Musammat Badrunesha, an English teacher in Bangladesh, is concerned with the teaching methodologies employed by madrasas (religious schools) in her region. “The English teachers of the madrasas have little-to-no training, so they teach students in a traditional way and in their own way,” she says. “The standard of teaching and the language learning system hasn't yet reached a reasonable standard.” In Musammat’s district, there are 80 madrasas with approximately 60,000 students and 450 teachers.
As a 2007 participant on the Teaching Excellence and Achievement Program (TEA) [8], Musammat spent six weeks at the University of Alabama-Huntsville [9] learning effective teaching methodologies and strategies to make her classroom a place of exciting, student-centered learning. She recognized, however, that these methodologies were not the norm in her home country. “The classes in Bangladesh are lecture-based and full of memorizing,” said Musammat.
Teacher Workshops for Change
To share the skills and knowledge she gained on the TEA program with her colleagues, Musammat organized a five-day workshop for teachers in her district in early 2009. But she didn’t stop there. Motivated to address the lagging standard of teaching and learning in the local madrasas, Musammat developed a series of trainings and workshops during 2010, designed specifically for the madrasa English teachers in her district. With support from the TEA Alumni Small Grants Program [10] and donations from the local authorities, these workshops introduced teachers to modern English teaching methodologies and strategies for their classroom. In addition to building their teaching skills, Musammat believed that the workshops would also help madrasas teachers build confidence in their abilities as educators. “The main intent of this project is to make teachers confident about teaching, so that they can discuss experiences freely, identify the issues, chalk out solutions, and apply these in classrooms,” said Musammat.
Building on Success
The success of Musammat’s workshops drew regional and national praise from community and education leaders, and several organizations and funders asked Musammat to hold additional trainings. Musammat’s efforts to improve the education of her students and skills of her colleagues also led to her recent promotion to vice principal and head of the English training department at her school. These are leadership roles that she welcomes with enthusiasm: “Before joining TEA, I worked in a small school in a small village as an assistant teacher. I couldn’t do more for my community though I had some hidden desire in my heart. After coming back from the US, people came to know about me as a trained English Teacher. Then I became a leader in my district.” Musammat shows no signs of slowing her efforts to improve secondary education in Bangladesh. In addition to overseeing the professional development of her school’s nearly 300 English teachers, she recently started training teachers at the national level for Bangladesh’s Ministry of Education. Musammat will also continue to follow up with her workshop participants, observing classes and offering feedback for future growth and improvement.
Musammat remains grateful for the opportunities to improve of herself as an educator for the benefit of her peers and students: “All the learning from the United States brought a tremendous success in my personal and professional life. I learned some wonderful teaching approaches and methodologies that make my personal classroom a great one.”
The TEA Program [8] is a program of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs [11] of the US Department of State, administered by IREX.