COMENTARIOS Y PREGUNTAS POSTERIORES A LA PRESENTACIÓN

This study did not set out to investigate teachers’ motivations. However, discussions with teachers revealed relevant information about why they were working in the area. As one participant commented:

Sometimes teaching a multicultural classroom is challenging but I like it. Many children need me and I can help to improve their knowledge so they become educated people in the future (PST 3).

Three primary school teacher participants were born locally but some were not. However, they were all familiar with the environment of the village. Even though they were moved to other primary schools, they just moved to those nearby in the region. Of the six participants, all of them said that they had been teaching for awhile, especially teaching children who are minority groups, and that teaching ethnic children was not an easy task if they did not understand any ethnic languages. In turn they could see the results of their teaching enter the society. All participants thought that they could help their communities and that they would continue to do so. For example, one teacher said:

Teaching ethnic children was challenging because some Hmong students who are from more remote places, when they first came to school they did not speak Lao. For example, in the classroom if they were more than two Hmong students sitting together, often they communicated with their Hmong friends in Hmong (PST 3).

One participant said:

After teaching for a while, I feel I like my job very much because I can help my people and develop my Hmong people and other ethnic groups (PST 1).

Another participant who has been working as a teacher for more than ten years commented that:

I like my job because it can contribute to human resource development and they will help to develop the country (PST 2).

This participant further explained:

I want to help people in remote areas, especially my Hmong people and Khmu to be educated and to gain knowledge so they will be able to help themselves when they have problems (PST 2).

During the interviews I noticed that some participants smiled when they talked about their past experiences and they felt relaxed and wanted to talk about it. One participant said:

I like my job and I really love to help ethnic children in rural community because I understand and speak Hmong, it is easy to teach Hmong children (PST 3).

He added further information:

I have tried many careers but I love teaching very much so I end up in teaching in local primary school in rural area but I like it (PST 3).

Furthermore, one female participant who taught Grade two commented:

I like my job very much because I can pass on my knowledge to people who do not know anything about school and later on they become knowledgeable and skilful (PST 4).

In this regard, most participants were absolutely delighted and satisfied with their careers, these participants said that:

I felt excited and was proud to be a teacher. I taught young children and I felt connected. Some of them came to school without knowledge about Lao language and then they developed themselves until they could read and knew how to read (PST 5).

I like to teach mathematics the best and many Hmong students are good at it. I feel happy when I see some students help their friends. This is the greatest thing about teaching. When I teach my students, I always suggest that they can learn together and help each other (PST 6).

The findings revealed that all teacher participants loved their job because, as teachers, they could help young children -the majority of whom do not speak Lao in their region - to become educated. They were very proud to see an improvement in the young children in terms of the process of learning; they could read and write properly. In addition, the teachers wanted to work with the children so that they could improve their lives as well as contribute to society and human resource development at a national level. The teaching and learning also contributed to the development of the ethnic group. Furthermore, the teachers felt that seeing students become self-reliant was valuable.

Most participants liked to reside and work in this place because they wanted to improve the community as well as children’s knowledge. The teachers were very supportive of each other and worked cooperatively.

As one of the participants said:

I like to work in this school because I see many teachers working together and they help each other. When I am busy and I cannot teach my class, my office will organize another teacher to substitute my duty (PST 6).

One participant told me that the motivation for her to work in this school was that teaching others was the way she could gain knowledge. Therefore, she said that:

I like to create activities for the students to do because I can learn from these tasks (PST 5).

One teacher had a very straightforward response:

I want to help many children in my community. I am worried about their future, I want to take care for them and want them to have jobs and work in particular workplaces in order to earn money like us so they can help their family (PST 1).

During class, the teachers used real objects as teaching aids to make lessons more interesting. Teachers also gave examples about people who were educated acting as role models for their students by having succeeded in education. They believed that students should attempt to continue learning until they complete higher education so that it may be possible for them to have the same opportunities as their teachers:

When I teach my students, I often use teaching aids in order to motivate my students to learn. I want more playgrounds to be built in order to get the young children to go to schools. I think they can look for work either at private company or public sectors if they are educated people and they have more opportunities than children who do not attend schools (PST 2). I like to talk to students about people who were successful in education in the communities and some of students may want to be like those people (PST 4).

The findings show that most of the teachers had similar motivations for persuading students to stay at school and complete their primary education. Furthermore, they talked about their successes to their young students. In addition, the findings from the interviews with teacher participants indicate that in school the teachers usually introduced the topic of furthering their education and told their students that if they had high educational qualifications, they would have better opportunities to find jobs. They could earn some money rather than work in the rice fields for their subsistence. The teachers also explained why they think the girls should study longer at school.