1996 September
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1995
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September
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South African chronicles

Six seniors student-taught and four graduate students worked on their research programs, all with a focus on multicultural, antiracist education. As senior Angie Pommier wrote, "There is a huge difference between learning something from a book and actually living it in a classroom."

Iowa State offers international student-teaching opportunities, mostly in European counties. But Donaldson, who was conducting research in South Africa last summer, thought it was time to broaden the opportunity. In seven months, she and colleagues in Pretoria set up a program that included teaching visits in urban, suburban and rural settings.

"The schools in South Africa have just begun to be integrated and there is much to learn by way of anti-racist and multicultural education," Donaldson said.

The students' experience included five days in the impoverished rural community of Siyabuswa, where they taught, without benefit of electricity or even textbooks, to classes as large as 70 students. They stayed with local families in homes that lacked running water and indoor plumbing.

"I taught a ninth-grade chemistry class with at least 60 students in each class. All I had to work with was a piece of chalk and a chalkboard. It was very difficult trying to teach the students about atoms and molecules, in their second language, with only a piece of chalk to work with. I was forced to be creative and the lessons turned out to be quite enjoyable."

--Stephanie Sasser, senior in elementary education

"As I showed up to school in clean clothes and a $90 pair of shoes, I took a good look around me at my students who made it to school every day from homes without running water or electricity. Some of them had to walk an hour to school.

"We had students in our classes who were older than us--I had one student in the 11th grade who was 25 years old. We had high school seniors, anywhere from 18 to 24 years old, who had never used glue, scissors or crayons. They were so excited when they got to use these materials, it just made my heart ache."

--Jennifer Miller, senior in elementary education

"Observing and teaching in these settings has allowed me to see plainly the need for a multicultural education--but one that is specific to the environment it serves. While substitute teaching in Siyabuswa, I recognized that the whole paradigm of formal education (curriculum, facilities, etc.) used there could not be put in context with the culture of the people. For example, the students and teachers spoke in their mother tongues outside of school. However, lessons were taught and books read in English. Therefore, students could not associate anything learned in English with their everyday lives."

--Lucretia Carter, PhD candidate in curriculum and instructional technology

In Pretoria, the ISU students lived in a hostel near the University of Pretoria. Drivers took them daily to their schools throughout the township. Schools in Pretoria, the students said, have just begun to be integrated, but still are similar to schools in the United States--with a few distinctions: everyone wears uniforms and there's no separation of church and state in the school system--or the curriculum.

"It has been a very unique experience observing how the educational system here is run. I think the country has a way to go before it catches up with other countries. There appears to be many changes that were made too fast and now things are in a state of confusion. I think time will help to sort it out."

--Darrell Redman, senior in history, secondary education

"The students are much more respectful of their teachers. This may be a sugar-coated impression because the discipline is very strict and I have seen many things I cannot agree with. My teacher has even referred to students as the smart, average and below average. I have noticed that the black children get in the most trouble and most often are singled out as the trouble makers and not as smart as the white children.

"But I must remember that this country has been segregated for 350 years and they are just three years into the anti-apartheid movement. We are not going to change the world overnight, but we are making as much progress as we can in two months."

--Jeff Payne, senior in elementary education

"The other night at the cafe, I got into a discussion with a man who was very traditional in his views of oppression in South Africa. He tried to convince me that the black Africans were a violent people and that before colonization of South Africa, there were only mud huts here.

"This reflects a lot of the Afrikaans-speaking people here, I'm afraid. I find that it parallels America in that the laws have been established (like our desegregation laws) but it does not necessarily mean that the people are going to change their opinions.

"The effects of oppression are more obvious here than they are in America."

--Casey Green, senior in elementary ducation

The ISU students also spent a week in Johannesburg, observing in classrooms at both elementary schools and a university there.

Officials at the University of Pretoria hope to send a group of education students to Iowa State in September.

--Anne Dolan, University Relations

ISU senior Jeff Payne explains division to a sixth grade math class during the group'sweek in Siyabuswa.

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