In this part of Global Voices we hear from two teachers whose lives have become extremely difficult. The first voice you hear is Joe, who trained them.
Between 2016 and 2020 I had the unique opportunity to work at the British Council (BC) office in Afghanistan in various roles ranging from English Manager to Deputy Director. During this time, I trained, managed and worked alongside a number of highly committed Afghan teachers who delivered our programmes. However, in 2021 everything changed when the Taliban took over the country, resulting in a mass exodus of anyone with foreign contacts. Those that were not lucky enough to leave successfully were forced into hiding.
As I write, over a hundred of the former BC teachers remain in hiding in Afghanistan, having waited a year and a half for relocation. These teachers all taught English, provided teacher training and promoted UK values – including equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) – on UK Government-funded BC programmes throughout Afghanistan. Some of them had worked for the organisation for as long as 10 years. All had contracts with the BC that were renewed on an annual basis. However, despite being eligible to leave the country and settle in the UK, no progress has been made on their relocation to date.
Stranded in their own country, the teachers continue to live in hiding, as the notoriously harsh Taliban regime appears to mistrust anyone with connections to the West, especially the UK and USA. The fact that the Taliban have a record of previous attacks on the British Council in Afghanistan (in 2011 and 2015) highlights the danger felt by people working on British initiatives there.
Many of the former teachers have received threats since the Taliban takeover, while others have been the victims of actual violence. The ‘At Risk Teachers’ campaign will continue to support these teachers by liaising with the UK Government and the British Council, raising public awareness of this injustice until everyone is safely relocated.
Ryan, São Paulo
I’m Ryan, an English teacher in Brazil. These days my classes are 100% online and my students are mostly professionally minded people who need English for their careers. Many are lawyers, doctors, architects, entrepreneurs or engineers. My biggest advice for new teachers is to never say no to opportunities, even if you feel like you aren’t qualified or don’t really know what you are doing. Jump in and figure it out later, you’ll be OK, even when you fail!
Originally from Seattle, I moved to Brazil in 2012 and began teaching at a local school. It wasn’t something I had planned, I moved here to be with my girlfriend and had no language education experience or training. In fact, learning how to explain grammar was very difficult – as grammar structures were something I was never taught in school! Luckily my co-workers gave me lots of advice and help. Making lots of friends with other teachers, translators and coordinators is essential.
My coordinator at the time, Rodrigo, eventually became my best friend here in São Paulo. He heard from the head office that the owner wanted to develop her own line of books. At first she just needed my help to check the English but eventually Rodrigo and I were editing the books and I found myself in a sound studio recording audio tracks! They even asked me to try various accents and do characters interacting with each other. It was really fun but also quite difficult. Voice acting is a lot of work, and anyone who does it professionally is extremely talented. One thing had led to another and I had accidentally found myself consulting on pedagogical materials.
At the end of 2015 the branch of the school we worked at was set to close. We were cocky and decided to try to start our own school. For a variety of reasons, it failed spectacularly. But I have no regrets because I learnt so much from the experience. I may have lost some money, but it was cheaper than business school! Also, since we couldn’t hire teachers, I had to teach, like, eight to ten classes every day. This is when I learnt how to create a class and ensure students remain engaged with the course. It was like a teacher bootcamp. However, by 2018 the school had closed.
By the time the pandemic hit in March of 2020 I had become a full-time private tutor and my typical day included two to three hour-long classes and at least two to three hours of commuting from one student’s house to another. I had already experimented with virtual classes, but students never accepted them. So when circumstances forced the students to go completely online it was a game changer.
I had to quickly experiment with different platforms like Zoom, Google and Skype and become an amateur visual effects artist on Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) so I could create virtual classroom tools for my students. I also had to invest in quite a few upgrades to my computer, camera, microphone and desk.
But the most challenging thing to adapt was the curriculum. My classes are one-to-one, and each student has a slightly different learning style and goal, so I’ve always had to tweak classes individually. But it was much easier to do that with materials designed for in-person classes. The materials I normally use, Keynote, Market Leader and Top Notch, were never designed to be used in a one-to-one virtual environment, and so I’ve been creating a lot of my own class materials and making large adaptations of them to fit the situation. But I really hope the educational publishers create some excellent materials for our new age soon. I could really use them!
Victor and Pamela, Chile
Involving students in literature lessons
Teaching literature to university students can be a daunting task if they are not actively engaged. Traditionally, literature lessons deal with the analysis of authors and books that might not be interesting for students. This semester, with my colleague, we decided to do something different that worked out really well. We implemented literary circles where the students had to select from a set of short stories about colonialism that we provided them. They read and analysed the stories in groups of four. Each member had to contribute with an analysis of part of the story from a personal and a social perspective. At the personal level, they had to discuss how the story affected them, while at the social level they compared and contrasted the story in relation to social events they had experienced or read about. As a group, they then discussed together and wrote a summary of the story and a final analysis. Finally, they used two online applications (Padlet and Bookcreator) to create an e-book and write comments about their classmates´ stories. As an alternative, other students decided to design and present an infographic to the class. It was amazing to see the students working enthusiastically with the guidance of the teacher and their classmates. The classroom atmosphere was welcoming as everyone felt free to make decisions about what to read from the pool of stories we provided.
Link to the stories and comments
https://padlet.com/victorbirkner/qlfbnsa4cj4tr7w7
Teachers: Victor Birkner and
Pamela Ramirez
Location: Chile
Universidad Silva Henriquez: English teaching programme
Subject: Literature of the English-speaking world
Jawid, Afghanistan
Hello, my name is Jawid and I worked for the British Council, Afghanistan as an English teacher and Master Trainer based in Kabul. My role required teaching English and training state school teachers across my province. As part of the programme, I taught modules on equality, diversity and inclusion. Since the Taliban took over, my life has been really difficult. I have been living in hiding because obviously many of my friends and neighbours know that I used to work for the British Council, so that puts me in grave danger. I left my home province last August and the Taliban has asked my neighbours about my whereabouts many times. I really wish the British Council or the UK Government had evacuated me to safety, I feel exposed because my work in the field was in the public eye.
According to the criteria required for the Afghan relocation and assistance programme (ARAP), I was qualified – but for reasons unknown to me I didn’t get informed about this programme. So, after hearing about the scheme through word of mouth, I applied for ARAP in June 2021 without British Council support – something which led to my application being ignored for months and then finally rejected.
In June 2022, I applied for the Afghan citizens resettlement scheme (ACRS) and got an email confirming my eligibility on 6 September. The email also asked me to submit documents such as our family’s passports, but I have not heard from the ACRS since. The process is too slow and it doesn’t consider our painful situation – or the threats we face on a daily basis. My family and I are helpless and in danger because of my work for the British government. We dearly hope that the government will help rescue us and we are counting the days until that happens.
Zehra, Afghanistan
My name is Zehra. I was working as a British Council English Resource Centre (ERC) Manager in one of the remote northern provinces of Afghanistan when the Taliban took over the country. As an ERC Manager, I used to manage the centre and took care of all the books, materials and software that the British Council had provided for our school. I also had to schedule, plan and deliver training and workshops at the ERC.
As a woman who was employed by the British Council, I was involved with different kinds of people in our community: school students and teachers, university students and lecturers, and all those who wanted to learn English. People came to the centre and used our books, sitting and studying in the centre for hours. I helped them to find whatever they needed, guiding them to learn English via software programs and different kinds of books.
In the centre we had information about British culture and traditions. All the people who came to the centre to use the books called us representatives of the British community – it contrasted with our backward and dark environment. Now, our lives are in danger because of the work we did for the British Council and we need the help of the British Government to evacuate us out of here to safety.