Week 7: The End

Laine Dolan, an elementary education and communications studies student in the College of Education is spending part of her student teaching semester abroad. She is teaching at Swanson School in Auckland, New Zealand, and is blogging about her experience. This post originally appeared on Laine’s own blog. 

The time has finally come: the last week of student teaching in New Zealand is over. However, here is a recap of the final week of this incredible experience!

My class had been working hard at their play of The Rainbow Fish and finally got to perform it for some other classes on Monday. The costumes turned out adorable and the students read their lines very well! I think I might have a few future Broadway stars in my class.

The last week of school we also had a water day where the kids enjoyed soaking me with squirt guns and a huge slip ‘n slide was set up on a hill. Another student teacher and I may have enjoyed the slip ‘n slide more than our students! My class also created their own jandals (sandals) after we read the story Crocodiles Christmas Jandals. I also continued to share my passion of lacrosse with my kiddos as we had some chances to practice their skills more. Finally we ended the week with some well earned ice blocks (popsicles).

Oh! Don’t let me forget about the final assembly! There were awards, each year level sang songs, and most importantly… the American teachers put together a little something for the school. We also were lucky enough to be pulled on stage with the Pacifico group to try to learn their cultural dance moves. It is a Pacifico tradition to bring people into their culture by having them try the dance with them. It was quite the surprise to us to be pulled on stage again but we did our best!

It’s the people that really make the most impact on experiences in life. I am so grateful to have been places with Janet these past seven weeks. She has been so fun to work with and has helped me grow as a teacher in so many ways. On our final day, after the bell rang and school ended, all of us American student teachers headed to Bethells beach for one last afternoon hangout.

I am so thankful for each and every person that I met while student teaching in New Zealand. There were countless people that went out of their way to make us all feel welcome. Lisa (a teacher at Swanson) hiked and got burgers with us the first weekend. Mike (a teacher) dedicated so much time to help us make traditional Maori bone carving necklaces. Hazel (a teacher and host of Sarah) took us hiking, kayaking, and snorkeling. Matt (a teacher) took us surfing. These are just a few of the numerous people that made this trip so special.

Most of all I am thankful for the girls asleep on the beach above. I could not have asked for a better group of girls to be stuck with every day for the past seven weeks. Sarah, Alee, Erin, Maddy, and I made so many memories this trip that I will never forget. I’m lucky to have four new best friends! See you all at St. Norbert College when I visit soon!

Thanks for following my blog!

The End.

The Final Hui and Growing the Game

Laine Dolan, an elementary education and communications studies student in the College of Education is spending part of her student teaching semester abroad. She is teaching at Swanson School in Auckland, New Zealand, and is blogging about her experience. This post originally appeared on Laine’s own blog. 

This second-to-last week of the school year was filled with a lot of learning and fun. We have been working this entire term on passion projects. Each child was able to choose their passion that they wanted to create a project on. Passions ranged from baking and horses to robots and Minecraft. Each of the students had to pick a topic, create questions about the topic and find answers to some of their questions. They then created a poster and presented to the class their passion.

Knowing before I got to New Zealand that the students would be doing passions projects, I was able to gather a few things to bring to share my passion to the class. My passion is lacrosse, and this past week I was able to share it with my class and grow the game of lacrosse all the way to New Zealand. Although lacrosse does exist in New Zealand and they do have a national team, it is very rare to play and few people know the game. I gave my students a presentation on my passion and explained the game of lacrosse to them and my involvement in the sport. It was really exciting because the students were extremely engaged. I had not seen them sit so still and listen so well on the mat until that moment. Since I knew that students at Swanson would not know the game of lacrosse, I brought a little set with me. This set included a few sticks, goalie stick, ball and net. After explaining in my presentation all about boys and girls lacrosse, I was able to take students outside in small groups to teach them a little lacrosse. They all had a blast learning the new sport and asked every day after if we could play again. I absolutely loved sharing my passion with these kids and hope that some will continue to play after I leave.

Along with our passions projects we completed some missions in maths! Yes I said MATHS and not math because that’s what they call it here. Another highlight of the week (and, really, my entire trip) was going to the final Hui! Students from the kaphaka group sang Maori songs and performed traditional Maori dances, including the Haka, which is a war dance. This was one of the greatest experiences ever. Six weeks down and only one more week to go!

 

Every Country Should Have Thanksgiving

Laine Dolan, an elementary education and communications studies student in the College of Education is spending part of her student teaching semester abroad. She is teaching at Swanson School in Auckland, New Zealand, and is blogging about her experience. This post originally appeared on Laine’s own blog. 

“Every country should have Thanksgiving” said a random New Zealand lady at a rest stop on the side of the road, and I could not agree more. This woman had started up a conversation with the other American student teachers and me when we stopped for a quick break to take in some views on our drive back from a weekend trip. The friendly woman overheard us talking with our American accents and was quick to ask if we were from the States. She then started to express her love of the idea of Thanksgiving, and wished that she and every other country in the world celebrated it too. It was in this moment that I realized I had never appreciated thanksgiving enough.

Every year, as every other American does, I express what I’m thankful for around Thanksgiving. Usually it’s the typical things like family, friends, food and a house I am thankful for, but this Thanksgiving I am thankful for Thanksgiving. It really is amazing to think an entire country as big as the United States all stops on the last Thursday in November every year to be thankful. Students get off of school. Majority of adults get off of work. People travel home to their families. All to sit down and share a meal with your loved ones and give thanks.

The woman at the rest stop was not the only New Zealand person who mentioned to me that they love the idea of Thanksgiving and wished they celebrated. Multiple people throughout November mentioned to me how much they wish they celebrated. With each person who mentioned something I became more grateful that I am able to celebrate it every year in the States.

During the week of Thanksgiving in the States, I got to teach a lesson to my New Zealand students about Thanksgiving. I read a few Thanksgiving books that they loved, and they wrote about what they were thankful for and what they would do if they were a turkey on Thanksgiving. I of course also had them do the classic activity of creating turkeys using their hands for the feathers and feet for the body. It was so fun teaching kids who knew nothing about our holiday of Thanksgiving. It was also extremely interesting because New Zealand has a similar but different history than the United States. Like in the United States, native people (the Maori) were living in New Zealand before the English came to settle. Although they were different periods in time, the English in the United States and New Zealand were presented with the same situations but had handled it differently. The pilgrims in the United States forced the native Americans out of their land. In New Zealand, the English and the Maori chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi. This treaty ultimately gave the Maori people power to continue to celebrate their culture and traditions. It led to more Maori culture being in the New Zealand curriculum and ultimately taught in every classroom in New Zealand. Although it is said the English people in New Zealand might not have had the best intentions with the treaty, it ultimately was what gave the Maori the power to get Maori culture integrated into New Zealand curriculum.

I enjoyed sharing the American holiday of Thanksgiving with my students in New Zealand this year, however, I think I will need to have a proper Thanksgiving meal when I get back to the states in the Spring. Thanksgiving without a turkey and stuffing is just not the same.

Embracing Maori Culture

Laine Dolan, an elementary education and communications studies student in the College of Education is spending part of her student teaching semester abroad. She is teaching at Swanson School in Auckland, New Zealand, and is blogging about her experience. This post originally appeared on Laine’s own blog.

Before I even got to New Zealand, I started to experience the immense integration of the Maori culture within New Zealand. I was greeted in multiple emails from the New Zealand faculty saying “Kia Ora.” From the context of the emails I could make the assumption that this was a greeting, however, I didn’t look into what language this greeting was and where it came from exactly. I quickly learned when I got to New Zealand that it was “hello” in the Maori language.

Here is the long story short: the Maori are the native people in New Zealand. In the early 1800’s the English were trying to colonize in New Zealand. They eventually created The Treaty of Waitangi, which was signed in 1840 by numerous Maori chiefs. However, the English translation and the Maori translation have different meanings for the treaty. The English began to take advantage of the Maori, and the agreements of the treaty disappeared for numerous years. Eventually the Maori people were able to fight back and clarify and ratify the treaty with the English. This then led to Maori language being a part of the New Zealand curriculum and taught in every school.

One of the first things I noticed in my classroom at Swanson was the amount of Te Reo (Maori language) posted on the walls. There were translations for the days of the week, the months, the numbers and more. The language was everywhere. In addition, every morning when the teacher takes roll they say “Kia Ora” and then the person’s name. After roll, everyone stands up and we all say the Karakia together. This is a Maori prayer or ritual that we say to start the day. We also say a Karakia to end the day before the students go home. After we say the Karakia we usually sing a Maori song in Te Reo.

After the Karakia and some songs, we usually do mat time where we will go through the days of the week in English and Te Reo. Teachers also frequently ask students to stand up or sit down in Te Reo. Te Reo and Maori culture is part of the New Zealand norm. I see the language frequently written places like on trains and bathroom doors in public. People frequently use Te Reo words while speaking or greeting others. They also refer to Maori culture a lot and many wear Maori necklaces.

One of the greatest parts about all of this is that it is all people that are celebrating the Native New Zealand culture. There are white New Zealand people and brown New Zealand people who all celebrate their country’s native culture. I have learned so much about the Maori culture while being here for this short time and it has had such a positive impact on me.

​I love the way New Zealand celebrates their native Maori culture in everything and every day. I think it would be really amazing in the United States took a page from New Zealand’s book and started incorporating more Native American culture in classrooms. The Native Americans were the first Americans and they deserve to have their culture taught and celebrated in all classrooms.

Here are pictures of Te Reo in our classroom!

Why is Cheese in America Orange?

Laine Dolan, an elementary education and communications studies student in the College of Education is spending part of her student teaching semester abroad. She is teaching at Swanson School in Auckland, New Zealand, and is blogging about her experience. This post originally appeared on Laine’s own blog.

Think about it… milk is white… why do we have orange cheese in America?! I was mindblown when this idea was brought to my attention here in New Zealand. We were sitting in the staff room during morning tea chatting with a reliever (substitute teacher) when this was brought to my attention. She had lived in the United States for about five years in her teen years when her dad had moved there for work. We were talking about differences between the States and New Zealand. She explained the thing that confused her the most in the States was that we had bright orange cheese. At first I was confused by her comment because I’ve just grown up “knowing” cheese is orange. When you put a slice of cheese on your burger it’s bright orange, when you make Kraft Mac ‘n cheese and most kinds it’s bright orange, and if you buy a cheesehead in Wisconsin it’s bright orange! If someone asked me to draw a slice of cheese I would most likely draw it orange.

However, as I say that, I was perplexed by her comment and put it all together: cows make milk which makes cheese. Cows’ milk is white… so why and how is our cheese orange… Milk is never orange! I was dumbfounded. What are the cheesemakers of America not telling us?! So… I did some research to find the answer to this mystery that I had natural believed my whole life. According to a NPR article, certain breeds of cow had a natural yellow-orange pigment when they were being grass fed. Grass fed = greater quality cheese. Well cheese producers decided to make a little more money by skimming off the cream to make butter separately. However, this took away some of the color of the cheese. So they started to color the cheese to make it seem like it was still quality cheese. Then they started getting even more tricky and coloring it brighter and brighter orange because people believed it was greater quality the more orange. This started in England and was carried over to the States. And that is why our cheese is orange! It is indeed colored with dye! There is my spiel about cheese being orange because I was so rattled by the fact the cheese I had grown up with my whole life was not the same color as milk.

Now transitioning to school… school is still good! I have taken over the first blog which has primarily been reading and math. I have really enjoyed the freedom of planning and teaching here. There is not a strict curriculum so I can choose what I want to do and how I want to do it. My teacher I am working for has been really amazing to work with and has helped me grow a lot. Next week I will fully be taking over the classroom.

Over the weekend we drove up north to the Bay of Islands for a few nights. The beaches were incredible and the view was unbelievable. We went sailing on Saturday and enjoyed 6 hours on the water with the most amazing sights. Sunday we relaxed on the beach and enjoyed some good food. We then made our way home. I successfully drove on the left side of the road the whole way so that’s a win.

It has been the most incredible experience here and I cannot wait to see what else we explore!

Week 2: The Big Orange Box

Laine Dolan, an elementary education and communications studies student in the College of Education is spending part of her student teaching semester abroad. She is teaching at Swanson School in Auckland, New Zealand, and is blogging about her experience. This post originally appeared on Laine’s own blog. 

I have officially been student teach​ing in New Zealand for two weeks now. I have loved my time so far and have learned so much from my cooperating teacher, class and school. I have finally started to get into the groove of things and am getting a hang of the schedule.

I mentioned briefly in my last post about how students at Swanson have a lot more play time than students in the US do. So here is the average day teaching in my Year 1/ Year 2 class at Swanson school:

Swanson Daily Schedule
9:00 – Learning Block 1 (2 hrs)
11:00 – 1st Break (40 min)
11:40 – Learning Block 2 (1.5 hrs)
1:10 – 2nd Break (40 min)
1:50- Learning Block 3 (1 hr)
2:55 – Dismissal

This totals to about 6 hours at school, 4.5 hours of learning blocks, and 1.5 hours of break/lunch time. In addition o the breaks, we frequently take breaks during learning blocks to take a lap or two jogging around the large bike path or playing a game. We also have fitness once a week where we do track and field activities for 40 minutes. My school I was just at in Wisconsin had 7 total hours at school and only a 20 minute recess and 20 minute lunch. Our brain breaks would be quick and limited because we were always inside. Another difference between Swanson and my school and most schools in the States is that when a students finishes a learning task at Swanson, they are usually free to play until it is time to move on to the next thing. Frequently, in the states when a students finishes a task, they are either directed to another task.

One of my biggest takeaways so far is that it is okay for students to just play sometimes. If they are getting their work done then they deserve some time to just play and be a child. A lot of learning and creativity happens through play, too.

I have learned over my time here that Swanson is a unique school in New Zealand. Not many schools have this much play time or free play (no rules) at breaks. If you have not checked out the tab of my blog about Swanson school, I highly recommend checking it out and watching the Free Play videos. Swanson has a unique policy of allowing kids to do whatever they please at breaks. Teachers are not allowed to say no and do not step in. I had not seen anything too crazy while on duty during breaks until this Friday when the big orange box arrived. This box was added to the field as storage for bikes, however, adventurous Swanson kids saw it as a great big climbing wall. I could not believe my eyes when I saw a herd of children climbing the box and standing on top. I even saw a kindergarten boy make it to the top of this box which was probably 12 plus feet off the ground. Although this was terrifying, it was also amazing to see the teamwork happening on this box. Older kids were helping younger kids make it to the top. I saw two 12-year-olds hoist up a 6-year-old boy while another 12-year-old grabbed him at the top and pulled him up. I also saw lines forming and kids patiently waiting for their turn to use the ladder they had dragged over from the hut building station in the trees. Anyways the big orange box was a wild experience to watch, but I can see a lot of benefits from letting children explore and learn from their own mistakes instead of an adult telling them no.

This week was a crazy week, but I loved every second of it!

On Friday I had a picnic with another American student teacher and her host family at Bethells beach. Never a bad day with food and a beach. On Saturday we ventured off to Waiheke Island and explored some beautiful vineyards. The views were incredible.

New Zealand has been good to me, and I can’t wait to explore it even more!

Week 1 – Barefoot Kiwis

Laine Dolan, an elementary education and communications studies student in the College of Education is spending part of her student teaching semester abroad. She is teaching at Swanson School in Auckland, New Zealand, and is blogging about her experience. This post originally appeared on Laine’s own blog. 

Hello Everyone and Welcome to my First Blog Post!

​I have made it to New Zealand and have lived one full week with the Kiwis. After three flights and about 32 hours of travel, I was glad to get to my host family’s house Swanson, Auckland, on Saturday October 26. We spent the long NZ Labor Day weekend exploring the near by area with our hosts. We saw great views from the Arataki Visitor Centre and the Pukematekeo lookout. We also went to a nice beach, city area called Mission Bay and stuck our feet in some black sand at the Piha beach.

Going into the first day of school here, I knew from my research that Swanson School was going to be a more relaxed style of learning than the States and that there was a big emphasis on play for students. However, I was still extremely shocked — in a good way — by the first day. I am with year 1 & 2 which are the same ages as Kindergarten and 1st graders in the states. A big part of the day was spent outside during their two 40 minute breaks and another 45 minutes for “fitness.” This fitness block happens a few times a week. During this time, all five of the year 1/2 classes head outside, and each teacher runs a station. Currently the stations are focused on track and field activities such as the high jump, which my station worked on. In addition to these breaks and fitness time, frequently when students finish a learning task they are free to go play as long as they stay close to the classroom when outside. This amount of free play is significantly greater than I ever experienced as a student and ever saw while getting my education degree. I am excited to continue to experience it and learn about the benefits.

Now let me tell you the thing I love about New Zealand… BAREFOOT FEET! It was a little startling the first time I saw people barefoot in places that it seemed improper to me, but now that I am used to it I love it! I’ve seen kids barefoot walking the aisles of the grocery store, a barefoot man getting his food at a kebab restaurant, and people at the train station or walking the streets barefoot. At school, all of the students are expected to take their shoes off to come in the classroom. They are also not required to wear them during breaks so majority of students do not put them on again the rest of the school day. Barefoot feet is normal here, and I love it. Although I have not fully embraced it yet, I am sure I will soon be walking around barefoot all the time.

My first week here I have spent a lot of time observing and taking in everything. There are a few other things I found to be different than the States, or at least from what I have experienced in the States. First off, although they speak English, there are a lot of differences in what we call things. I added a new tab called “language” on my blog with a list of a few of them. In addition in the States when students are asked to sit up and show they are listening, they generally are expected to fold their hands. In New Zealand, students are expected to cross their arms. Another difference is when students in NZ raise their hand they point their pointers finger up. Last difference I have noticed between NZ and USA is that NZ includes a great amount of Maori (native NZ people) culture in their classrooms and every day life. The United States does not include a lot of Native American culture in the classroom. This is an interesting topic I will definitely blog more about later.

After the first week of school we hiked Rangitoto ,which is a dormant volcano. We also explored some of the lava caves. The weekend ended with a Halloween BBQ with our host families. Halloween has just recently started to happen in NZ so very few people celebrate. Only five out of my 25 students went trick-or-treating. That sums up life so far in NZ.

If you made it all the way to here thanks for reading my novel of a blog! Sorry for the extreme length! There is a lot to take in the first week! Hope you enjoyed 🙂

Adventures in Student Teaching: About Swanson School

This fall, one of our elementary education pre-service teachers, Laine Dolan, is completing her student teaching in New Zealand. As part of this experience, she’s blogging about her time. Originally posted on her own blog, the following posts will chronicle along Laine’s adventures!

By Laine Dolan

Swanson school is a small school in the small town of Swanson which is a suburb of Auckland, New Zealand. The town of Swanson has a population of less than 1,500 people and has less than 1% of Auckland’s population. The Swanson School that I will be student teaching at is a charter school, and the students wear uniforms. According to their website, the school population is composed of 29% Maori, 37% NZ European, 12% Pasifika, 8% Indian, and 15% from other ethnicities. Their school year consists of four terms. Each term is about six weeks long followed by a two week break in between each term. After term four, there is a six week summer break. I am student teaching in a classroom with 25 students that are mainly “year 2” students (ages 6-7) with a few “year 1” students.

A unique feature of the Swanson School is their philosophy of “free play”. At Swanson School there are no rules during their break times or recesses. They believe student learn from their freedom. Their website says”in the playground children can be seen to be building huts, riding every wheeled contraption that exists all over the school, climbing trees, play fighting, sliding down mudslides, using stair rails as monkey bars, or just lying in the long grass and talking.” I encourage everyone to watch the videos posted on my blog to get an idea of what free play is and how it works at Swanson School.  

Adventures in Student Teaching: International Edition

This fall, one of our elementary education pre-service teachers, Laine Dolan, is completing her student teaching in New Zealand. As part of this experience, she’s blogging about her time. Originally posted on her own blog, the following posts will chronicle along Laine’s adventures at Swanson School! 

Hello!

My name is Laine, and I am majoring in Elementary Education and Communication Studies at Marquette University. Over my four years at Marquette I have been in various urban and suburban classrooms in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I completed the first two months of my student teaching at a private urban school and am fortunate enough to finish the last half of student teaching in Auckland, New Zealand. Through St. Norbert College’s Global Teaching Program, I will be able to spend two months student teaching in a year one classroom in New Zealand. I am extremely excited for the incredible experience I will have in New Zealand.

Goals

1. Go out of my comfort zone to make the most of my time.
2. ​Experience the traditional New Zealand culture.
3. Live as much like the kiwis as possible.
4. Try all of the New Zealand food.

​Cultural Development Objectives​​

1. Embrace new teaching styles and perspectives.
2. Reflect on how to better my teaching style from what I learn in the NZ classroom.
3. ​Buy into everything every day.

On Toothaches, Titicaca, and Dreaming

This summer marks the third College of Education faculty-led study abroad trip to Peru. Dr. Melissa Gibson and 11 of our students are studying and learning in Lima while also traveling the country. Their blogs are originally posted on Marquette Meets Peru, and we’re excited to share them with you!

By Dr. Melissa Gibson

Isla Amantaní sits in the middle of Lake Titicaca, a rock of fields and homes rising up out of the water. It is said to be the spiritual center of the world, and staring out at the Andes and the expanse of Titicaca’s deep blue, it’s easy to see — and feel — why.

Sunset at Casa Muñay, Isla Amantaní.

This year, I ended my time in Peru on Amantaní, a guest in the house of Mamá Fernanda and her sons, José Luis and Luis Alberto. Their simple home sits on the northern slope of Amantaní, and for 48 hours, I got to sip coca tea, stare at the lake, and marvel at the life they get to lead. There are no cars on Amantaní, so rather than the sounds of the city, the island echoes with bleating sheep, a very loud and angry burro, and — when the colectivos arrive onshore with their tour groups — a symphony of Andean flutes. I was drawn to Amantaní because, after a month of teaching and shuffling eleven undergrads around Peru, I knew I needed a few days to decompress, recharge, and breathe. When I land in Milwaukee after this annual month abroad, I must hit the ground running, the busy life of upper-middle-class America not waiting for me to catch my breath.

What a stark contrast that is to the life of Fernanda and her sons. They live in two humble but loved houses, just up the hill from one another. During high season, they welcome guests into the family home that sits below; the rest of the year, they tend to their sheep and crops. Fernanda spends her days washing potatoes, cooking meals, laundering linens — and shouting up and down the hill to her sons and neighbors about whatever matters in that moment.

At my first lunch on her verandah, Fernanda hugged me tightly and let me know just how happy she was to have me as a guest. And over our remaining meals together, she told me how much she loved being able to work in tourism now, how much she loved learning Spanish as an adult so she could communicate with more people, and how much she loved running this business with her boys. She smiled at me as she assured me, even when your children are grown, you miss them and want them near you; how grateful she is that her boys didn’t move to Puno and instead live right here, with her, where she can make sure they eat right and are always loved. With my own hectic American life waiting to charge forward, I couldn’t help but think, this is the life. Tranquility, beauty, family, rhythm. How much easier to live without the constant need to be more and do more. How much easier to live in a community where every single person knows and helps one another. How much easier to have what you need and no more. At Casa Muñay, Fernanda’s home, there is solar powered lighting and hot water, hand-woven blankets, freshly cultivated meals. There is no wifi, no TV, no malls, no danger. There are no city lights to block out the Southern Cross at night, no interference to block out the moments of each day. In my 48 hours at Casa Muñay, I couldn’t help but think how wrong we’ve got it in the modern, industrialized world.

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Of course, this is not the whole story of Amantaní. Amantaní is also considered a community of extreme poverty in Peru, and that fact is evident in the missing teeth of elders, in the worn out shoes just barely covering feet, in the partially constructed homes. Amantaní is isolated, a two- to four-hour boat ride from Puno, depending on the age of the boat, and options for life on the island are limited. In my first conversation with Luis Alberto, Fernanda’s younger son, I learned that he, like so many of the students I have come to know at UARM, was a Beca 18 recipient — a government scholarship for the top students from Peru’s poorest areas to attend university in Lima. But he didn’t accept it. Lima is far and hard to get to. He knew he would need support living there, and who would provide that? Plus, Fernanda needed support here in Amantaní; at that point, his father was still working in the Amazon jungle in agriculture, one of the only options for work to support his family. So Luis didn’t take the scholarship. When he can, he takes classes at the university in Puno in tourism, but otherwise, he is making do with the life that he’s always had on Amantaní — taking care of his mother, watching fútbol in the plaza with his cousins, and bringing tourists to their home via Airbnb.

And Fernanda — Fernanda, who is so grateful to be working in tourism now with her boys, knows that tourism is her survival. Her husband spent most of her boys’ lives working in Lima or in the Amazon, while she was here on Amantaní, trying to survive with little food and little help. Over breakfast, she told me how her mother and her grandmother had suffered living on Amantaní, and how her own boys suffered growing up here, where there are no jobs, no food, no adequate medical care or education. A few years ago, her husband died in the jungle where he was working. The family has yet to go there. It is expensive and far and he’s already gone. She told me how every day, even before her husband was lost to the jungle, she would cry, and when her boys were big enough, they said, “Stop crying, Mamá; we are going to take care of you. We are going to bring tourists to our home and make a business.”

However, high season is only three months. The rest of the year, the family tends to their fields and flocks. Tourism provides enough money so that they won’t go hungry in the off-season — but not enough money to help Fernanda with her teeth, about which Luis Alberto told me, “Se sufre mucho por su dientes.” My second day at Casa Muñay, Fernanda woke up with a terrible toothache. Her jaw was swollen and hot, clear signs of infection. But the medical post on the island doesn’t have antibiotics, and Puno is hours away by boat. Before she could go anywhere, she needed to bring water to her sheep, finish her potato harvest, and hang the wash in the sun (and she refused my help because I am a guest in her home). Instead, she made an herbal poultice to put on her jawline, gladly accepted my bottle of ibuprofen, and went about her daily life. She will get to a medical clinic when she can — if she can — and odds are, this is just one more tooth she will lose.

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My students and I ended the academic portion of our time in Peru considering self-determination, a concept we don’t typically talk about in teacher education coursework. What is it? Why is it necessary for justice? As we considered these questions from an academic perspective, we also considered them experientially in the small town of Andahuaylillas. In town, the local Fé y Alegría school is bilingual and bicultural, Quechua and Spanish, and local pedagogical specialists spend their workweeks in isolated high-altitude communities, accompanying the educators and families there in their own journeys of educational self-determination. We also visited Cuyuní, one of those high-altitude communities, where families are transforming the material conditions of their lives through sustainable practices, economic cooperatives, and partnerships with the Fé y Alegría teachers. At our final seminar, predictably, my students marveled at how both of these communities defied expectations of rural poverty, how people seemed so happy and proud with what they had, and how neither seemed to be a community in need. These communities were making their own way in the world, partnering with those who have additional resources when they can, but proudly holding onto their identities, cultures, and communities.

Mural at the parish in Andahuaylillas.

The reality, however, is complex, and I’m reminded of that as a guest at Casa Muñay. In this month, I have wanted my students to see each community they meet through an asset-based lens. I have wanted them to see strengths and innovation and community; I have wanted them to see beyond the surface of needs and deficits to instead meet communities through what Eve Tuck calls a “desire-based” lens. Tuck tells us that desire

““[Y]es, accounts for the loss and despair, but also the hope, the visions, the wisdom of lived lives and communities. Desire is involved with the not yet and, at times, the not anymore.”

But it’s not enough to simply see desires rather than damages. Seeing those desires doesn’t undo the fact that injustice persists. The question is, what will we do once we see those desires? How will we accompany communities as they move towards making their desires a reality?

In so many ways, the life that Fernanda, Luis, and José have constructed for themselves is beautiful, but it is also fundamentally unjust that Fernanda suffers from crippling toothaches, that they never got to say goodbye to their husband and father, and that their community’s livelihood is threatened by a changing climate not of their making. I don’t believe that acknowledging these things is giving in to deficit or damage-centered thinking. Rather, to acknowledge these things is to acknowledge the complicated reality that Fernanda and her boys live in, or as Eve Tuck says, to acknowledge the “complexity, contradiction, and the self-determination of lived lives.” Reality: Jesuit teaching tells us we need to humbly submit to the multitude of realities that exist in the world in order to accompany one another on our struggles to transform those realities toward justice. So maybe justice requires an acknowledgement of reality, but also a dream for what’s next. Justice is the desire for the “not yet,” and the “not anymore.”

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When it comes to education, we keep trying to define justice as a specific, concrete thing: Equal funding. Desegregated schools. Parental choice. Equalized achievement. Standardized curriculum. Individualized teaching. Project-based learning. We want an answer, a solution, a ten-point plan.

Instead, maybe we need to consider Nancy Fraser’s assertion that justice is achieved through negation, through a state of always fighting back against the injustices we see:

““[J]ustice is never actually experienced directly. By contrast, we do experience injustice, and it is only through this that we form an idea of justice. Only by pondering the character of what we consider unjust do we begin to get a sense of what would count as an alternative. Only when we contemplate what it would take to overcome injustice does our otherwise abstract concept of justice acquire any content. Thus, the answer to Socrates’s question, ‘What is justice?’ can only be this: justice is the overcoming of injustice.”

In this understanding of justice, it becomes easier to sit with the complicated reality of places like Amantaní or Cuyuní, to understand that self-determination requires that we dismantle systems of injustice, but that we do so while also honoring and submitting to the beautiful, complicated, rich lives that persist in spite of those injustices. Because, to again quote Eve Tuck, “This is to say that even when communities are broken and conquered, they are so much more than that — so much more that this incomplete story is an act of aggression.”

Fé y Alegría, Andahuaylillas.

Instead, justice demands that we see colonial histories at the same time that we imagine decolonized futures. Justice demands that we celebrate what Mamá Fernanda and her sons have built at the same time that we fight for fundamental human rights, such as adequate health care. Justice demands that we learn to listen, to witness, and to accompany. Justice demands, as Tuck calls it, desire:

“Desire is about longing, about a present that is enriched by both the past and the future. It is integral to our humanness…Desire is the song about walking through the storm, a song that recognizes rather than denies that pain doubtlessly lies ahead.”

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Or maybe not. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I’m still entrenched in damage-centered thinking. What I do know for sure is that, after a month in Peru, there is so much I don’t know other than the power of human connection. And I am also sure that this human connection—along with uncertainty, outrage, creativity, and joy—is essential for moving social transformation. In her book, We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching & the Pursuit of Educational Freedom, Bettina Love quotes writer and activist adrienne marie brown, who says, “All social justice work is science fiction. We are imagining a world free of injustice, a world that doesn’t yet exist.” Love goes on to connect this to freedom dreaming, or the ability to envision and struggle towards a future of freedom where you can “create your reality, where uplifting humanity is at the center of all decisions.” This is not easy work. No, this is struggle. And freedom dreaming — or what Love also calls abolitionist teaching — is

“[W]elcoming struggles, setbacks, and disagreements, because one understands the complexity of uprooting injustice but finds beauty in the struggle. Abolitionist teachers fight for children they will never meet or see, because they are visionaries. They fight for a world that has yet to be created and for children’s dreams that have yet to be crushed by anti-Blackness.”

Abolitionist teachers are driven by desire, by sovereignty, by joy, by love, by rage, by relationships, by principle, by imagination, by struggle. And I feel all of these things as I sit with Mamá Fernanda, who is smiling and talking to me despite her pain. My time with her, like all of my time in Peru, is a “yes, and” experience, an experience that re-roots me in desire and freedom dreaming and an urgency to do more in my daily life to transform our world toward justice. And if nothing else, I hope that after a month in Peru, my students are also freedom dreaming about a world that is not yet, but will one day be.