ANELTA "Workshop"

Dramatic Poetry Reading by ISCED Luanda Students

ANELTA is the Association for Angolan English Teachers. It is sponsored by the US Embassy, British Embassy, and lots of other companies I don't have the names of. This year they decided to do a few workshops throughout the country. The first will be in Luanda, then they will move to Benguela, Hawambo, Lubango (my new site--I will present also), and Namibe. I am happy to see that the organization is doing things but the organization of it all has been quite a bumpy ride for what I have observed since arriving a week ago. Hats off to them for trying though.

My first impression of the ANELTA "workshop" was that on the surface it didn't look like my definition of a workshop. To me a workshop doesn't have a formal opening, it just includes a group of people who work on one topic in depth for a few days so that they know it well at the end. This "workshop" looks just like a conference: opening ceremony, different presenters, open question sessions, and the set up of the rooms is the typical blackboard in the front, projector, and desks in rows facing the presenter in the front. About 100 students, teachers, and teacher trainers attended.

I asked each organizing member if they had ever planned or attended a workshop before and everyone said no. How can you produce something that you have never experienced? It is no wonder the workshop looks like a conference. That is what the members of ANELTA have been exposed to. This whole idea reminds me of a new writer I found on the internet named Chimamanda Adichie. I am in love this woman and I have never read any of her books. She speaks so insightfully about what happens when humans are not exposed to different realities. Her talk is called "the danger of a single story. My dad sent me a video link. I have included it below.

To bring this back to my work in Southern Africa, I often see how just providing an awareness of different realities can eventually make an impact. Teaching and learning are so complex, I know I can't teach what I need to in only 10 months. Multiple stories, multiple colors, multiple points-of-view--I think these can really help change to come.

This is longer than just a soundbyte but worth the listen if you have some free time