This summer, 10 Azusa Pacific University graduate students in the Department of Teacher Education went on the School of Education’s first ever study away experience to Zambia. The team spent two weeks helping in classrooms at Breath of Heaven Academy while earning college credits by taking two graduate level courses and learning about the importance of community through Ubuntu.
After Breath of Heaven’s founding 15 years ago, professor Susan Hall, MEd was asked to start Breath of Heaven Academy and has since visited Zambia 15 times. Today, the organization has grown to include an elementary school, secondary school, vocational college, orphanage, and clinic serving about 400 children and employing over 70 faculty and staff. “I’ve been pouring into the teachers there for years, and I’ve always wanted to bring APU teacher candidates there too,” Hall said. “This year, we had enough student interest to make the trip possible, and it was wildly successful on all fronts.”
A majority of the teacher candidates' time was spent in the classroom shadowing Zambian teachers and eventually running the classes. Seven candidates worked in the elementary school while the other three worked in specific content areas in the secondary school. “The teacher I was with used instructional methods that I had never used, so I took lots of notes and made sure to ask her questions,” Kaitlin Thayer ’25 said. “Usually students listened to lessons the whole day, so it was fun to design challenging lessons where they could get in front of the class and present their work. The teacher loved that teaching style and asked me to teach it to her.”
Thayer also created a faith integration project to increase student engagement that kicked off a week of kindness. Each day, students participated in a different act of kindness around the school ranging from picking up trash to writing encouraging notes to faculty and staff members. “My time in Zambia showed me how each student has a story and identity that has been chosen and crafted diligently by the Creator,” Thayer said.
Kelly Bartels-Flack ’25 shared that being exposed to different cultural perspectives in and out of the classroom changed her own viewpoint when it comes to teaching. “Being open to different perspectives will help in my teaching career as I’m navigating relationships with students, parents, fellow staff, and cultural norms.” She found the most impactful part of the trip to be her interactions with the orphans. “Hearing the children’s stories makes you grateful for what you have and gives you a new perspective.”
In the afternoons, teacher candidates earned college credits by completing two graduate courses, The Soul of Teaching and Schools and Educational Systems. Within these classes, Hall and Rebekah Harris, MS, associate dean and assistant professor in the School of Education, broadened teacher candidates’ ideas about what education can look like and how it can be tailored to fit certain teachers and their classrooms. Also on the trip was retired professor Kathee Bautista who had originally planned to bring teacher candidates to Zambia in 2020 but was unable to due to the pandemic. She played a large part in the faith integration aspect of the courses by sharing about the Zambian concept of Ubuntu, a deep sense of relationship and community with others. This concept came up repeatedly in the courses and inspired genuine conversations about faith and community in the education system.
While Ubuntu was a key concept in their courses, teacher candidates were able to experience faith integration throughout the entirety of their trip. “Seeing how the teachers and students’ worldview of Christ influenced their drive and perspective on education was inspiring,” Thayer said. “In Zambia, the children hold close to their faith and education. They’re intertwined with one another, and it’s life changing to witness such genuine curiosity and companionship." The teacher candidates attended church on Sundays with the students at Breath of Heaven Academy and also participated in faithful fellowship with each other during debriefs. Relationships and deeper understanding of Ubuntu through interacting with the community were at the core of faith growth for the APU students. Thayer had the opportunity to stay an extra two weeks at Breath of Heaven working in the classrooms and further building those relationships which allowed her to truly be able to connect with those around her and better understand the importance of Ubuntu. “Seeing education in other parts of the world, especially in places like Zambia where it's not a right, but a privilege, is really important,” Hall said.
Study away experiences allow students not only to learn about other cultures and the importance of cultivating intercultural relationships, but to bring that knowledge back with them to use in their everyday lives and future careers. “This trip reinvigorated our students and reaffirmed their calling to be teachers,” Harris said. “Education is a very local profession, but it’s also a profession done across the world. Study abroad experiences help our students see a global perspective of their profession and have been proven to help with student retention through motivation.”
The teacher education program’s first study away trip to Zambia was a pivotal moment in the education and future careers of the 10 teacher candidates that attended. Due to the trip’s success, the School of Education has received approval to take another group of teacher candidates to Breath of Heaven Academy for a study away experience next summer.