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You
are here: The Work Continues
December 2003
The fourth in a series of journal reports from Cambodia on a new school leadership professional development project
The past weeks have been filled with school visits and three more workshops. The workshops are all held in the same small classroom and the number of attendees continues to grow. While the same 42 principals show up faithfully every time, a growing number of people from the Ministry of Education, VSO (Volunteers Service Organization) volunteers and others come to see what is happening. And to their credit, they participate eagerly in the activities. But the room is now REALLY crowded, just like the school classrooms that I visit. Too many people in too small a space. The good news is that interest in leadership development seems to be growing and the word on the street must be that the workshops are worthwhile.
In early November, Dr. Ellen Kahan, Assistant Superintendent from Edmonds, WA School District arrived to spend a little over a week helping with a workshop and traveling to schools. It was wonderful to have a colleague to share this experience with. Her creativity and teaching skills made the second workshop quite wonderful. The principals had a good time experiencing the power of learning using art and humor. It was good to see them have so much fun learning. Ellen and I visited schools in Kampot Province, close to the Viet Nam border and a school near Phnom Penh. Her observations and reflections have proven to be very helpful. We discovered a most remarkable school in a most unlikely place. Near the Viet Nam border, a small school, nestled at the foot of a mountain, made us smile. When we arrived, instead of being greeted by school personnel, we were greeted by parents. This is very unusual. Parental involvement is not a high priority for most school principals unless, of course they want them to raise money for the school. This principal has actively worked at involving parents in the life of the school (they are on many different school committees) and in the learning life of their children. When we talked with them, it was obvious that they loved the principal very much. I had not seen this affection in any school before nor have I seen it in any school since. To read Ellen's reflections on her visit, navigate here:http://www.newhorizons.org/trans/international/kahan.htm
Dr. Ellen Kahan, Asst. Supt. from Edmonds School District in Washington State, Duong Odom, principal of school near the Viet Nam border in Kampot Province and Reaksmey, my translator.
We saw teaching here that was better than most other schools, but not exceptional. We saw classrooms that looked much like other Cambodian schools except the students really seemed engaged and connected in a relationship with their teacher. There was an energy that could be felt. The principal, Doung Odom, is a humble and quiet man. He grew up in the area where the school is located, survived Pol Pot and has been principal at the school since 1979. He said, "After surviving the Khmer Rouge time, I know that anything is possible". He teaches his teachers that anything is possible. And, indeed, he practices what he preaches.
His original "vision" for his school was to build new buildings so that the children did not have to attend school in a broken down building used by the Khmer Rouge as a kitchen. One evening it simply fell down. For the next few years school was held under the giant acacia tree. In the late 90s he was able to convince private donors to build the necessary buildings. They are neat and clean and full of children, fifty to sixty in every classroom.
Odom now has a new vision for his school. He wants to improve teaching and learning. He wants all of his children to learn better. And he wants to make sure that the school has the resources to make that possible. As we talked, it occurred to me that he was a living example of what is possible for school leaders in Cambodia.
We visited a small school in Kandal Province not too far outside of Phnom Penh. The assistant principal, who is in the workshops with me, was sick that day, so the principal spent the morning with us. She was a woman in her mid fifties who told us her own life story. It was obvious that, as a leader, she knew how to work with people. Several years ago, the school needed to expand due to a growing student population. Next to the school, on the land that was needed for expansion, lived many "squatter" families. These were landless people living on property that belonged to the Wat (pagoda). She described the difficult and confounding negotiations that she undertook to convince them to leave, help them find new housing, secure financial resources so that they could afford to move and more. It all sounded so complicated and even dangerous. While this is not the kind of work that is in the job description of school principals in developed countries, it is not uncommon here. Finding resources to build classrooms and all of the work surrounding that effort, is expected of school principals. It is just part of the job.
Our car getting off the ferry after we have just crossed the Mekong River. We visited two schools in Kandal Province that are very remote.
Things are changing very quickly for school principals in Cambodia. For many years after Pol Pot, the job of the principal was simply to manage, to worry about the buildings, resources etc. It was the teachers' job to worry about teaching and learning. Now, they are encouraged to reach out to the community and engage them in school life and to expand their role to include teacher supervision. They are being asked to reach out to parents and to become a leader for teaching and learning. This evolution of the job is very challenging for some. Few of them have role models of strong school principals, so it is hard for them to picture what this form of "leadership" actually looks like.
It is further complicated when someone like me suggests that they do things that seem to make no sense. For example, I have been encouraging them to have informal chats with the children at school as a way to build relationships. I tell them that children need to know that the adults at the school care about them, want them to attend school, etc. Things like smiling at children, calling them by name and asking about their families are "basic" to a foreigner like me. But to many of the principals, these sound strange. Sarik (Deputy Chief of Takeo Provincial Office of Education) explained to me that the Khmer culture is a hierarchical culture. As a result, someone of higher status, like a school principal, would not just "chat" with someone with low status, like a student. Children don't expect to be addressed personally by the principal. In addition, the Ministry has never spoken with principals about this before, so it is a completely new idea for them that is coming from me. I try to approach this very carefully and, I hope, sensitively. Sarik and others have advised me that it is an important aspect for the principals to explore and one that over the next few months can and should be addressed and encouraged.
Last week, Sarik accompanied me on a school visit. Shortly before the afternoon session began, he slipped quietly out of the office where we were meeting. I found him sitting on the front steps with a little boy sitting next to him. The little boy looked confused and very tentative. Sarik asked him what grade he was in and did he know how to read. When the child said that he was in second grade and could read, Sarik took out an Easy Reader and had the boy read to him. As all of this unfolded, a crowd of children and adults gathered around. They looked confused at first. You could almost hear them thinking, "Why is this very important adult sitting and talking with this little boy?" And then smiles came to their faces as the boy read loudly and strongly and Sarik, equally loudly and strongly, praised him for his work. I am not sure who was more surprised, the children or the adults who were watching. It was a powerful moment!
This week I visited a small school in Kampot Province that sits amidst rice paddies and clusters of trees and mountains. It was a beautiful setting. The air was clean and fresh. The rice, nearly ripe, smelled delicious. I watched the children run and play and enjoy their break between classes. The principal quietly told me that around the school were many "killing fields"-- large holes or trenches where hundreds of people were thrown after they were killed by the Khmer Rouge. One of the trenches was discovered during construction of a new school building. The remains of the bodies were removed and buried in a special place. As I stood on that site, I closed my eyes and listened to the laughing children, and imagined a very different sound some twenty--five years earlier. It made me shudder.
Site of the burial trench.
Cambodia is a place of paradox. Each day I learn and another one of my "assumptions" is questioned and challenged. Every day, I ask the same questions of myself, "Who am I to be doing this work? Who am I NOT to be doing this work?" For now, I simply live into the questions.
You may email John Morefield at jmore44@yahoo.com.
© December 2003 New Horizons for Learning
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