HOW CAN I IMPROVE MY PRACTICE AS A TEACHER AND FACILITATOR?

SUMMARY OF THE MA DISSERTATION

This dissertation is a self-study research approach into my practice as a teacher and facilitator at Wau Vocational Training Center (WVTC). I examined my experiences as a teacher for 7 years, enquire the forms of my knowing and my claims that I know, through adapting a self-study research approach under the umbrella question: how can I improve my practice (Whitehead, 2009)?
Throughout my first year as a master student at Akershus University College (HiAk), I have come to acquire new knowledge about a variety of research methodology and methods. Furthermore, my second year and gaining a perspective of Whitehead & McNiff, enlightened me more and found that self-study research approach is one of the valuable methodologies which offers a way to systematically look at ways to improve the “I”. The “I” is a key element of self-study research approach that distinguishes it from other types of research methodologies.
Self-study research approach places emphasis on the “I” within forms of action, and in relation to other people ideas, and events (Hamilton, 1998). My approached to self-study research approach was based on the question: how can I improve my practice as a teacher and facilitator while working together with instructors/teachers in order to discuss with them and facilitate them in increasing the learning outcome of their students? The purpose of this study is to look into what I encountered in my past experiences as a teacher as I moved to examine and improve my practice of it through the facilitation of instructors at WVTC.
As I traveled down the path of improving my practice as a teacher together with instructors at WVTC, I learned so many roles of being a teacher, discovered my vulnerabilities, and found a community of support in the writings of Whitehead, McNiff and Tom Russell, and Hamilton. The improvements and understanding I gained through engaging in this study demonstrate that self-study can be beneficial for me to improve my practice in order to increase the learning outcome of the students.
For this study I collected data from Wau Vocational Training Center (WVTC). The findings are divided into two sections. The first section handled the preliminary meeting with the leadership of WVTC, followed by the first workshop conducted for the staff of the same center by the experts from HiAk. The second section displayed my periodic meetings with the instructors at WVTC for one and half month. The same section (2) portrayed the interviews conducted for three head of the departments, namely; Electrical, Carpentry and Masonry as well as observation in the same sections for theory class and workshop practice. It is through the methods and tools that I used e.g. photography, research dairy (log writing), and audio recordings, I documented all the activities that I engulfed in at WVTC, which are explicated in the later stages of this work.

BY PAUL TARTISIO KENYI (MA, HIAK: 2008 - 2010)

VOCATIONAL PRACTICES AT DON BOSCO VOCATIONAL TRAINING CENTER AND WORKPLACES/LOCAL INDUSTRIES IN WESTERN BAHR EL-GHAZAL STATE, WAU – SOUTHERN SUDAN

Abstract


As a graduate teacher, I was involved in teaching and instructing young men and women with vocational education skills. I was teaching for 7 years at Don Bosco Vocational training center in Wau, Southern Sudan. I taught 5 years at DBVTC and 2 years at Upper Secondary School. My work as a teacher was engulfed in teaching workshop calculation, technical drawing, Religion and English at DBVTC. At Upper Secondary School I was involved in teaching Mathematics, English and Religion.
Sudan as a whole and in particular Southern Sudan now is facing the educational campaign by UNICEF under the title “Let all the children/youth go to school” and to me as a teacher who have experience of what technical and vocational education can give, I will rather suggest and advocate for general education for all, as well vocational education for all. The development of the skills labor is fading from Southern Sudan. The government/NGOs should back-up the existing vocational training centers and others to improve the vocational and technical education i.e. if we need to create a qualitative jump in training the people of Sudan more especially the people of Southern Sudan with vocational knowledge and skills.
In order to advocate and publish awareness to people of good will about the importance of technical and vocational education, I felt the need of taking a research to look critically into the vocational practices at DBVTC and the local industries around Wau Town. My concern in this research is to emphasis on the vocational education and training (Skill Development), especially for the less educated, poor and out of school youth (drops out), which has been highlighted by some researchers, NGOs and in various forums both in Europe and Africa.
Large percentage of the population in Sudan, particularly South Sudan is living below poverty line. One of my field works was the researched on the causes of lower percentage of skilled persons in the workforce. For instance in Wau, Western Bahr El-Ghazal State, the skill development at present is taking place mostly in the informal way, i.e. persons acquire skills at the work-place when they help their parents, relatives and employers etc. Such persons do not have a formal certificate and thus earn lower wages and are exploited by employers. They have come through informal system due to socio-economic circumstances of the family and the compulsions of earning a livelihood rather than attending a formal course at the vocational training centers. While their productivity is seen as low due to their informal training, their contribution on the other hand is ignored and it is so rich in nature. With this in mind, the State (South Sudan Government) and other NGOs/Donors should create a system of certification which not only recognizes their skills attained by informal training but also provides education and training in a mode that suits their economic compulsions that can benefit the workforce of the State, to earn a decent living (reduce poverty) and bring down the high level of un employability. It can also contribute to the vocational training centers existing in South Sudan and even the national economy by better productivity of this workforce and market labor to the neighboring countries.

Paul Tartisio Kenyi - September 2009