Tuesdays with Jane: Week #14

(Tuesdays with Jane is a virtual learning series for those wishing to read or re-read Jane's books and immediately apply their new learning to their workplace. In preparation for this task, read Chapter 13 of Learning to Listen, Learning to Teach.)

Teamwork:  Celebrating Learning Together

This chapter celebrates the transformation of young, war-scarred soldiers into laughing, joyful teachers of literacy to their adult compatriots. Reading it again brought back to me the awe I felt as I faced these young men and women, newcomers to civilian life, hungry for meaningful work and for a paying job, ready to learn!

When they all broke spontaneously into The Soldiers’ Song (page 198) I was not the only one with tears in my eyes. They had learned teamwork in the life and death environment of their war years; now teamwork would serve them as they became peacemakers through the living words they taught. 

I remembered thinking that “Tainie” Mudondo was in fact, a giant of a woman.

Some great lines from Chapter Thirteen:

  • “…’The observer is part of what she observes.’” p193
  • “I called on my newfound awareness of my role as a consultant with a consultative voice and discovered the joy of detachment.” p194
  • “A lesson from all this is the need for a team to form its own consensus over time and  become a unit with an integrated focus.” p196
  • “The heart of the matter lay in the meaning and potential of the dialogue that would have to occur among team members and between literacy coordinators and the adult student.” p197
  • “The people of Zimbabwe did not simply need to learn to read and write; they needed to learn to work together as members of village and community teams to create their new nation.” p199

A LEARNING TASK

In light of what you now know, name one thing we could have done to create a structure for continuing education and training of the community literacy coordinators. 

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