Elyse Eidman-Aadahl:

Working with Teachers in Mongolia

Mongolian teachers experiment with magnetism in an RWCT workshop emphasizing reading and writing across the curriculum.

Camels are still a vital part of life on the Gobi Desert: Food, hides, and transportation.

Drinking milky tea in a hearder's "ger", Elyse discusses research interests with Naransetseg, a chemistry teacher in Dalanzadgad.

Mongolian children jostle their way into a picture in front of their dormitory in Omnigovi.

Elyse Eidman-Aadahl, who teaches in the area of Language, Literacy, and Culture, has been spending her free time for the last year and a half travelling to remote regions of Mongolia, often by jeep, horse, or even camel. She volunteers for the Reading and Writing for Critical Thinking (RWCT) project of the International Reading Association, a project that brings her together with teachers in Mongolia. "The purpose is to help teachers help students move toward the critical thinking and inquiry that are part of an open society," she explained, back in her office on the fifth floor of Tolman Hall, where she co-directs the National Writing Project.

RWCT is funded by the Soros Foundation and sends teachers to 17 countries that were once in the Soviet Union or its sphere of influence. Elyse Eidman-Aadahl was eager for an assignment to Mongolia, passing up more hospitable climates such as Eastern Europe. Mongolia has both the extremes of the Gobi desert and snowy mountains, and temperatures remain below freezing for much of the year. "A lot of the land looks like the Western U.S.," she commented. "It's a big, beautiful, open country with a hearty, frontier feel. There's a tremendous can-do spirit and an informal way of life."

Elyse Eidman-Aadahl and her team partner, George Hunt of the University of Reading in England, work with Mongolian teachers to help them incorporate techniques that are part of a democratic exchange of ideas. "They had a Soviet-style school system, heavy on rote memorization," she said. "It's a huge change to move toward methods that invite discussion, problem solving, and open-ended inquiry. One teacher said the desire to change her way of teaching was like an itch she could never quite reach, and now she can scratch it." The teachers they work with then go on to teach their colleagues these more democratic classroom methods.

Despite her reservations about the legacy of a Soviet-era system of schooling, Eidman-Aadahl was full of praise for the teachers in Mongolia: "They're extraordinary--highly professional and creative. The science teachers scour the countryside for materials for lab experiments, teachers use their artistic skills to make materials they hang up in the classrooms, since few printed materials exist." Not only that, average monthly teaching salaries are under $50--when they get paid.

With a grant from the Spencer Foundation, Eidman-Aadahl is also introducing the teachers in the Mongolian RWCT network to teacher research, a concept they have embraced enthusiastically. "Teachers in Mongolia have led me to rethink some of my notions about teacher research. What does it mean to gather data in a place where there are hardly any sheets of paper available, much less tape recorders or computers?" Students sometimes erase whole pages to re-use leaves of a notebook, and they collect scraps to do their schoolwork on, including sheepskins and candy wrappers. "It makes me examine what part of the teacher-researcher movement is culturally intertwined with Western notions about inquiry. I'm intrigued how the teachers there have Mongolianized the concepts of teacher research to make them culturally congruent and relevant to their own local needs."

Her work in Mongolia extends for another two years, part of a four-year project. "You can't help but be inspired by the teachers there--they have only intermittent electricity in the schools, they have one of the most brutal climates on earth, many of their students have to live in dormitories because of the nomadic migrations of their parents, yet the teachers maintain tremendous professionalism and love of teaching in the face of daunting circumstances."