Samoa trip July 2010

In the July school holidays, a group of us from Team Solutions, visited Samoa on a professional development trip ie our own professional development. The proposal we had put forward for approval talked of learning in an authentic context, of experiencing the Samoan culture as a lived experience and of teaching alongside teachers in schools in order to understand the ways of working that Samoan students experience. We had all taught Samoan students in NZ and knew that there was a big gap between what students experienced in Samoa and what they experienced in NZ. We wanted to experience this for ourselves.

Apart from our tour leader, whose family we were staying with, none of us had been to Samoa and were not quite sure what to expect. I had heard that Samoan people sleep on the floor. I didn't think I would survive 10 days on the floor so bought a blow-up mat just in case. I needn't have worried. The fale we were sleeping in was an open fale, very colourful, very cool and with 4 beds curtained off from the main fale room.
There was a bathroom close by with cold running water, a welcome respite from the 30 degree heat.
We also had our own separate dressing room and were shamed to find we were having much difficulty adjusting to NO MIRROR! Living in another culture like this really makes you look critically at values, beliefs, assumptions and expectations.

Julie cooking

outside cooking

   















School Visits 
 

The first school that we visited was at Lalomanu. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lalomanu    
This was where the tsunami hit in September 2009 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Samoa_earthquake. Many lives were lost and the country was devastated. Rangitoto College and some Team Solutions facilitators had raised money to buy 35 ukeleles for the school so we presented them to the Principal. The children were in assembly and when she told them, they were very happy, singing and dancing for us and the principal played a song on the ukelele for the children.

A lot or rebuilding had gone on including the rebuilding of beach fales which are a major tourist attraction and which were all washed away in the tsunami. Some families left their homes and refused to come back preferring to live further inland away from the water's edge.

Principal playing a donated ukelele

Children at Lalomanu primary school, dancing

Nafoili Primary - start of day drum

Nafoili Primary - assembly

Beach fales being rebuilt for tourists, Lolamanu

After spending time with Ministry and other officials, gaining an understanding of schools and the education system in Samoa, we had a day observing and working in Nafaoi'li Primary School. We were each given a level - I had Year 6 - we spent some time observing the teacher with the class and then we taught the class ourselves. Observing the teacher was interesting. The children spent a lot of time chanting. The class I was observing were learning the possessive pronoun and so they all chanted what was written on the board. The teacher then set the task, asked did they all understand to which they chorused loudly "Yes we understand", then they were asked whether there were any questions, to which they replied "No questions, thank you" and then they got to work. The teacher moved around the room but always kept a distance from the students sitting in their desks, while she was standing. The students were highly disciplined and respectful at all times - never any behaviour problems!

Then it was my turn to take the lesson. I had photocopied and laminated some pages from "Animalia" so that we could do some language work. We had brought pens, pencils, post-its for the students to use (which were a great novelty) . The first task was to name as many objects as possible in the picture, then add adjectives, then write sentences. I have never taught in a primary school before, let alone one where English is the second language. So it was a learning curve for everyone but the teacher translated my directions into Samoan. The teacher had the children sitting on mats on the floor for this exercise an so I found myself also sitting on the floor to get down to the level of the students. I had forgotten that the students had to keep their heads lower than mine so it was quite an exercise. Once I started giving praise, the children responded really well and all wanted me to comment on their work. Crawling around the floor in 30 degree heat was actually very tiring.

The final school we visited was the Roman Catholic secondary school, John Paul VI. Both this school and Nafaoi'li are village schools rather than big city schools. There was a young nun from NZ there as Deputy Principal who was highly energetic, very efficient and determined to make changes. Although the village boasts a huge Roman Catholic Basilica, the school received little money from the church and it was reliant on communities in NZ to fund it. The school had housing for volunteers to stay in while they worked in the school and they had just had a group of teachers from Villa Maria College in NZ working in the school in the NZ school holidays. The school was poorly resourced as was Nafoili Primary. We had taken as many boxes of school journals and other resources as we could take between us without paying exorbitant amounts for excess baggage. The teachers of the junior classes were untrained and there was a lot of teaching by rote and chalk and talk. As with the primary school, the students were well-disciplined.

We found that the discipline was a common factor through all of Samoan life. In the village we were staying in, a bell was rung at 6pm for everybody to go home for prayers and we would see people streaming back to their houses at that time. Another bell was rung at 10pm to announce the night curfew. Anyone caught outside after the bell would be heavily fined and punished. On Saturday we would see whole families out tidying the lawns and garden for Sunday. Again there were fines imposed by village matai or chiefs for untidy gardens. It made me realise why some students get into strife when they come to NZ - too much freedom, too many distractions, not enough discipline. No discussion went on in the classrooms yet students in NZ are expected to discuss and question. The Samoan cultural traditions teach one way, NZ culture is quite different.

We learned a lot from out trip. We learned things about ourselves and our own culture that we would never have learned from a textbook or conference paper. Our own values became apparent in contrast to the fa'aa Samoa way of life. It is difficult to take a critical view of one's own beliefs and values until  immersed in another culture. There were things that made us uncomfortable such as we, the visitors, always eating first and the rest of the family eating what was left. Even though the Samoans are a poor people, they are very generous. In a session with the treasurer of the Congregational church schools, he told us of how his family would treat the palagi like gods when they came to visit, give them lots to eat, and make sure they are always comfortable. When he won a scholarship to go to school in NZ he thought to himself "Now it is my turn to be treated like we treated the palagi". To his disappointment, he found he was largely ignored with no special treatment forthcoming. That story was very embarrassing for us.