This weekend is our WorldTeach mid-service conference and this letter was written bv one of my fellow volunteers, Zach Fox. I thought it was well written and raises many good questions. Please note: NOT written by me, I can take no credit.
Dear friends and fellow volunteers (and KJ and Camble!),
We are nearing the midpoint of our service here in Rwanda, and I think we all have a great many anecdotes about and insights into education in Rwanda. As we are in a developing country, I also assume we have faced a great many unique challenges inside and outside of the classroom.
As part of our mid-service conference, I petitioned Kelly Jo to discuss one of the most salient challenges in my classroom. Put simply, I am interested to learn about the critical thinking capacity of your students. As a group we teach a broad spectrum of students in a variety of subjects. However, the single most limiting factor Evan and I have faced (if I can speak for Evan) is the genuine lack of critical thinking skills at every level and in virtually every context.
The impetus for this letter was a set of notes dutifully recorded by an average Senior Six student in his ‘General Paper’ course (although truthfully my students’ ability to critically think has long been on my mind). GP for short, General Paper of course introduces various contemporary topics from politics, world affairs, public health, environmental science, social issues, and culture, among others. These particular notes discussed “Moral Decay.” Before you scoff, the notes were actually quite intriguing, if not exactly intellectually rigorous.
The causes of moral decay in Rwanda were plentiful and some were expectedly wildly off target, but there was not a single description of the words moral and decay. Being the English teacher I am, I proceeded to question my most capable students about the meaning of the two words, both in isolation and together. They went to great pains to provide the worst half-baked canned recitations before I stopped them. In short, my students were unable to accurately or adequately define moral decay, and thus I seriously doubted their ability to understand the lackluster notes provided to them.
The purpose of this short anecdote is to highlight what I suspect many of us already know, see, and struggle against everyday in class. So, I’d like to pose some questions, food for thought if you will.
For the sake of clarity, what do we consider critical thinking to be? Is the definition flexible, and if so, in what contexts?
For the sake of argument, accept my broad definition and consider these questions: How do we learn to ask relational, abstract, theoretical, or metaphysical questions? How do we develop the ability to interpret, to analyze, and to problem-solve? How do we learn to extrapolate and estimate?
Perhaps most central to this discussion, how important is critical thought? Where and when is it most important? Least important? How does it shape our daily lives, our careers, our relationships, etc.?
Okay, now let’s expand the discussion. What is or should be the role of critical thought vis-à-vis education methodologies and curricula in promoting human development and security? Let’s assume we all have a general awareness of the role education plays in development (I’m certainly fuzzy), and I know we all have a genuine interest in Rwanda’s development.
Is critical thought a key component of developed countries’ education systems and societies in general? Does critical thought make developed countries more ‘successful’ on basic human development indicators than developing countries? In other words, if we accept there is an educational disparity, generally speaking, related to critical thought does the disparity actually account for gaps in development? (Don’t get caught up in absolutism; obviously it would be immensely difficult to actually measure the impact of critical thought.)
What role does critical thought play in various parts of development-related activity? The finance, banking, commercial, industrial, medical/public health, transportation, education, and communication sectors, for example, all require some degree of critical-thinking capacity by my reckoning.
If we assume or accept that critical thought is vital to development , what avenues are available to increase critical thinking amongst students. For example, what methods are best implemented at local, regional, and national levels to prepare education professionals for critical-thinking oriented curricula?
Are we suffering from a purely language barrier problem, or something deeper, more systemic, and…at the risk of drawing charges of racism, cultural? In other words, is rote memorization, for example, a characteristic of Rwandan society at large? I cannot answer this question, but I believe it is an important one to ask and answer.
If one part of the equation is cultural, what exactly is at play? Also, can and should we reconcile ‘clashes’ between a culture and a more student-centered, critical thought-centric education, if such a clash should exist? How does our status as white foreigners affect any decision on this issue.
Are there alternatives to Rwanda’s education system elsewhere in Africa or the developing world? If so, what are they and do their students also struggle with critical, independent, creative, original thought?
Thanks for bearing with me, if you managed to do so. I’m sure we have all tossed these questions around for the past five months. Now I’d like to discuss them (hopefully everyone is amenable to that!). Preferably over multiple beers and a beautiful view across Lake Kivu. See you soon!
Cheers,
Zach
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