From Maputo, the capital city of Mozambique to Changalane, a large part of the road is red sand road. From the bus, we saw down the smaller tributary pathways, women walked steadily in pairs along the red sand paths, with buckets balanced carefully on their heads, and babies wrapped tightly to their bodies.
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Visit to Primary School and Women association at Changalane district
ISET - One World has a crucial role in educating teachers for small villages and remote areas. It is located in Mozambican rural area named Changalane district. In Changalane, we visited one local primary school and Women’s association.
Landscapes in Mozambique on our way from Maputo to Changalane, watch the video:
Visiting the authentic teacher training environments
In Changalane, we visited one local primary school and Women’s association. They are both supported by the Aid for the Development of People for People (ADPP) Mozambique by delivering them development initiatives in health, education, and agriculture. ADPP is a Mozambican non-governmental association that works across Quality Education, Health and Well-being, Sustainable Agriculture, and the Environment.
The aim of TEPATE-project is to enhance the capacity of UP and ISET ONE WORLD to deliver and develop teacher education that provides teacher trainees with better skills to apply learner-centred pedagogy in practice. Therefore, it was important to us to see an authentic environment in which teacher trainees practice their pedagogical skills and work as a teacher later after their graduation. We got better understanding of the classrooms as learning environment, how they are equipped and furnished, what is the group size of students, what kind of learning resources the students have. Also, the visit helped us to consider the development activities in the TEPATE project from the Mozambican reality point of view.
During their teacher studies, the teacher trainees at ISET- One World are involved in community work to understand the needs of the communities and people. The Women’s association has got help from ISET-One World and learnt skills to cultivate land and grow vegetables, and thus, they have acquired skills to earn income.
The members of the Women’s association welcomed us by singing and we joined in the song and dance. Watch singing and dancing on a video here.
In the primary school
In the primary school, when the kids were asked what they want to be when they grow up, they raised hands high and actively answered “farmer”, “engineer”, “technician”, “teacher”. From the eyes of the kids, we saw they have a passion in learning. A bit more difficult question to the children was where Finland is located. After a few minutes thinking, the hands raised up and we got an answer without any hesitation “ in Europe”!
As a small gift from Finland, we gave the children snowflake-shaped reflectors for a road safety to the way to school. We noticed that after it is dark, the roads are dangerous for walkers because there is no streetlights.
The TEPATE project is developing teacher education in Mozambique in collaboration with the Mozambican higher education partners and University of Lapland and our associate partner UFF. The project is funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland. Read more:
Keywords
RDI
vocational education and training
Innovative Learning
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