Maria, Reforming: A portrait of a teacher in Timor-Leste’s education reform
Laura Ogden
Maastricht University
Abstract
Timor-Leste is a small nation of 1.2 million in the Asia Pacific that won its independence in 2002 after centuries of colonization and occupation. For the first time, it is developing its own primary-school curriculum. The Curriculum Reform (est. 2013) aims to improve educational quality by adapting international best-practice models to the Timorese context. Through the production of new curricula and classroom materials, the reform aims to reshape Timorese primary education using child-centered pedagogy, local language, and contextualized content.
Maria, Reforming is a photo-essay portrait of one teacher’s navigation through her various roles in Timor-Leste’s education reform. A teacher since independence, with a background in community and church organizing, Maria was seconded to the Curriculum Reform for a year to help develop the new program. Since returning to school to teach, she has served as an advocate for the reform and as a liaison between the school and Ministry of Education. She has also continued her involvement in the reform as a co-host of its literacy TV show, broadcast nationally.
Balancing these various roles, Maria constantly moves between different material and ideological worlds, working as both an educator and entertainer, a leader and a learner, alongside fellow Timorese and foreigners. The photo-stills in this essay are taken from footage shot during an ethnographic research project into the way the reform is interacting with the diverse visions of education in Timor-Leste’s school system, which resulted in the film Scripting Change: Education reform in Timor-Leste (2017).