Dr. Brad Watson, Course Convenor for the School and Humanities and Creative Arts and Strand Convenor for International Poverty and Development Studies, has just returned from a research trip to Tonga where he studied the impact of the Avondale MOTO project.
The Ministry of Teaching Overseas (MOTO) is an Avondale initiative that sees teaching students doing an international practicum as one of their teaching experiences. A group of more than twenty Avondale students worked in three Tongan schools during February 2020 and Brad arrived for the last week of their time to conduct research into the process and its impact. He interviewed three school principals, ten staff members and a large group of high schools students of varying ages, to find out what they thought of the Avondale student teachers. His aim was to find out what impact the international teaching students had on the schools and their students.
This information will be used to improve next year’s trip and better inform the teaching of Avondale education students, but it will also form the basis of a published journal article so that other educators can learn from the experience as well. The research is unique because, while the volunteer experience has been well documented, it is rare for researchers to study the impact of international programs on the local community and its members.
While much of his research is not available for publication at this point, Brad shared a couple of amusing observations. One of the most obvious impacts that occurred during the Avondale teaching practicum was a change in the way discipline was conducted across the schools. The students of the local schools reported that while the Avondale teachers were in their schools there was a lot less corporal punishment used across the school. One Avondale teaching student learned that a local teacher kept a very large stick in their classroom for the purposes of punishment and it was not used during the entire Avondale teaching visit.
The school principals universally claimed that it was amazing for them to see how the Avondale students disciplined their students without corporal punishment and they were looking forward to trying out these new methods. Another consistent message that came back from all three schools was that they had an incredible start to the school year because of the enthusiastic teaching and engaged, vibrant mood the Avondale teaching students brought to the schools. One school even reported an extra enrolment of twenty new students as a result, something which was an answer to the principal’s prayers.