Pakistani Educational Leadership Project at Plymouth State University

The creation of the PELI blog prompts me to reflect on my experiences working with the Pakistani Institutes at Plymouth State University (PSU), (2005, 2006, and 2007) and so I am grateful for the blog’s existence. I started by honestly asking myself, what did I know and think about Pakistan before becoming involved with the Institutes in the summer of 2005, after starting a new faculty job at PSU? As a science educator, I confess I knew where the country was located and not a lot more, except for media associations with the Taliban. Now I consume everything I come across, and my eyes scan for any reference to Pakistan in the news.

Working with educational leaders from any country would be rewarding, but interacting with colleagues from Pakistan is particularly eye-opening, because it is a chance to learn about a different culture.

My involvement with the Institutes started off minimally, but from the beginning I was selfishly hooked. In the summer of 2005, for my brief role, I had the group focus on sharing about their watersheds. This is when I started to develop a mental picture of the geography of the land. I heard the pride, knowledge, and concern that the residents used to describe their rivers, running mostly from the North to the South in the country. This is when I started to realize that both are cultures cared about our natural resources. I started thinking about what we had in common, instead of focusing on our differences.

In the summer of 2006, my role as a faculty instructor expanded and I had the opportunity to travel with the Institute participants to New York City, along with my then 10 year old daughter. After stopping at a mosque on a Friday afternoon in Connecticut on the way to our destination, conversing all the way down and back in a bus, eating in Pakistani restaurants, visiting Ground Zero together, receiving a special tour of the United Nations by a Pakistani guide (a relative of one of our PSU participants) and taking in many other sites, upon returning to Plymouth, I almost felt like I’d been to Pakistan, in the cultural exchange sense.

My daughter summed up her encounters, which I’ve repeated many times as I’ve described the value of the trip, “I love the Pakistanis, I want to go to Pakistan.” My primary goal in taking her was accomplished; based on this early formative, meaningful experience, I doubt she’ll ever engage in any negative profiling against Pakistanis or any other “seemingly different” culture. She’s as keen to visit the country as I am.

This summer, 2007, I was so sorry that other professional commitments kept me from traveling to Washington D.C. with the group; for I knew what camaraderie I was missing. It is hard for me when the Pakistanis are on campus to think about focusing on anything else, I don’t want to miss any learning opportunities with them. I am particularly proud of connecting young New Hampshire students with our Pakistani guests this summer. Both groups participated in hands-on earthquake activities, which Kim Rawson, a PSU graduate student, and I developed for a middle school curricular unit integrating geology, geography, and culture.

Around the time Kim and I field tested the unit in a local school in the spring of 2007, both Pakistan and our New Hampshire community experienced earthquakes. These recent jolts, produced from crustal plate movement, helped justify our educational goals which were to help students recognize general causes and risks associated with earthquakes in Pakistan and how these differ for New Hampshire. The magnitude of the two earthquakes was quite different. As an earth science educator, and relative newcomer to New Hampshire, I was startled to learn that NH is at moderate risk for earthquakes, instead of low risk, which is what one would think since New Hampshire is nowhere near a plate boundary. The unanswered questions on why this is so were evocative for me. As a science educator, I could use this information to promote science as a process, and not just as a history lesson. I could emphasize to students, not everything has already been discovered in the field of science, there is still uncharted territory. There is room for the next generation of geologists to probe further.

Involving Kim, in the 2007 summer Institute was particularly gratifying. This is the best I can offer a PSU graduate student- in depth interaction with international guests in an educational setting. Expanding her global cultural education the summer before she embarks on her first public school teaching job will hopefully have huge ripple effects. Just as I plan to incorporate my growing cultural appreciation and understanding into my undergraduate and graduate science courses, I imagine Kim doing the same at the middle school level. Kim named our evening of sharing desserts and games, which brought the 7th graders and Pakistani educational leaders together, the Cross Cultural Forum. I know from our many discussions that she valued the opportunities associated with the Institute as much as I did. She even got to travel to Washington D.C. with the group.

I teach an undergraduate Hazardous Earth course for non-science majors at PSU. I want to link issues of culture and science so that PSU graduates can employ interdisciplinary methods of analysis and resolution, make careful assessments, and develop useful courses of action related to reducing the loss of life and property due to natural disasters.

I am grateful to the participants of the 2007 Pakistani Institute for: engaging in the earthquake activities, endorsing the need for the earthquake unit, and encouraging alignment of the activities with Pakistani educational standards. Sharing the reaction of the NH students and receiving feedback from the Pakistanis was motivating as Kim and I prepare to refine the unit for further implementation.

Each institute is uniquely rich. With each Pakistani group arriving on campus there are new lessons to learn. The blending of professional and personal rewards are great. My involvement with the Pakistani Institutes at PSU, are without a doubt, one of the richest experiences of my life.

My hope is that this blog site will facilitate connections throughout the year, that PSU and Pakistan participants can continue to collaborate and dialogue. I want to be able to virtually support the 2007 participants in their assigned task of evaluating the impact of projects initiated by their successors (previous summer institute participants) back in their home country.

I want to thank all of the Institute participants for their willingness to travel to the US and share their educational insights, needs, and hopes. Your presentations were powerful, informative, and helped us bond. I look forward to learning more about the fruits of your labors in Pakistan and hope one day soon to observe firsthand the results of your achievements by travelling to your country.

I’ll be asking for your feedback as I work to align my unit with your educational standards, but now that I’ve had my debut on our blog site, I’m willing to explore many issues.

Thinking of you all!

Best,

MaryAnn

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