I’m in the person of Tahiru Abdul Wadud a final year student at the University of Education, Winneba, offering Linguistics and Gonja Education. As a young man growing up with the passion for behavioral change in society through education, I have preconceived notions and ideas on educational systems, religion, methods of teaching and racism through my experiences in life.
To begin with, as a young man born in a small town called Damongo in Savannah region of Ghana. It was known to me, our educational system which starts at KG, primary, Junior High School, Senior High School and Tertiary. This is based on how intelligent and knowledgeable you are. Here age is not important, because of this you can see in our classroom nine (9) year old boys and girls in a classroom with fourteen (14) year old boys and girls. So this was my preconceived notion on every educational system in the world but through Tricontinental Teacher Training, I got to reflect on my thought because in Germany the educational system is based on grades and ages so you can only see children of the same age at a particular classroom.
Secondly, growing up it was made known to me that Christianity is coming from overseas, so I was with the preconceived notions that Germany is going to be a mono-religious country but upon arriving there I got to know that it is a country where freedom of worship exists. This helps me to realize that my preconceived notions are not true.
In addition, as a young man who has been through his entire educational journey through public schools, mostly I observed that our teachers provide us with all the necessary information for learning and it is always teacher centered method, so I was of this notion it is done the same way in every part of the world. But being on Tricontinental Teacher Training made me know that the students also have responsibilities to feed themselves with the necessary information they need to learn and the teachers are there to guide them.
In a nutshell, as a football loving fan I always see on television situations where players are maltreated badly because of their racial identity and I was with this preconceived notion that Germany is a country with a high rate of racism, but being there in person made me realize that not all parts of the country practice racism, this helps me to reflect on my notions.
Challenges of the Tricontinental Teacher Training journey 2024
Every organization has its problems it faces and TTT is no exemption. I only saw the problem of communication. There is a problem with proper ways of disbursing information to fellows, which to me needs to be improved upon.
Recommendations
I recommend the leaders of the project for this wonderful opportunity for student-teachers to acquaint themselves with different perspectives of teaching and also make connections with the global. Finally, I think proper communication would help the project and the fellows would always prepare themselves well for whatever event or activity they are to participate in.
In conclusion, these are some of the things that came to my bear during the study camp at Hamburg, Germany and if put in proper order would help the growth of the TTT project.