Life in 2030 in Haiti

Last night, I attended an excellent forum in which four Ontario university researchers presented their perspectives on life in 2030. The talks were eclectic and provided interesting insight (for example, crash free cars in 2030?!). At the end of the evening, I realized that the talks were really geared to what life will look like in 2030 in a western, "developed" context.

What will life be like in Haiti in 2030? Although the western media has not picked up on the stories, there have been many developments over the past 3 years since the earthquake. Major road and airport improvements, schools and hospitals rebuilt, new training facilities, etc. Yet, the average Haitian is still mired in poverty. Unemployment, particularly for young men, soars above 50%. The majority of children are not in school. How can we conceptualize life in Haiti in 2030 when such dire conditions persist?

It seems to me that education is the key to build the social and economic capital of the country. If we can imagine a country with solid governance and economic prosperity, we also have to imagine that this has been accomplished through a literate, educated populace. Yes, investment has to occur in roads and harbours but we need to ensure that we are training teachers and principals to lead dynamic schools. We need to work to ensure that every child attends at least primary school and that increasing numbers attend secondary and vocational schools.

Life in 2030 in Haiti. In some ways, it's difficult to envision what life will be like in Haiti in 2020 much less 2030. However, a picture of change over a generation is key to setting long-term goals and ensuring we stay the course.

Chocolate and Fair Trade: Being Intentional about Glocal Education

Tomorrow night, I will be sharing with our Glocal group at the Laurier Faculty of Education, a lesson on fair trade, specifically chocolate! The lesson is tied to the Ontario curriculum and the basis for the lesson can be found at:

http://www.global-ed.org/cu-chocolate.pdf

There are many ways that teachers can connect global issues into their classroom. I remember my first year Political Science course professor in university (John Redekop) who started every class with a Q and A of news from around the world. I continued this when I was teaching at the high school level and found it a great way to keep my students (and myself) informed of global events.

Being intentional and purposeful about glocal education is important because it's too easy to fall into the trap of delivering a prescribed curriculum without considering global and local connections to the subject and skills being taught.

Global is very local: A reminder

This past Saturday I met two former students, both by coincidence and within minutes of each other. One teaches in an inner-city Hamilton school - in a community that is considered the most impoverished in Canada. The other teaches 30 minutes from this community in the Six Nations of the Grand River.

As I talked with each of the two former students, I was reminded of the challenges which we sometimes assume are "out there" in other country contexts but which exist in our own communities. For example, the teacher in inner-city Hamilton talked about some of the impoverishment his students experience: limited meals, threat of removal from apartments, etc.

What caught my attention though was that both of these teachers didn't focus on the challenges they face. In fact, the vast majority of each conversation was focused on the joys of their jobs. The teacher who works on the Six Nations reserve loves her students. I ran into her in a library where she was getting children's books. She is actively engaged in professional development so she can be the best teacher she can be in working with First Nations children.

Yes, as teachers we experience lots of globally-linked challenges. Just like students in countries such as Haiti and India may experience poverty and poor nutrition, students in Canada can face similar daunting challenges. Of course there are support systems in place in Canada which limit the pervasiveness of these challenges, but they still exist. At the same time, caring and committed teachers, whether in Canada, Haiti, or India, can make a world of a difference for children. We may not be able to eliminate poverty, malnutrition, and challenging home situations, but we can strive to demonstrate and teach children what it means to be caring glocal citizens. A good reminder for why I do what I do.

$20 tablet computers

I've posted a number of articles dealing with the "one laptop per child" phenomenon. Here is a recent one on the new $20 tablets developed for children in India (but with ramifications for children everywhere):

India's $20 tablets

Peru's massive and expensive experiment with laptops for children was a failure in many regards, primarily because of the lack of training and support which went along with the project (see this article: Forbes - Peru's failed laptop project). Certainly, children will explore and utilize these user-friendly devices with or without teacher support (see this article: Technology Review - Ethiopian children use tablets without teacher support). However, to really be used effectively to access and build knowledge and skills within school systems, teachers need to receive training so they can use the devices to their maximum potential.

The early results from the pilot project I have run in Haiti (Digital Mentoring Project) has indicated the same: portable devices facilitate knowledge-sharing and the creation of professional learning communities, but they are not used to their full potential when the training for, and "buy in" from, those using them is limited.

e-Twinning

This article describes a school in Britain and how it is using mobile technology to twin students in its school with schools elsewhere. Very similar ideas to what we are doing in Haiti and Canada with school principals:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2012/nov/06/technology-global-learning-teaching

Updates on Educational Leadership Projects in Haiti

It's been a while since I updated my blog on some of the work we are doing (or hoping to do) in Haiti.

1. School leadership study - we have put a grant application into the Cdn government to support a comparative study of six schools in two different regions of Haiti. The schools would represent urban/rural, private/public, and elementary/secondary. We hope to examine the student and administrator experiences and look at how their perceptions of school life may be similar or different. This will be a descriptive study, filling a gap in the academic literature on student and principal experiences in schools.

2.  Educational leadership conference - another grant application has been submitted seeking financial support to host a leadership conference in Cap-Haitien in May, 2013. In partnership with the Ministry of Education, we anticipate inviting approximately 50 school leaders from across the North Haiti to the conference. Presentations would be provided on issues identified by the Director of the Ministry of Education for the north. Working groups would follow-up on the various identified issues.

3. A third grant has been submitted to support the delivery of a teacher training resource that will help teachers with engaging students and supporting literacy through an activity-based curriculum. The Canadian Intramural and Recreation Association (CIRA) has donated approximately $6,000 of materials (in French) which would serve as the curriculum for the training. Our target is to train lead teachers in 50% of the schools in the north.

4.  Leadership book. I have had 10 Haitian school leaders respond to my call for chapters for a new leadership book. I will edit the book and add sections providing context and an examination at how research can inform improved educational practice in Haiti. The author chapters will complete their chapters this fall and we anticipate launching the book at a large literary fair which occurs in Port au Prince each June.

There are other projects in the wings (e.g. a potential ESL camp, technology support for the public university in the north) and we continue to write about the various projects (e.g. a chapter was just accepted for publication last week, an article for a journal is under review). Momentum is building!

Redefining international education for the digital age

This is a good article in yesterday's University Affairs magazine. It is written by the director of Canadian Virtual University, a consortium of 12 Canadian universities. The reference to the project in Haiti is particularly intriguing.

Redefining international education for the digital age