Global Teacher Prize: Münster University lecturer makes it into top ten
The tension is mounting: Dr. Marie-Christine Ghanbari Jahromi is a finalist in the competition to find the Global Teacher. The British Varkey Foundation chose the 34-year-old lecturer at Münster University as the only German among the top ten competing for the Global Teacher Prize. Marie-Christine Ghanbari Jahromis main job is as a teacher at a comprehensive school in Gescher, in the Münsterland, where she gives Mathematics, German and Sport. The winner, who will be named in Dubai on March 19, will receive one million dollars. A total of around 20.000 teachers had applied from around 180 countries.
Marie-Christine Ghanbari Jahromi is also a lecturer at the Institute of Sport Psychology at Münster University. "I feel incredibly honoured to have made it to the finals", she says, and adds, "I wouldn’t have got this far without my mentors Maike Tietjens and Bernd Strauß". Prof. Maike Tietjens and Prof. Bernd Strauß jointly supervised Marie-Christine Ghanbari Jahromi’s PhD at Münster University. Maike Tietjens is full of praise for the young teacher. "She has a particular way of linking challenges found at university and at school, taking an holistic approach." Ghanbari Jahromi once said in an interview that she directly puts the insights gained in her research into practice in specific school projects and, in doing so, is guided by schoolchildren’s individual abilities.
Her dissertation, published in 2015, on the importance of physical activity for the self-esteem of young Germans and Nigerians brought Marie-Christine Ghanbari Jahromi acclaim. At the international "SELF Conference" she received a Commended PhD Award.