Between February and April 2017 three students from Flemish Higher Education Institutions did an internship at two Free State schools.
Meet the interns
Eline graduated last year as a primary school teacher and currently studies for an additional degree in Inclusive Education. During her internship at Maboloka, Mangaung, she specifically engaged with teachers on issues relating to teaching for diversity and inclusive pedagogy.
Sien and Leonie are last year students primary education. They did their teaching practice at Gonyane Primary School.
Mentoring inclusion
“At the start of my internship it wasn’t that clear what I should do. The description in the internship proposal was clear, but how to make that happen in practice?”, says Eline. “I knew I had to focus on inclusive pedagogy, but some people expected me to be the remedial teacher. I tried to work mostly on the inclusive aspect, while still doing some remedial activities with learners.”
“Some teachers invited me into their classes, and asked me to observe their practice with an inclusive lens. We discussed together what could be made more inclusive. During the next lesson we would co-teach. I tried to demonstrate how important it is to respond to all learners’ needs. By just knowing current trends and hypes that interest learners, and using them in your teaching, you engage learners. We tried out different ways of language teaching, reverting from the lecturing style to more activating methods where learners move, feel, talk, engage.”
Teaching practice
“During the first week I mostly observed my mentor teaching”, says Sien. “After one week observing, it was time to teach. I had to teach mathematics in an inclusive way to three Grade 6 classes. I learned so much. Firstly, I had to teach in English. Fortunately, my mentor helped me with the curriculum and terminology. Together we tried out some inclusive approaches. We observed the learners closely and kept track of their performance during class and homework. Once we prepared a whole set of exercises and let the learners decide for themselves which ones they wanted to do. We never had so many motivated learners!”
“Together with my mentor I discovered that teaching for diversity doesn’t mean that you start from scratch. It just means you think about quality teaching and learning. I learned to question myself: how can I include all?”
Leonie adds: “I used a lot of games in my teaching. Maybe I learned most of all about my learners when I visited the family of one of my learners. It made me understand their context better.”
“Before we left Belgium, we did some fund raising. While we settled in at Gonyane, we saw some teachers working on the improvement of the library. We thought this would be a great idea to spend some of the funds. Together with the principal and the teachers we helped renovating the library: we painted the walls, we bought bean bags, tables, board games, books, and some decoration. This library has become a pleasant place to spend some time!”
“It has been an interesting experience. So many things are similar and others are so different from Belgium. I learned so much from engaging in deep discussions with my mentor about teaching approaches and learning styles.”
Learning across borders...
“There was mutual learning”, says Mr Tau (Principal Maboloka). “The class visits and observations done by Eline triggered an interest in this type of learning. Teachers experienced the benefits of the interactions in the classroom and the discussions afterwards on inclusive practices. They shared this with colleagues and more teachers were eager to work with Eline.”
“This internship was enriching for all involved”, adds Ms Tsiloane (Principal Gonyane). The students learned from us and we from them. The revamping of our library was such a surprise!”.
…despite the differences
Yes, the interns experienced differences. Leonie: “In Flanders there is a more standard approach to basic differentiation. Here in South Africa it hugely depends on the teacher. Mostly, there is one size fits all approach. If the learner doesn’t fit that approach, the learner will be left on his/her own. Barriers to learning are often not identified.” “However, we saw that schools in Flanders and South Africa are struggling with making a success of inclusion,” adds Eline, “There is no clear solution for inclusion challenges. One must find the best way every day.”
Sien indicates other differences: “Discipline is also different. We never saw South African learners say “no”. Maybe they are afraid? Or maybe they are raised differently?” “The teachers we met in South Africa are mostly the source of knowledge and information. In Flanders more teachers are facilitating learning processes as a coach.”
All three students were impressed by the huge differences between South African schools: resources, socio-economic status of learners, … The gap between rich and poor is far more visible.
Leonie, Sien and Eline agree about one thing: they were welcomed warmly and felt integrated in the whole school team.
