Educators in the in the Teacher Education Diploma Program in Dadaab, Kenya sent their thanks to students at Westside Montessori Academy Summer Camp who made bookmarks to help them study that were hand delivered to Dadaab by UBC course facilitator and doctoral candidate, Hezron Onditi. (Read full story)
Photo credit: Graham Lea (all permissions obtained)
These educators have been working with Hezron Onditi as they engage with the topics and activities designed for EPSE 171 Adolescent Development for Teachers. Graham Lea, also a UBC course facilitator, worked with the educators for EDUC 172 Language and the Curriculum. Faculty of Education members, Jennifer Vadeboncoeur and Kedrick James, skyped into class meetings working from Vancouver to support each of the educators and the facilitators.
“…a teacher is a person in whose hands the future of the young generation lies.”
A primary teacher with five years experience, Bishar Abdi Hussein, noted his motivation to teach “because a teacher is a person in whose hands the future of the young generation lies.” Primary teacher, Amina Hassan Abdi called teachers “engines of change,” and noted the importance of knowledge and skills for school children, as well as the significance of teachers as models for girls and boys.
Photo credit: Graham Lea
These relationships will continue through the final exam period for the Diploma, in April 2015, and we hope, beyond.
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Since 2009, the UBC Faculty of Education has been working with Kenya’s Moi University and the Dadaab refugee camp in northeastern Kenya to develop and implement a teacher education program for secondary school teachers in the Dadaab settlement.
The two-year teacher education diploma program in Dadaab, Kenya started this month and is offered collectively by UBC Faculty of Education and Kenya’s Moi University.
UBC Faculty of Education members Associate Dean Rita Irwin and Associate Professor Samson Nashon are leading the project, which includes:
Dr. George Belliveau (LLED), Mr. Bruce Gurney (EDCP), Mr. Eric Hansen (EDCP), Dr. Kedrick James (LLED), Dr. Elizabeth Jordan (ECPS), Ms. Joanne Melville (EDCP), Dr. Karen Meyer (EDCP), Dr. Cynthia Nicol (EDCP), Dr. Bathsheba Opini (EDST), Dr. Theresa Rogers (LLED), and Dr. Jennifer Vadeboncoeur (ECPS). Their contributions include developing distance and facilitated courses for the program with hopes of participating in classroom-based teaching in the future.
The Dadaab project is a humanitarian effort currently linked in parallel partnership between York University and Kenyatta University who are working on a similar education program for elementary teachers. In early 2013, the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFAT-D) awarded a grant to York University and a group of partners, including UBC, Moi University, Kenyatta University, and the World University Service of Canada (WUSC) for funding and support of the Dadaab project.
Story by: Julie Acres and Jennifer Vadeboncoeur