story by Claire Miller
Taking a place-based approach to education allows teachers to incorporate students’ sense of place and their local knowledge and traditions into their curriculum.
Augustina Mtui, who has been teaching English to students ages 13-17 in Tanzania’s Meru district for the last 17 years, learned about this teaching technique as part of the Fulbright Teaching Excellence and Achievement Program at Georgia State University – a six-week, U.S. Department of State-sponsored, highly selective initiative that brings teachers from other countries to a host university for professional development.
“I was so moved by Clinical Associate Professor Chantee Earl’s session on place-based education and how students learn through exploring their environment,” she said. “I have now implemented this concept in my school, where my students had a chance to demonstrate activities that affect their climate and what to be done to save nature. My students used drama, dialogue and speech for their project, and it helped them build communication and inquiry skills, learn how to interact with the environment and gain a better understanding of themselves and their place in the world.”
Mtui is one of 22 teachers from 21 countries who participated in this semester’s Fulbright program at Georgia State, where they attended classes with university faculty, visited local cultural sites and taught classes in local schools.
During her field experiences at Cross Keys High School in Atlanta, Mtui met several teachers and students from other countries and learned how they teach English to speakers of other languages.
“I attended different classes and learned that at Cross Keys, collaborative teaching is very effective, since teachers are working together in classes to ensure students understand the content and have enough time to practice language skills,” she said. “For example, I liked the idea of 10-minute reading sessions in 11th grade, and I am currently initiating it in my classroom.”
One of her most memorable moments from the Fulbright trip was visiting the King Center. Mtui grew up learning about Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. and was grateful for the opportunity to visit the center while in Atlanta.
“Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech is among my favorite speeches made by one of the most important men who lived,” she said. “It was a dream come true to walk in the environment where King once walked.”
Mtui’s Fulbright experiences have not only given her new ideas to implement in her classroom, but have also given her a network of fellow educators who have similar teaching goals.
“Irrespective of the differences in our education systems, we all strive for excellence – particularly in teaching English language as a second or foreign language,” she said. “My fellow Fulbrighters from Burkina-Faso, Ghana, Cameroon and Egypt share the common experience of having classrooms in our home countries with a large number of students, and we shared different tips that help in classroom management and engagement. I learned the benefit of having classroom culture and consistence of practicing social emotional behavior to our students.”