Mohammad Tareque Rahman completed his Ph.D. at University of Queensland, Australia in 2019 and returned to Dhaka, Bangladesh where he is currently Associate Professor at the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB) teaching in the general education program. He is also Director of the Center for Excellence of Teaching and Learning (CETL) at ULAB. [12-19]
In the spring of 2018 Tareque returned to UMass to visit CIE in its new home.
When the Peter Pan bus passed the University lodge I was telling my wife to pay attention to the right-hand side of the road to have a glimpse of the CIE building. We saw a modern building (the Fine arts building), though our eyes were looking for that two story little old building where once I used to go every day, which was my school. Unfortunately, we found a fenced area and my wife was telling me, "probably CIE has moved somewhere else," seeing my disappointed face.
CIE wasn't there but all the memories with CIE were still intact and suddenly started showcasing in my mind. It was 2012 when I got into CIE as a doctoral student. All those faces, my respected teachers (Gretchen, David, Ash, Chris, Jacqui, Bjorn) all my friends and of course Barbara, those days, golden days. Though I started the doctoral program but graduated with Ed.S. (Educational Specialist) degree for some unavoidable reasons, however, during my two and half years of time at CIE I engaged myself in lots of activities. Those memories of working as project coordinator, teaching (as a TA) in big classrooms, working as project coordinator for Global Horizons- a collaborative project between the university and the schools. I was also reminded of attending those Tuesday dialogues- sharing, learning, and debating.
Eman (my wife) was right, the next morning I found CIE just beside the College of Education, a small white building. It was a mixed feeling seeing a new look of CIE and I was this time more cautious, a bit nervous to enter the building. Saw few known faces (Barbara and David) though many of the others were not there. It was quiet and a bit unknown too. But this feeling didn't last long as Barbara came and offered me a hug with her well known welcoming smile and gestures. Slowly my old CIE started to show up, Barbara took me to David's room. David, still the same with that tough but caring smile welcomed me once again. For the time being, I forgot that I was no longer a student here. David's question- what are you doing in these days, got me back into the reality as I was reminding myself, what am I doing in these days?
Well, I found the answer isn't a long one. After I graduated, I went back to my country, started teaching at a university. Within a very short time, I was given a scholarship and moved to Brisbane, Australia to start the Ph.D. program at the University of Queensland. Soon, I was busy again adjusting to a new environment, new faculties, friends, people, buildings, new ways of dealing, understandings. I found my CIE experiences immensely helpful in this process starting as a new member of the community, a student, a tutor, most importantly an agent of change. As my Ph.D. focus, I am investigating the World Bank's problem construction of the contemporary Bangladeshi higher Education sector in their Higher Education Quality Enhancement project called HEQEP.
Though I didn't get to see many of my respected teachers and friends still I felt all of you were there and saying "see you again Tareque and good luck with your Ph.D. [5-18]
Email: mohammadtarequerahman@gmail.com