Pedagogy in the township

The Department of Biology works closely with South Africa's Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. As part of this co-operation, Oldenburg student teachers teach at Gelvandale High School - where they are thrown in at the deep end from day one, as Lea Brauer reports.

Together with four students who were also studying to be biology teachers, I was to teach science at Gelvandale High School in the township of Port Elizabeth for two months. Headmaster Meervin Blaauw gave us a friendly welcome and introduced us to the teaching staff. Then came the moment of truth: he immediately told us in which classes the teachers were absent and which lessons we were to take over. It was my first day at a school in South Africa and on the very first day I was supposed to stand in front of a class and teach. If I had known in advance that it would start straight away - I would have been really nervous.

Since 2009, the university's Department of Biology has maintained a close co-operation with the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University of Port Elizabeth and two secondary schools in South Africa - the Gelvandale School and the Lawson Brown School. The co-operation is based on the motto "Parntership creates power - partnership creates energy" and offers student teachers the opportunity to teach at one of the two schools. Almost all participants in the project take the opportunity to conduct research on site and write their final thesis about it. For example, I conducted interviews with the teachers at Gelvandale High School and am analysing them for my Master's thesis.

Prof Dr Corinna Hößle is the patron of the project and did an excellent job of preparing us for South Africa in advance. We had to organise most of our stay ourselves. There are several scholarship programmes, including the "promos scholarship" from the International Student Office and the "mobility scholarship" from School V, which support the project.

We had to find our own accommodation and rent a car. The townships are simply too unsafe for strangers. So every morning we drove the five kilometres from our residential complex, which was secured with an electric fence and bars to keep out the festivals, to class in the township. But it was precisely these contrasts that made our stay so exciting on the one hand and had a huge impact on the other. Other international students also lived in the residential complex. They never set foot in the townships. They didn't even realise the South Africa that we experienced on a daily basis at Gelvandale High School. We, on the other hand, were warmly welcomed by the teachers there. Some of them even invited us for lunch. I have great respect for the teachers at Gelvandale High School. The classes are bigger than ours. It is not uncommon for one teacher to be responsible for more than 600 pupils. The teaching style is also very reminiscent of frontal teaching. Nevertheless, they manage to organise lessons that are educational and exciting. I taught all school levels and classes during the two months. Even pupils who were about to graduate. A wealth of experience that I wouldn't want to miss. I was able to gain a lot of teaching experience during the project. Jumping in at the deep end was worth it: I still have contact with the teachers and I have become more confident when I stand in front of a class in Germany. The two months at Gelvandale High School have strengthened my confidence in my teaching skills.