The highlight of my data collection

As MA2 students we are dove into all sorts of hard and meticulous work on different parts of thesis. So in this blog post I wanted to avoid discussing something serious and academic and share one light and insightful story with you. This is the true story about what is to be a true teacher.

For my research I adopted case study and as a qualitative research instrument I employed semi-structured interviews. My participants were secondary school teachers. All steps of data collection: the process of getting access to research site, recruiting participants and interviewing them were really enjoyable for me as meeting different teachers and exploring their perceptions and views on the topic of my interest was a great experience to have. Especially, one interview was so fascinating and thought-provoking that I could not help but wonder how teaching can be influential.

The main hero of my story is a boy (pseudonym Sultan), a student of my interviewee, very experienced language teacher (pseudonym Ms. Aidarova). Ms. Aidarova’s became a home room teacher for Sultan’s grade. She knew that Sultan was notorious for his poor academic performance and bad discipline. During the classes he was always misbehaving or sleeping and never studying that made him to be scolded by teachers. However, Ms. Aidarova’s experience suggested that there was a reason for his behavior. She tried to talk to him but he was very reserved person. Then she talked to his friend and found out that Sultan’s parents passed away recently. She made a decision to help this child to overcome the dark period of his life and improve his academic progress. She avoided labeling him as a ‘bad student’ and kept with him only positive stance. She was encouraging him to study and was forgiving his mistakes. Results were not long in coming, Sultan’s school performance increased exponentially. Eventually, he became one of the best students and graduated the school with distinction.

Sultan’s case clearly depicts how individual approach to students and avoiding marking them out, belief in students’ abilities and optimism can transform the life of a person. So we can see that being a teacher is a hard but yet fruitful and noble profession.