I find it so exciting how the internet can bring us all so close together all around the world that we can share our research, creativity and passions so easily. It is amazing to hear the extremes of experience that we all face and that we all have such different worlds that we live in and yet our values are so similar. It brings me so much hope to read so many people sharing their values. I wonder sometimes if it is more important to ask the questions than to find the definitive answers, sometimes it is in the answers that the divisions come. I am drawn as I write to the Nelson Mandela quote I have as my signature that we always have more to go, we never reach our destination. I enjoy the journey very much even when the going gets tough. I find that sharing the experiences with other people who are also journeying gives me a great deal of inspiration, motivation and energy to continue. I hope my contribution will do the same for you all too. Sonia x
‘I have discovered the secret that after
climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.
I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that
surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can rest only for
a moment, for with freedom comes responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for
my long walk is not yet ended.’ Nelson Mandela
Date: Fri, 9 Apr 2010 14:34:13 +0400
From:
[log in to unmask]Subject: Re: Fw: Design as Research / Absolute Creativity
To:
[log in to unmask]Hi Dianne Allen , Delysia Norelle Timm and all
I like all the questions which were put to me and maybe to all of you ....Yes , brief of my autobiography:
I am vicente Antonio Halle, born on 25th january 1978 in Mutarara distrit which is found in Tete province . Tete is one of the central region province ( check the map of Mozambique). i am the second of 7 children and now i am representing the family as the first born child after my elder brother died on 19th May 2007 while i was in Kenya studying and my mother passed away on 20th march 2006. When i was 8th we ( my family and other mozambicans) had to flee to Malawi ( a neighboring country) due to the civil war between FRELIMO and RENAMO. we stayed in Malawi during 8 years in the refugee campus,,,,i cant tell you the conditions....sleep on the ground and under the trees and without cloths to cover...., no food and without school until the Jesuits Society, a religious congregation within catholic church, open schools for refugees. I did my primary school in Malawi under the trees until we were repartriated to Mozambique. Coming back to Mozambique que had to stay in the campus again because we did not have resources to start life( my friends,,,i cant tell you everything but just read, watch and reflect on Dafur region, Somalia and other countries which had this experience). When i finished my form IV , my parents did not have resource to look after us soon after refugee experience...children like my age on those day were getting married , etc, etc. i had to join the religious brothers where i made my first profession as Marist Brothers on 3rd July in 2004, in Zimbabwe. As Marist brothers, our charism is education and i had to teach catechism , Religious studies, Divinity, Morality and mathematics in countries like Malawi, Zimbambwe, RDC-Kinshasa, kenya, Zambia, Joburg, and other countries like Tanzania, etc. I was always teaching children who are or were most in need or neglected or who did not have conditions according to the demand of the region or setup.
Now am no longer a marist Brother , i had to leave after asking permission to the Vatican , that is, through the dispensation letter from Vatican. I was studying at Catholic University of eastern Africa in kenya doing my BA in education especially in mathematics and statistics. Coming back to maputo , now i am teaching mathematics and statistics to the first years students of our university which is private....Remember, our quality of education is too low and the Minister of education even release a note that those who have 4 years BA degree can teach other degree students....we have few masters and PHD lecturers in our universities here in Maputo....
Now , am trying to pre-register at DUT but i am waiting for the final say of SAQA. I always thank Sundeep of DUT, Joan Africa of DUT, Delysia and all DUT staff like Prof. Moyo in supporting me. I will not forget to thanks Jack Whitehead and Joan whitehead for wonderfull workshop which we had in Durban at Botanic Garden. i am longing to be with you in Australia but my biggest problem is to find someone of goodwill to sponsor me because i dont and i cant manage in term of finance to sponsor myself. I am praying hard that the Lord jesus will help me .....
My research proposal is entitled " how do i enhance my own understanding of the quality of mathematics education in Mozambique". I do believe that i will receive a lot of help. Please Mozambique needs your help and i do believe one day we can organize such type of meeting here in Maputo-Mozambique at Joaquim Chissano Conference hall( a beautifull place).
Thanks to you all and God bless and have a blessed weekend!
Vicente Antonio Halle
On Fri, Apr 9, 2010 at 1:44 PM, Delysia Norelle Timm
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Thanks Dianne for these questions which I believe are relevant and they take me into really examining myself- they have opened my eyes once again to the need
to understand who I am as a teacher/learner/facilitator and how did I arrive there. Jousse talks about the impossibility of anyone knowing the self except the self……
The last bullet:
is there something about the way these children are, in their world, that suggests that you need to change your way of teaching to reach them, to help them mobilise their knowing and their
ways of learning to take them closer to the success that they want and recognise?
Is very significant for me and it has many ideas and further questions coming from it…
Who are the children? Or am I more concerned about the subject/content I teach?
What is their world? How similar/different to my world?
What is success for them- I recall my own children saying – Mom, 50% is ok I have passed….what is my expectation?
Who/what do they recognise as being successful?
How do we mobilise their knowing? – what agitation within the bodymind is necessary for this to happen?- for me it is about the whole body being present in
the learning situation.
Vicente,
I hope that we will be able to meet you again when we come to Mozambique at the end of the month to Cupane… ask more questions….
Take care
From: Practitioner-Researcher [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Dianne Allen
Sent: 09 April 2010 09:53 AM
Subject: Re: Fw: Design as Research / Absolute Creativity
What a great question ...
From my point of view, which is 'reflective research of practice', and includes learning-by-doing, and learning from experience, the only way I can make a start on answering
that question is to ask you more questions ...
-
how like your growing up experience, is the experience of the students you want to work with?
-
from your growing up experience of learning, what was the best learning experience for you? what was the worst learning experience for you?
-
what are you currently doing as you seek to teach others?
-
how does that match with your best learning experience? how does that match with your worst learning experience?
-
do you need to change how you are teaching?
-
in what way do you need to change how you are teaching?
-
is there something about the way these children are, in their world, that suggests that you need to change your way of teaching to reach them, to help them mobilise their knowing and their ways
of learning to take them closer to the success that they want and recognise?
For me, Vicente, design as research and research=design, and especially for the way-of-life-that-is-/earning/teaching, is about working on the answers to those questions for
how I work with the people I work with. All teaching is dependent on context, and all my teaching is dependent on where I am at, with that context. In the end, I can only answer for myself in my context - have I listened enough to other, to know them and
to walk with them as they walk and live in their context, so that what I know I can help them apply as they too walk in their context.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, April 09, 2010 3:10 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: Design as Research / Absolute Creativity
Hi All,
thanks a lot for all of what are reading . I was away from Maputo-Mozambique a while, that is, about 1300kms. I went to Beira to visit some schools which are affected by the floods....and i was wondering how all what we discussing can be applied to those children
according to their context. i am trying to say that children who depend on the nature... during the rain season they cant study because they dont have schools, i mean , they study under the trees.....
And coming back to Maputo, i was given a class where the students are those who failled the entrance examinations in Public universities such as Eduardo Mondlane University and Pedagogic University.....these students are considered as slow learners if i may
use the term....How can i apply all what we saying....
Vicente Antonio Halle, from University of Saint thomas of Mozambique
On Thu, Apr 8, 2010 at 11:28 PM, Joan Walton <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Dear Aga, Alan and Lere,
