Ghana enriches student teachers
Teaching students in Bath have been learning from the education system in Ghana.
Michelle Xue and Bethany Bales worked in partnership with students and teachers at Ghana’s Agorveme MA Basic School.
Bath Spa University and international volunteering charity Project Trust have teamed up to provide work experience opportunities for the University’s School of Education students.
Project Trust has more than 50 years’ experience in providing ethical, international volunteering placements for young people.
In 2022, it helped teaching student Jasmine Raymond-barker to complete a virtual placement for her second year module, ‘professional practice in schools.’
Jasmine engaged online over nine weeks with two long-term Project Trust volunteers in Ghana, comparing and contrasting the UK and Ghanaian educational systems.
She described her experience as ‘enriching and eye-opening,’ and commented on how the ‘virtual arrangement presented an opportunity that would not otherwise have been available’ to her.
Jasmine said that her degree had prepared her really well to understand education across unique contexts.
Two second-year BA education studies students also recently embarked on their summer placements in Ghana.
Jenny Hatley, programme leader in education and childhood studies at Bath Spa University, said: “We are delighted to have partnered with Project Trust. Using their expertise they matched our students with placements in Ghana and they have been able to use the knowledge they have developed in their degrees to support volunteers and local students with their education.
“We look forward to nurturing and expanding this partnership to offer more students a global outlook on education.”