14.01.2025 – World Café with teachers at Kpedzke Senior High School
How can you work out with 70 people in 3 hours what the teachers expect from a partnership with a German school on the one hand and find out what the management’s expectations are on the other? One possibility is to hold a World Café. This method lends itself to not only collecting a large amount of information relatively quickly, but almost more importantly, to consolidating it more and more (see also teaser image). It was almost unbelievable for us that many teachers had never done or carried out group work before. The method was completely unknown, so it was all the more pleasing to see how everyone got involved and how actively they participated. For many, it was an advanced training course that was also confirmed by the school with a certificate. Many questions about the method were also asked after the event. Some wanted to try out the method soon and incorporate it into their lessons. We are curious to see whether this will work; up to now, the pupils and teachers have been used almost exclusively to frontal teaching due to a lack of teaching materials. Everyone was interested to see how we were able to work out the most important aspects from the information we had gathered. For many, it was hard to understand how this method could be used to generate and document the opinions of more than 70 people in just a few hours.
We realized how crucial passion and commitment are when we met Julius Nyerere Tettey in the afternoon. He is a teacher at Kpedze High School and is also responsible for the male students’ accommodation. He is also involved in the school’s library and a few other aspects. He made it clear to us – from his point of view – that it is not always due to a lack of financial resources, but that the mindset of those involved is of crucial importance. Using the example of a library that he set up for the school, he made it clear to us that a great deal can be achieved without external funding. The prerequisite for this is that those involved want it and find ways and means to take on the challenges. For example, he mentioned tidying and cleaning the rooms. He believes that a lot can be achieved if everyone pitches in together. We can only agree with that. It can only be done together. We from outside can initiate something, but it has to be implemented by our project partners on site. We are delighted that Julius will be one of our main contacts. With his knowledge, he is an English teacher, IT and social media-savvy and, above all, his passion for improving things at school, he is exactly the right person for us. We are very much looking forward to working with him.
At the end, he showed us the students’ accommodation, for which he is also responsible. Can you imagine what it’s like to live in a room with 22 boys aged between 16 and 19 for three years? Everyone has a bed and maybe a few square meters of space. The girls live in a similar way. The young people are responsible for the cleanliness inside and outside the rooms as well as, for example, washing and ironing the school uniform and the few private items of clothing they may have with them. Perhaps one final point: there is not a single power socket in the dormitories that could be used to charge the few cell phones, for example. Also, due to financial constraints, there is not a single light bulb in the few lamps provided. After 18:00 it is pitch black in these rooms.