2006.09.03: September 3, 2006: Headlines: : COS - Azerbaijan: Education: Pedagogy: Roseville Press Tribune: Peace Corps volunteers like Kate Stearns bring new ideas about teaching to the Azerbaijani pedagogical system which is based on an authoritarian Russian style
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2006.09.03: September 3, 2006: Headlines: : COS - Azerbaijan: Education: Pedagogy: Roseville Press Tribune: Peace Corps volunteers like Kate Stearns bring new ideas about teaching to the Azerbaijani pedagogical system which is based on an authoritarian Russian style
Peace Corps volunteers like Kate Stearns bring new ideas about teaching to the Azerbaijani pedagogical system which is based on an authoritarian Russian style
Stearns has introduced students to dialogues and skits, and emphasizes comprehension and analysis rather than countless repetition. In December, for instance, students wrote Christmas cards to Stearns' parents, asking about seasonal traditions in the U.S. Outside of the Soviet-era school grounds, Stearns leads conversation clubs, in which she meets with groups of students "just to talk in English." They talk about everything - the news, books, movies, and so on. "That's where I feel the biggest difference is made," Stearns said.
Peace Corps volunteers like Kate Stearns bring new ideas about teaching to the Azerbaijani pedagogical system which is based on an authoritarian Russian style
Expanding her cultural horizons
Oakmont grad volunteers overseas with Peace Corps
By: Nathan Donato-Weinstein, The Press-Tribune
Saturday, September 2, 2006 9:40 AM PDT
Kate Stearns is used to getting quizzical looks when she tells people where she lives.
"People usually say, 'Azer-what?' or, 'Azer-where?'" she said.
The "what" would be "Azerbaijan," a former Soviet Republic of 8 million people. And the "where" would be just north of Iran, east of Armenia and south of the Republic of Georgia.
But none of that really describes the country, where Stearns, has served as a Peace Corps volunteer since May of last year.
"I feel that the best thing anyone can do is travel and learn about other cultures," the 1997 graduate of Oakmont High School said. "The more that we have in contact with them and they have in contact with us, we see that there's so much misunderstanding in the world."
Early last month, Stearns returned home to Roseville on a month-long leave. She's been spending her time with family, who still live near her old high school, and enjoying some familiar Western trappings, especially California fruit and vegetables.
"The first night out it was Mikuni's, her favorite restaurant," her father Roy Stearns said. "There isn't a lot of red meat where she is so she wanted a lot of steaks, and got treated to a massage, a pedicure."
Not an incomprehensible reaction, perhaps, following several months in a place where electricity is hit and miss and drinking the water without first boiling it is potentially life threatening.
Stearns is stationed in the northern city of Oguz, where she lives with a host family and teaches English to students in fifth- through eighth-form - roughly the equivalent of American grades.
Serving, Stearns said, is the most rewarding thing she could imagine doing, especially since she knows her work in the predominantly Muslim country is helping expand opportunities and promote cultural understanding.
"They're fascinated about the way life is in America and the outside, and they ask a lot of questions," Stearns said of her students. "They're very intellectually curious, bright kids and it's so great to be there and talk with them about what's going on."
Peace Corps volunteers bring new ideas about teaching to the Azerbaijani pedagogical system, she said, which is based on an authoritarian Russian style. Stearns has introduced students to dialogues and skits, and emphasizes comprehension and analysis rather than countless repetition.
In December, for instance, students wrote Christmas cards to Stearns' parents, asking about seasonal traditions in the U.S. (Roy and wife Jan responded to the students' inquiries.)
Outside of the Soviet-era school grounds, Stearns leads conversation clubs, in which she meets with groups of students "just to talk in English." They talk about everything - the news, books, movies, and so on.
"That's where I feel the biggest difference is made," Stearns said.
Although ruled by a secular government and considered relatively stable, the country counts millions living in poverty following decades of decay during Soviet times - despite huge oil reserves.
Indeed, for many Azerbaijanis, especially women, career options are limited. Teaching is one of the few prospects for girls lucky enough to attend a university, but gender discrimination runs deep in the country.
Internet cafes, for instance, have brought many a lifeline into the outside world, but most are strictly off-limits to girls.
Stearns wears long skirts and is careful to keep her upper body well covered, although she said few women wear traditional Islamic headdresses.
"The lack of freedom is a lot more cultural," Stearns said. "But it's slowly changing, they have access to satellite (television). And Baku, the capital, is very different."
Stearns said the Peace Corps was always at the back of her mind growing up, but after graduating from college, she worked for a Sacramento lobbying firm. Eventually, she decided she needed a change from the corporate treadmill.
During the Peace Corps application process, Stearns opted not to voice a preference on which region to be sent to.
"I just figured, it's the Peace Corps, and it's about service," said Stearns, who communicates with her parents over the Internet each Sunday. "I figured wherever they send me, I'm going to do it, so it really doesn't matter where I go."
It's safe to say at least part of that adventurousness is genetic; Stearns' father was a reporter for KCRA who took the family on overseas assignments including ones to Africa, South America and Europe.
"So when she suddenly decided to go into the Peace Corps, there was only one thing for mom and I to do, and that was to get out of the way," Roy said.
But, he added, "in the first couple of days we must have bought $200 worth of books" on the country.
The biggest challenge, Kate said, hasn't been the language.
"That's something you can get adjusted to," she said. "It's culture that really is hard sometimes because culture is something that's so innate to us all ... until you get outside of it in another country you really don't see what your own culture is."
That was apparent last month, as Stearns arrived at San Francisco International Airport. Walking to meet her parents, she slowed her pace almost to a stop.
"I was just kind of blown away," she said. "There were so many food places, so many magazines and so much eye stimulation that I think it was just sensory overload."
She said being away from consumer culture for so long has given her a new insight into what really matters - family, relationships and health.
It's for that reason she's planning on becoming involved in nonprofit healthcare work after her service is up in about a year; maybe Africa, she said, specifically in a capacity to improve women's health.
- Nathan Donato-Weinstein can be reached at nathand@goldcountrymedia.com
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Story Source: Roseville Press Tribune
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