Australian educators - making a lasting impact
28 July 2008
Education professionals from Australian cities, regional centres
and country towns are making a lasting impact on education systems
around the globe through their work as volunteer teacher trainers
or curriculum developers.
Education professionals from Australian cities, regional centres
and country towns are making a lasting impact on education systems
around the globe through their work as volunteer teacher trainers
or curriculum developers.
According to Australian Volunteers International (AVI) Indonesia
Country Manager Jon Hunter, AVI's efforts to improve education
programs and services in developing communities could not be
achieved without the commitment of a variety of Australian
professionals from the education sector.
"Since the 1950s over 2000 AVI volunteer teachers and other
education professionals have played important roles in
strengthening the capabilities of schools and tertiary institutions
around the globe," he said. "The involvement of education
professionals in our volunteer program is important. However, we
are now finding that the majority of our education roles are moving
beyond the classroom, and our volunteers are more likely to be
working with governments and education departments to improve
teaching standards and curriculum for now and in the future.
"In Indonesia we currently have a number of Australians working
in training or mentoring roles throughout the education sector.
While they are making an impact, there is still a need for more
education professionals for future AVI volunteer assignments in
Indonesia and many other countries in which we work."
The work of one AVI volunteer teacher trainer in West Sumatra,
Mr Hunter said, demonstrates the long-term impact one person could
have on a community's education programs.
On completion of her AVI volunteer assignment, Melbourne
language trainer Helene Naidis developed a teacher training
workshop program that involved around 100 English language teachers
from over 50 schools in the Sawlahlunto-Sijunjung region of West
Sumatra. Due to the success of the training initiative the
Department of Education and provincial government have adapted the
workshops into the annual teacher training program and are looking
at ways to rollout the initiative across other curriculums and in
other regions of West Sumatra.
"It was an enormous challenge to develop the workshops, which
involved secondary and vocational teachers attending training
sessions three days a week over a four-week period," Helene said.
"We were dealing with issues of teachers travelling over three
hours to get to the workshops, lack of resources and also the fact
that this was the first time this had been undertaken.
"However, I was able to overcome some obstacles with
AusAID-funded education program KangGuru providing some training
resources and the Department of Education providing some
funding.
"In the end the teachers participated in sessions that involved
training in various teaching methodologies, sharing of knowledge,
skills and materials. It was also an opportunity for many of them
to meet for the first time and to develop many important
professional networks. The Department of Education actually filmed
the last round of the workshop.
"The experience was one of the biggest challenges of my life,
but to find out that my efforts will have a lasting impact on the
people I worked with and future teachers is so rewarding."
AVI is recruiting for teacher trainers, trade trainers and
curriculum developers, as well as health, financial, IT,
communications and community as part of its next volunteer
recruitment drive kicking off on 9 August 2008.
Contact:
Christine Crosby
Publicity and Media Liaison
Australian Volunteers International,
Phone: +61 (0)3 9279 1763
Email: ccrosby@australianvolunteers.com
Photo: IndoGirls_web_sml.jpg