Adventures in Estonia

I am well and truly back on the fundraising and preparation train for Uganda this week after a mini hiatus ahead of the team training day in London this weekend.  Recently, I had some time away on an intensive programme with Chester University in Estonia.  I spent 10 days in Tartu, exploring student diversity and engagement as a part of an Erasmus-funded course between students and professors from eight universities in Europe, representing Sweden, Finland, the U.K., Hungary, Austria, Germany, Estonia and Spain.  My interest in the global landscape of education has become more and more of a preoccupation and I think that there is so much to be learned from studying how education is structured, organised and delivered in other areas of the world. 

The programme was excellent and highly focused on why we, as a continent, are struggling to address the issue of early school leavers, defined by the EU as ‘young people (aged 18–24) having completed at most a lower secondary education and not being in further education or training.’ 

(Alternative library setting in the entrance hall,

Tammen School, Tartu)

We looked at a wide programme and identified ways in which student diversity is (or is not) being understood and addressed in education.  Early school leaving is linked to unemployment, social exclusion, poverty and poor health; and young men who are ‘foreign-born’ and belong to ethnic minorities are more likely to leave education and training earlier than any other ‘category’ of student.  There are many reasons why people give up education and training prematurely: personal or family problems, learning difficulties, or a fragile socioeconomic situation and, no doubt, if you work in a secondary setting, you will have experienced these circumstances at play for students in your care.

(Alternative spaces for learning) 

Whilst in Estonia, we considered some of the ways in which these concerns could and are being addressed.  The way the education system is set up, school climate and teacher-pupil relations are all important factors. However, since there is not a single reason for early school leaving, there are no easy answers. Petra Goran, Policy Officer, DG Education and Culture at European Commission, has recently written,

“Early school leaving is not just a school issue and its causes need to be addressed across a range of social, youth, family, health, local community, employment, as well as education policies. Also extended educational concepts such as cultural education, cooperation with businesses or other outside school actors, and sports can play an important role in reducing early school leaving by promoting creativity, new ways of thinking, intercultural dialogue, and social cohesion.” 

This is what the elements of the programme focused on: drama education, adventure education, overcoming language barriers, the physical spaces for learning, nature education, leisure time education and vocational education.  Yet, if I were to identify just one over-riding theme that recurred throughout the programme it would be this: the largest contributing factor to early school leaving is the inability of the education system to mould to the needs of individual students and individual students to mould themselves into the pigeonholes of a homogenised system.  

In our neighbouring European counterparts, I could see that there were efforts to address these issues and to reinvent their education systems in a number of ways.  I saw that elsewhere, children start school later and spend fewer hours of the day or even days of the week at school, the range of subjects taught vary (handicrafts and economics feature from as young as 7 in some places), but national testing often only occurs at the end of schooling; in some countries, no testing until age 17.  Not only do these changes relate to the classroom and student, but also to the staff and premesis. In many countries, qualified teachers hold Masters degrees as well as Bachelor degrees, giving them more time to study their craft.  Degrees are also required to teach kindergarten or preschool, which is not the case everywhere, but you can also graduate with an education-based degree in leisure time management; there are roles for teaching staff which purely support students in choosing leisure activities and in organising social events because these are understood to be valuable learning experiences too.  Even the ways in which the school buildings are physically constructed are very different: floor to ceiling windows, open spaces, artwork and plant life adorning the corridors-a stark contrast to the more clinical settings that I’ve seen previously.  Another contrast is the way that vocational and academic pathways run as equally-weighted, parallel options, where students are able to opt in to schools and courses best suited to them and their needs, perhaps reminiscent of the polytechnic system of years gone by.

Whilst in Estonia, I visited some amazing educational institutions, but these were not limited to schools alone.  There, I visited a ‘nature house’ where students go to learn about the natural world; everything from how to make pots from clay, to how to care for animals, to learning which climates plants will grow in. I visited a science centre where there are practical applications explored through science in action experiments that children (and adults) physically engage with. I visited a museum, a youth centre, a drama centre, an adventure education site and a number of other alternative sites for education.  What amazed me most was not that these places existed; they do here in the UK too, but the emphasis that was placed on them and their relevance to students’ learning. They were available within walking distance and were very visibly in use by many local school students.

(The Nature House, Tartu, Estonia.)

So, how does all of this fit with the Uganda LRTT project?  What I take away from my recent trip is that education and the forms it takes should be wide and varied.  Enriching learning opportunities for students and inviting them to learn in new or alternative ways is of enormous benefit.  Every single student we teach is an individual learner, with individual needs and individual talents.  The challenge is how to juggle meeting these individual needs, foster these individual talents and enable them to enjoy learning, whilst ultimately helping them to succeed in their education (regardless of any complaints we might have of the system).  The question I am left with is to what extent is this possible in different contexts?  How can students learn effectively in locations where there are large numbers of students, often very basic classrooms and a lack of facilities? The role of the teacher in facilitating learning can only be emphasised when all other resources are minimal.  How do teachers meet these needs? 

I am fascinated by what we can learn from both the LRTT fellows from across the globe and, in particular, the local teachers in Uganda, just as I was fascinated by the alternative pedagogical approaches I saw in Estonia.  The longer I spend in the field of education, both as a teacher and a researcher, the more I come to realise that there isn’t a straight-forward recipe for success in teaching and learning.  There are different approaches and methods, but never a one size fits all solution. The more we, as teachers, as parents, as educators can learn about what works for different students and for different contexts, the better we will become at meeting our students’ needs.  

I am still looking for ways to raise further funds and meet my fundraising target, so please share this blog and visit my GoFundMe page and donate, if you'd like to help me get a little bit closer to that target.

Thank you!