Reflection – Storytelling for In-Service Teacher Training Short Course

Challenge

I supervise a grassroots pre-service teacher training program for ethnic education teachers in rural  Southeastern Myanmar. Each year we train a cohort of young teachers in our 10-month program, but  the reality is that our graduates make up just a small percentage (under 10%) of the teachers working  in the ethnic education system in Southeastern Myanmar. We are therefore exploring ways to reach  the many other teachers who lack pre-service teaching qualification by offering targeted in-service  support through teacher training short courses that can be delivered during the summer holiday. To  this end, we are preparing to pilot a 6-week in-service teaching course for approximately 60 teachers  representing one of the six townships serviced by the ethnic education system.

The beneficiaries (teachers) come from disadvantaged, rural ethnic communities who teach a  combination of government curriculum and curriculum that has been developed by the  nongovernmental ethnic education provider. Their schools are under-resourced, although each child  typically has all required textbooks and is allowed to sit the government matriculation exam. Many  teachers are young, attending part-time university and female, and teaching is typically their first  professional experience. We realize that these teachers are largely unqualified and under-prepared for  the roles and responsibilities of teaching, and our short course aims to target a needed area of high  leverage growth to make them more comfortable, confident and successful in the classroom.

We are piloting this short course over a 6-week period wherein teachers will be attending our class for  five hours a day, five days a week. The project is targeting approximately 60 teachers from one  township, although we are intending to scale the project to the remaining five townships in the region.  We are taking an iterative, agile approach wherein our training curricula can be modified as needed  during the initial pilot and the “prototype” curricula can then me modified as needed if we do scale it.  The project will be run by three full-time teacher trainers, and we will have access to part-time training  assistants who are graduates of our 10-month pre-service teacher training course. Our staff will design  and implement the project. They are creative, confident, and have strong growth mindset.

Selection

For our first wave inspiration phase (our research to answer the question what is to lead us to discuss  what if), we have brought aboard 10 field staff – teachers who are graduates of our pre-service  program – to help us conduct individual and group interviews for storytelling. We want to get a better  understanding of our beneficiaries’ opinions of teaching, the challenges they face inside the classroom,  and where and how their teaching profession exists in the grand scheme of their lives and the

communities they serve. We want to put the teachers at the center of our ideation, and believe that  having them share their personal teaching experience stories with us will best help us be empathetic to  their needs.

Application

We contacted our 10 field staff and prepared them to conduct interviews with the teachers that would  be attending our pilot training. These staff met with an average of six teachers individually and asked  them to reflect on three things:

1) What a workday in their life is like  2) What a non-workday in their life is like.  3) What the last several months have been life, using the following guiding questions if teacher

needed prompting:

 What was your greatest

success?

 What was your

greatest challenge?

 What do you like the

most about your job?

 What are your core

values and habits?

 What would you like to

change the most about  your job / experience?

 Tell us about your

daily / weekly  schedule.

 How do you like being

a teacher in this  community?

 What are your

greatest needs?

The interviewers were instructed to listen and take objective notes, but were allowed to dive deeper  into answers if they needed more explanation or clarification, especially for the teacher to give his/her  perceived reason for a response.

We also wanted to get a better sense of how education is perceived by the students and their parents.  Each interviewer therefore also surveyed one neighborhood in each village in the township through a  group interview with students and their parents. Although we had to do group interviews for the sake  of time, there was good participation and our interviewers were able to ask these key stakeholders the  pertinent questions “what role does the school currently play in your life?” and “what role do you want  the school to play in your life?”.

Insight

Our research process gave a voice to our projects’ participants and stakeholders. We learned a great  deal from our research, which better helped us identify several “themes” to address in our short  course. These themes were:

1. Teachers feel a great sense of pride in their titles, but also combat dismay that their teaching is

not more fun for their students

2. Teachers are engaged when they are at the school, but tend to disengage with their

professional responsibilities when their workday is over

3. Teachers feel stress because of their time workload inside the classroom (teaching up to 6

lessons each day) and outside (cooking, cleaning and washing clothes for their parents or  families); therefore teachers do not have ample time to sit down and prepare for their lessons

4. Teachers choose to use poor teaching methods (ie reading by heart / rote-memorization) not

because they think they are appropriate, but because they are so familiar and easy to prepare

5. Students are motivated to have fun in class and be with their friends (not so much to learn new

material or become experts)

6. Some students would choose to leave school if given the opportunity because they do not like

being bored during their lessons

7. Students parents value education abstractly and as a child-care opportunity, but many parents

mentioned that their children rarely mention their experiences at school when they come  home

Hearing stories from the teachers, students and parents opened our eyes to the realities these  beneficiaries (teachers) and stakeholders (students and parents) face in their communities, and the  place education has within these realities. It helped us engage on a more personal level with the  groups we are aiming to help, and it was additionally beneficial because we had members of the  governing education body sit in and observe many of the interviews. They admitted that they had  never taken such a human-centered approach before, and that they learned a lot about the  experiences, opinions and emotions of the people their education system employs and serves.  Personally, many of the themes highlighted in the interviews were anticipated, but it was great to have  documented stories that share a strong, often common narrative as these could be very persuasive to  policy developers and international donors. Moreover, those who were interviewed were appreciative  of us “lending an ear” and listening attentively, and they all showed an eagerness to participate further  in our project, be it as a participant (teacher) or feedback provided (students, parents) during our  monitoring and evaluation process.

To conclude, during ideation our team went back to our framed design challenge and decided to  develop a short course training focusing on textbook adaptation such that each lesson incorporated a  learning objective “reveal” and activity that would surprise and excite the students. We introduced a  collection of activities easily applied to the textbooks (thereby saving teachers planning time) as well as  ways to let students create learning materials that would be shareable to their family. We have  developed a framework and are preparing to implement the prototype in the coming months, at which  time we will take feedback from participants and later from students and parents. Therefore, for us the  next stage would be a learning launch to test what we have developed in ideation and how it works  with those we have developed it for.

Approach

Using interviews (individual and group) to inspire innovation through storytelling was time intensive  and human resource intensive, and although it was extremely valuable, it might not be replicable with  the remaining five townships due to time and resource constraints. However, we still want to research  the needs of the teachers in the remaining townships before designing and implementing their own in- service teacher training short courses, and I think our team will use mind mapping for research in our  next township. We have gathered a lot of information from our initial interviews and storytelling and  we will present a lot of this information (successes, challenges, emotions, needs, wants, regrets,  values) via sticky note to a focus group of our future stakeholders. They will then be able to organize  them according to their own personal experiences, expectations, et al, and from there we will have  created a graphic mind map of education’s place in their lives and their community. We can do this  through a town-hall style meeting with stakeholders, and this will potentially save us quite a lot of time  as we hope to iterate our previously designed short course for targeted in-service teacher training  short courses for the remaining five townships.


Reflection – Storytelling for In - Service Teacher Training Short Course Challenge I supervise a grassroots pre - service teacher training program for ethnic education teachers in rural Southeastern Myanmar . Each year we train a cohort of young teachers in our 10 - month program , but the reality is that our graduates make up just a small percentage ( under 10 % ) of the teachers working in the ethnic education system in Southeastern Myanmar . We are therefore exploring ways to reach the many other teachers who lack pre - service teaching qualification by offering targeted in - service support through teacher training short courses that can be delivered during the summer holiday . To this end , we are preparing to pilot a 6 - week in - service teaching course for approximately 60 teachers representing one of the six townships serviced by the ethnic education system . The beneficiaries ( teachers ) come from disadvantaged , rural ethnic communities who teach a combination of government curriculum and curriculum that has been developed by the nongovernmental ethnic education provider . Their schools are under - resourced , although each child typically has all required textbooks and is allowed to sit the government matriculation exam . Many teachers are young , attending part - time university and female , and teaching is typically their first professional experience . We realize that these teachers are largely unqualified and under - prepared for the roles and responsibilities of teaching , and our short course aims to target a needed area of high leverage growth to make them more comfortable , confident and successful in the classroom . We are piloting this short course over a 6 - week period wherein teachers will be attending our class for five hours a day , five days a week . The project is targeting approximately 60 teachers from one township , although we are intending to scale the project to the remaining five townships in the region . We are taking an iterative , agile approach wherein our training curricula can be modified as needed during the initial pilot and the “ prototype ” curricula can then me modified as needed if we do scale it . The project will be run by three full - time teacher trainers , and we will have access to part - time training assistants who are graduates of our 10 - month pre - service teacher training course . Our staff will design and implement the project . They are creative , confident , and have strong growth mindset . Selection For our first wave inspiration phase ( our research to answer the question what is to lead us to discuss what if ) , we have brought aboard 10 field staff – teachers who are graduates of our pre - service program – to help us conduct individual and group interviews for storytelling . We want to get a better understanding of our beneficiaries ’ opinions of teaching , the challenges they face inside the classroom , and where and how their teaching profession exists in the grand scheme of their lives and the communities they serve . We want to put the teachers at the center of our ideation , and believe that having them share their personal teaching experience stories with us will best help us be empathetic to their needs . Application We contacted our 10 field staff and prepared them to conduct interviews with the teachers that would be attending our pilot training . These staff met with an average of six teachers individually and asked them to reflect on three things : 1 ) What a workday in their life is like 2 ) What a non - workday in their life is like . 3 ) What the last several months have been life , using the following guiding questions if teacher needed prompting :  What was your greatest success ?  What was your greatest challenge ?  What do you like the most about your job ?  What are your core values and habits ?  What would you like to change the most about your job / experience ?  Tell us about your daily / weekly schedule .  How do you like being a teacher in this community ?  What are your greatest needs ? The interviewers were instructed to listen and take objective notes , but were allowed to dive deeper into answers if they needed more explanation or clarification , especially for the teacher to give his / her perceived reason for a response . We also wanted to get a better sense of how education is perceived by the students and their parents . Each interviewer therefore also surveyed one neighborhood in each village in the township through a group interview with students and their parents . Although we had to do group interviews for the sake of time , there was good participation and our interviewers were able to ask these key stakeholders the pertinent questions “ what role does the school currently play in your life ? ” and “ what role do you want the school to play in your life ? ” . Insight Our research process gave a voice to our projects ’ participants and stakeholders . We learned a great deal from our research , which better helped us identify several “ themes ” to address in our short course . These themes were : 1 . Teachers feel a great sense of pride in their titles , but also combat dismay that their teaching is not more fun for their students 2 . Teachers are engaged when they are at the school , but tend to disengage with their professional responsibilities when their workday is over 3 . Teachers feel stress because of their time workload inside the classroom ( teaching up to 6 lessons each day ) and outside ( cooking , cleaning and washing clothes for their parents or families ) ; therefore teachers do not have ample time to sit down and prepare for their lessons 4 . Teachers choose to use poor teaching methods ( ie reading by heart / rote - memorization ) not because they think they are appropriate , but because they are so familiar and easy to prepare 5 . Students are motivated to have fun in class and be with their friends ( not so much to learn new material or become experts ) 6 . Some students would choose to leave school if given the opportunity because they do not like being bored during their lessons 7 . Students parents value education abstractly and as a child - care opportunity , but many parents mentioned that their children rarely mention their experiences at school when they come home Hearing stories from the teachers , students and parents opened our eyes to the realities these beneficiaries ( teachers ) and stakeholders ( students and parents ) face in their communities , and the place education has within these realities . It helped us engage on a more personal level with the groups we are aiming to help , and it was additionally beneficial because we had members of the governing education body sit in and observe many of the interviews . They admitted that they had never taken such a human - centered approach before , and that they learned a lot about the experiences , opinions and emotions of the people their education system employs and serves . Personally , many of the themes highlighted in the interviews were anticipated , but it was great to have documented stories that share a strong , often common narrative as these could be very persuasive to policy developers and international donors . Moreover , those who were interviewed were appreciative of us “ lending an ear ” and listening attentively , and they all showed an eagerness to participate further in our project , be it as a participant ( teacher ) or feedback provided ( students , parents ) during our monitoring and evaluation process . To conclude , during ideation our team went back to our framed design challenge and decided to develop a short course training focusing on textbook adaptation such that each lesson incorporated a learning objective “ reveal ” and activity that would surprise and excite the students . We introduced a collection of activities easily applied to the textbooks ( thereby saving teachers planning time ) as well as ways to let students create learning materials that would be shareable to their family . We have developed a framework and are preparing to implement the prototype in the coming months , at which time we will take feedback from participants and later from students and parents . Therefore , for us the next stage would be a learning launch to test what we have developed in ideation and how it works with those we have developed it for . Approach Using interviews ( individual and group ) to inspire innovation through storytelling was time intensive and human resource intensive , and although it was extremely valuable , it might not be replicable with the remaining five townships due to time and resource constraints . However , we still want to research the needs of the teachers in the remaining townships before designing and implementing their own in- service teacher training short courses , and I think our team will use mind mapping for research in our next township . We have gathered a lot of information from our initial interviews and storytelling and we will present a lot of this information ( successes , challenges , emotions , needs , wants , regrets , values ) via sticky note to a focus group of our future stakeholders . They will then be able to organize them according to their own personal experiences , expectations , et al , and from there we will have created a graphic mind map of education ’s place in their lives and their community . We can do this through a town - hall style meeting with stakeholders , and this will potentially save us quite a lot of time as we hope to iterate our previously designed short course for targeted in - service teacher training short courses for the remaining five townships .