiet I could hardly hear them) This request was directly contradicting their concept of respect:; to always maintain a lower physical position when addressing a teacher.
Discipline however, was not always administered by the teacher. On a few occasions when the noise level was too high and I needed to address the class, a student would hiss "Pisa" or ‘noisy’ in Samoan and the class would usually settle down. This form of self discipline usually occurs "once a trusting relationship is built between the student and teacher, the student is obliged not to do anything to jeopardise that trust and in most cases will compel others to follow" (Horsley 1999). Unknowingly, I must have developed some form of trusting relationship with a few students who remained loyal. These were the ones always to volunteer answers, write on the board, attempt an exercise, even if they were unsure of it, or help me maintain classroom control.
These relationships are built on trust(Horsley1999) respect and love and it is not unusual for physical contact or affection to be displayed between teachers and pupils, or for a pupil to vocalise how much they love their teacher. As the class indeed told me when I left the school. These social conventions contradict our concept of professional distance, both physically and emotionally, which is maintained by educators in Australia.
Here, in Samoa the pupil/teacher relationship does not end with the student but extends to their whole family, with the teacher knowing students’ families and often socialising with them. Because Samoan students are used to having quiet close relationships with their teachers I would advise any teacher to make that extra effort in finding out about students’ backgrounds and meeting parents when it comes to Pacific Island students in the Australian classroom.
At one school I visited a volunteer teachers’ farewell was held on an island that was close to a students property. The students family provided the teachers with canoes and the students paddled the guests to the island and helped prepare the food. After the event the principal personally drove all the members of ‘the family’; teachers and students home.
Although teaching in the Samoan classroom is highly structured and appears to be impersonal; based on information rather than people, a personal link does exist. The solid relationship between teacher and pupil, gives the learning a human orientation instead of being pure transmission of knowledge. It has been suggested learning, for the Samoan student, will be more effective "if an activity is backed up by an emotional urge"(Horsley 1999) Learning is influenced by feelings, sometimes feelings for a subject but more often student’s feelings about their teacher and indeed the teachers feelings about them will affect the students performance.
One of the most importan things I neglected to do was develop close relationships with the 30 students in my class ( I was finding it difficult to remember 30 names, let alone remember 30 families and villages). However, despite this lack I still managed to foster in them an ‘emotional urge’ which compelled them to comply with my wishes and actively participate in the classroom.
The turning point was when I let them know more about me. Even though we were introduced as student teachers, most other palagi (European) teachers were volunteers and being paid for their duty, so I think they believed we were in a similar position. One day, in a moment of hopelessness, I told the students a few facts about myself: I informed the students how disappointed I was, in their behaviour(which was primarily lack of class participation), that I had come all the way from Australia to teach them, where I’d heard such good things about Samoan students, I wasn’t getting paid, that I wanted to help them learn English and pass their exams, which I couldn’t do unless I got some interaction and effort , and without this I might never come back to Samoa .
The change in attitude of the students was miraculous! Student participation increased dramatically and even the shyest, least confident person in the class was making an effort to speak and read English. What was even more suprising was the students weren’t working individually, but were helping each other to achieve these tasks. My despair had inadvertently resulted in peer support if not co-operative learning taking place, in the students bid to make me happy.
I had met with resistance at earlier attempts to introduce group work or co-operative learning techniques , with students being possessive of their work and preferring to work alone, even when in groups. But students now appeared quiet supportive of each other and the focus was less on individual achievement than the achievement of the group as a whole. This attitude is strong within the culture where the success of one reflects the success of the whole family.
Students had developed the emotional impetus to co-operate and contribute in class and peer support was occurring clandestinely and openly in a variety of ways. Such as: when a student was writing on the blackboard other students would give him/her oral prompts in Samoan or English. When reading aloud and a student was having problems with English pronunciation a peer would whisper the words to the student so in fact he was able to ’read aloud’. When asked a question a student was unsure of, a peer would provide the answer in Samoan, and the student would translate it into English.
The classroom setup also reinforced the values underlying Samoan culture. All desks faced the front, where the teacher’s desk was, on a raised platform. The hidden curriculum being; that teachers (or elders) maintain a higher physical aspect in conversations and always be deferred to, both signs of respect. By using the chalk and talk method the teacher always conducted the lessons from the front of the room and was higher than the students thereby reinforcing this value.
While there are many similairties in the values and attitudes that are reinforced by both systems of education this does not always equate with the learning strategies used. While passive learning is employed in both systems most of the other learning strategies are different.
At home mime, and dancing are important and serve to reinforce cultural values and attitudes. The dances, without words can transmit much information, through hand and body gestures and facial expressions. Males and females have particular parts in these dances which serve to emphasis appropriate behaviour for the different sexes. Children learn this repertoire of gestures and are able to tell an in depth story without reliance on words.
This contrasts to the school where there is no role playing or drama used to enhance learning , despite this medium being important for the transmission of knowledge at home. Hopefully this will not be the case in the future as the Primary Education Materials Project; (funded by AusAid and partly designed by an Australian teacher,) centres learning activities around role-playing, individual expression, and group work. If sufficient teacher training is provided, and these strategies for learning prove successful in the primary schools, they may , in the future, be encouraged in the secondary schools.
The learning strategies currently in use are learning by rote, or memory learning, which conflicts to the investigative, experimental learning that occurs at home. Where a child might learn by imitating, but, could also learn through personal trial and error. At home there are also many models, siblings and relatives, from which to observe and imitate but at school the prime mentor is the teacher rather than the peers.
Because the Samoan education system has little co-operative learning or peer interaction this learning strategy has to be gradually introduced. In the Australian classroom. By creating a balance between individual work and group work , but also progressively providing more oppportunities for peer interaction this can help other facets of learning. By allowing students to observe their peers answering and developing questions, with time it is hoped they will imitate this behaviour and with time, develop the skills for independent and self directed learning.
The Samoan school system , with its present curriculum also fails to address the concern of learning relevant knowledge in a real life situation. The knowledge is academically based and students have little opportunity to apply what they learn in the wider community. In australia where there is often a range of academic and non acdemic subjects this problem could be addressed by offering students subjects that are relveant to their existence and providing real life learning opportunities.
By understanding the deucaton systems that operate both inside and outside the classroom we can apply our knowledge of Samoan culture to enhance learning opportunities for the Samoan or pacfic islander student in the Australian classroom. By recognising and acknowledging these students come from a different society: one with a strict social structure which does not encourage independent thought or action and a structured education system which does the same, we can adapt our teaching styles to enalbe these students to learn. This has been my experience of learning how to teach across the cultural divide.
URL:http://alex.edfac.usyd.edu.au/AcrossCurric/Paradise/M.H’s%20%20ParaProb.html.
Paradise or Problem , Mike Horsley acessed on 9/11/99
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