TUTOR: | Hello. Jonathan Briggs, isn’t it? |
JB: | Yes, that’s right. |
TUTOR: | Do come in and sit down. |
JB: | Thanks. |
TUTOR: | Right. Well, Jonathan, as we explained
in your letter, in this part of the interview we like to talk through your
application form... your experience to date, etc... and then in the second
part you go for a group interview. |
JB: | Group interview... yes, I understand... |
TUTOR: | So... your first degree was in
Economics? |
JB: | Yes, but I also did
Politics as a major strand. |
TUTOR: | And you graduated in 1989. And I see
you have been doing some teaching... |
JB: | Yes. I worked as a
volunteer teacher in West Africa. I was there for almost three years in
total from 1990 to... umm... 1992. |
TUTOR: | How interesting. What organisation was
that with? |
JB: | It’s not one of the major ones.
It’s called Teach South. |
TUTOR: | Oh, right. Yes, I have heard of it. It
operates in several African countries, doesn’t it? And what kind of school
was it? |
JB: | A rural co-operative. |
TUTOR: | Oh, a rural co-operative, how
interesting... and what did you teach? |
JB: | A variety of things in different years...
ummm... I did... with Forms 1 to 3 mainly Geography
and some English with Form 5. Then in my final
year I took on some Agricultural Science with the top year . .. that’s Form
6. |
TUTOR: | Right. Quite a variety then... |
JB: | I also ran the school farm. |
TUTOR: | How interesting... |
| |
TUTOR: | ...And how did you find the whole
experience? |
JB: | I’ll be honest with you. At the end of
the first year I really wanted to leave and come home. |
TUTOR: |
Why was that? |
JB: | Well... I was very
homesick at first and missed my family... |
TUTOR: | Umm... I can quite understand that. |
JB: | ...and I also found it frustrating to
have so few teaching resources, but I did decide to stay and in the end I
extended my tour to a third year. |
TUTOR: | Right. Things must have looked up
then? |
JB: | Yes. We set up a very successful project
breeding cattle to sell locally. |
TUTOR: | Really? |
JB: | And then after a lot of hard work we
finally got funds for new farm buildings. |
TUTOR: | And you wanted to see things through? |
JB: | Uh-huh. |
TUTOR: | And is that why you want to train to
teach Geography? |
JB: | Yes. I’ve had a couple of jobs since then
but I now realise I like teaching best. And I chose
Geography because... because it is my favourite subject... and also
because I think it has so many useful applications. |
TUTOR: | Well... you certainly have had some
interesting work experience. I’ll ask you now to go on to the next stage
of... |