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Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-067
Stephen McLaughlin served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Sierra Leone from July 1968 to July 1970 as a teacher educator. He trained at Fourah Bay College and Njala University, both in Sierra Leone, and received instruction in the Krio language, African history, and teacher education. He was stationed at the Magburaka Government Teacher Training College in Magburaka, Northern Province, where he taught African and Sierra Leonean history to students who were training to be primary school teachers. McLaughlin also reorganized and cataloged the college's library and did some adult literacy instruction. He was an experienced secondary school history teacher, and came to Sierra Leone with the hope of teaching critical thinking through class discussions, but instead found that his students were more acclimated to lectures and memorization. After some adaptation to prevailing practices, he guided his students through the curriculum and prepared them successfully for their year-end exams. In his second year, McLaughlin was able to introduce more dialog among students and helped to create a more interactive classroom, which was a mutually beneficial give-and-take experience. Interviewed and recorded by Ellen Gagne, January 18, 2019. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-029
Janice "Jan" Bernsten (nee Graham) served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Sierra Leone from 1968 to 1970 as a primary school teacher. Graham's training began in Freetown and continued in Bo and at the rural Njala University. Her training included teacher training and learning the Mende language. Graham was first stationed in Jimmi Bagbo, where she taught all subjects to 60 sixth graders, maintained a school library, and organized a nursery school. In the summer of 1969, she helped with the training of a new cohort of teacher volunteers. Graham became engaged to a community development Peace Corps volunteer, Rick Bernsten. She moved to his location in Taiama for her second year of teaching. Jan and Rick were married in Taiama in December 1969. Bernsten emphasizes the many benefits she received from her Peace Corps experiences. Afterwards she had a career teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) and then linguistics, and she and Rick have been involved in projects in several other countries. Interviewed and recorded by Ellen Gagne, October 17, 2018. 1 digital audio file.