Advancing education in rural Brazil
Meet Claudia, a teacher redefining her students’ relationship to mathematics, and in the process, redefining her own identity.
At Khan Academy, we strive to stay deeply connected with our students, teachers, and district leaders. It’s not uncommon to find the team on classroom visits talking to students, conducting participatory design sessions with teachers, or out to lunch with school district leaders.
As part of this endeavor, we recently took a trip to the small town of Riolândia, Brazil to spend a day in the shoes of our superstar ambassador, Claudia. As with any good design research adventure, we hoped to build empathy for Claudia, and gain a more nuanced understanding of the challenges, successes, and opportunities she faces every day.
Riolândia is a small town of about 11,000. The economic drivers are fishing and sugar production. Many of the city’s residents commute by regional busses to sugar cane factories that dot the countryside. With much work to be done, most of the local adults work in shifts before or after a “traditional” 9–5 job, creating large blocks of time when they aren’t able to be home with their family.
To help manage this, the community has invested in making whole-child development a priority, with various before- and after-school programs to support students during hours when their parents might be at work. Schools in Brazil have also done their part by creating flexible school schedules with a morning school day and an afternoon school day; these periods composed of completely different student bodies.
Claudia’s day begins at 6am with a small breakfast with her husband, then she’s off packing her bags for the day. A proud mother of seven, her home is decorated with photos of her and her family: graduation photos, new jobs, and anniversaries. Today, she picks up a folder labelled ‘Friday’. There’s a new folder for every day of the week, overflowing with dozens of lesson plans for the classes she’s responsible for.
As she strolls down the streets, Claudia wears a t-shirt that proudly displays she’s a Khan Academy ambassador. She’s earned the title of ambassador by training teachers in Riolândia and three neighboring cities how to use Khan Academy. She’s had such an impact that folks in the region now know her as, “The Khan Academy Ambassador.” For Claudia, she’s now the leader and expert. She says being a Khan Academy ambassador is one of the highlights of her career.
It only takes ten minutes to walk to school, and as the minutes pass, we greet more and more students. By the time we arrive, the school is humming with chattering students.
It’s now 6:50am and Claudia heads to the computer lab to get set up for the day. This involves making sure all the computers are on, web browsers pointed to Khan Academy to make it as easy as possible for students to log in and get going. It also means taking out her lesson plans for the day. On any given day she might be helping support 3–4 different grade levels across 9–10 different class periods, so there’s a lot of material to cover.
The elementary school in Riolândia has made big strides in their math education these past few years. In 2014, the school was not performing at the expected state levels in math performance, and they were nervous about how they would ever achieve the 2021 goals the government was expecting of them. Claudia, the principal, school leaders, teachers, and students all rallied around implementing Khan Academy as one tool to achieve these goals. This plan included using Khan Academy for targeted practice aligned to national BNCC standards as well as remediation material to help those who needed to catch up. In 2018, they not only met their 2021 goals, but exceeded them. The school is now undergoing the process of revising those goals and setting even more lofty targets.
Back in Claudia’s classroom, the first class is about to begin. Students pour into the classroom, girls first, boys second, eager to get their chance to spend one-on-one time on a computer. This time with technology is a novelty in their daily lives and adds motivation to make the most of the time in the computer lab. Throughout the class, students work on assigned materials, as Claudia and the math teacher walk the room assisting students on problems. When either of them notice gaps in the student’s learning, they’ll make note of it, and create new assignments to help target those specific areas. This constant triaging and targeted practice is what has helped students so quickly level up their math skills.
After a 50 minute period, one class piles out. And another enters in. This is Claudia’s world. A constant stream of new students, new teachers, new content, and new problems to work with. With this high volume of students, it’s no wonder she has to create organization systems to help her keep track of it all. Yet, she has created just that, and does just that, effortlessly sliding from class to class without breaking a sweat. Impressive to say the least.
Towards the end of the day, Claudia shared with us a personal anecdote that caused her to swell up with pride. She had fairly recently run into one of her former students on the way to school. The student cried out to her, grabbing her attention to stop and come chat for a minute. The student told her, “Thank you for teaching me math. And thank you for teaching me, period. It allowed me to understand that I am capable and I can be successful. It’s because of you that I now have a job.”
So that’s a bit of what Claudia’s life is like. At this point you might be asking, “What should I take away from this? What problems are most salient to try to help solve?”
We’re glad you asked 😉. Here’s a few how-might-we’s we have been pondering and we encourage you to as well:
1. How might we help Claudia co-teach classes along with many other teachers?
2. How might we encourage classroom setups and implementations that foster social skills building amongst students?
3. How might we help celebrate progress and effort at a class, school, and district level?
Did you just get jazzed by reading those how-might-we statements? Feeling like you can help contribute something meaningful to solving them? If so, consider joining us and be part of the journey of helping students all over the world meet their potential. Together, we’ll keep pushing forward.
