Education Research
At TPM, Education is the foundation on which the heart of this project began. From Malawian teachers explaining their local schools to conversations about Freire and Fanon in the Summer Hut, each experience on the TPM campus is focused on learning from one and other. Since 2009, we have specifically devoted time to developing our professional practice. Each year, teachers and pre-service teachers from the Global North engage in dialogue with colleagues from the Global South both in academic course work as well as in the local classroom setting. We have explored ways of improving the curriculum we teach, both in the Global South and Global North, through a multitude of pedagogical strategies as we have considered why we teach, how we teach as well as what we teach in order to promote teaching and learning that fosters emancipation through critical thinking and creativity.
One of the major challenges we face is not repeating a top down Global North/South relationship that has repeatedly proven to be ineffective. We strive to balance what local community indicates are their needs, simultaneously recognizing and endorsing local agency while depending on each other to find solutions. We remain vigilant to reveal what can simply be the illusion of solidarity, and we struggle to build authentic professional relationships. We have discovered that these habits are hard to break, but commitment to the project on a long-term basis has solidified real dialogue. With 10 years of interactions under our belt and the construction of our primary school well underway, we head forward towards the next 10 years developing new ways of demonstrating professional solidarity. One question presently at the forefront of these discussions is how does Education move beyond buzz-words to living out what can and should be done to create a community of socially responsive, reflective, compassionate and critical life-long learners?
One of the major challenges we face is not repeating a top down Global North/South relationship that has repeatedly proven to be ineffective. We strive to balance what local community indicates are their needs, simultaneously recognizing and endorsing local agency while depending on each other to find solutions. We remain vigilant to reveal what can simply be the illusion of solidarity, and we struggle to build authentic professional relationships. We have discovered that these habits are hard to break, but commitment to the project on a long-term basis has solidified real dialogue. With 10 years of interactions under our belt and the construction of our primary school well underway, we head forward towards the next 10 years developing new ways of demonstrating professional solidarity. One question presently at the forefront of these discussions is how does Education move beyond buzz-words to living out what can and should be done to create a community of socially responsive, reflective, compassionate and critical life-long learners?
Pre-School Education
Primary education for most Malawian children begins in Standard One at the age of six. At TPM, we are in the midst of developing a pre-school initiative entitled “Sunrise and Shine Early Learning Program”. This play based curriculum will provide social development along with pre-literacy and pre-numeracy skills in English to four and five year olds. This half day of pre-school education will offer an opportunity for children living in the rural region of Chilanga, Malawi to gain early access to a second language as well as lay out foundational baselines upon which their further schooling can be built. We are intent on educating the whole child; therefore, emotional, physical and sensorimotor skills will be intertwined through bi-weekly themes based on curriculum that is relevant and essential to the real world. From Dramatic play centers and Sensory Tables to STEM Challenges, these young learners will be motivated and challenged on a daily basis so that a love of lifelong learning will take root in each of them. These first steps into education will assist in creating the path for tomorrow’s leaders of Malawi.
