Haitian Educational Leadership and Collaboration - Partnership Development Grant

I had an exciting skype meeting with Gaetane Jean Marie from the University of Oklahoma last week.  She is originally from Haiti but has lived in the US most of her life.  She is a well-known academic who has published extensively on educational leadership.  She actually contacted me while I was in Haiti a few weeks ago and we are now looking at ways we can collaborate - my experience with educators in Haiti + her experience with educational leadership.  I'm very optimistic about the possibilities!

The Canadian government, through the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), provides grants for universities and other institutions to forge collaborative relationships.  I met with our Laurier research office yesterday and will be developing a grant to establish a network of institutions interested in supporting educational leadership in Haiti.  This will include Laurier, possibly some other Cdn institutions such as University of Guelph, Western, and Alberta, as well as Haitian institutions such as the Ministry of Education and American universities such as Oklahoma.  It's exciting to see these collaborative networks being built!

Milton Lecture: Education and New Technologies in Haiti

Tomorrow I have the opportunity to be part of the Laurier Lecture Series in Milton.  Each month, a different faculty member is featured and provides an hour lecture on a topic which bridges academia with "the real world."  It's really about knowledge mobilization; taking research projects we're passionate about and getting others informed and excited about them as well.  In this case, it's also about building those glocal understandings. The title of my talk is Piti piti: Utilizing new technologies to support education in Haiti.

The lecture is Wednesday, November 9 at 7 pm at the Milton Arts Centre for those who are interested.

Glocal Contrasts - from Rideau Hall to PAP

I had the opportunity to attend the Killam Prizes at Rideau Hall (home of the Governor General, pictured with me above) just before going to Haiti.  I was there as a representative of the Comparative and International Education Society of Canada. To go from black tie (or in my case, red tie!) and in the midst of great prosperity to the challenges of making ends meet day-to-day was another reminder of the glocal contrasts we encounter.

Participants in the M.Ed. class - Oct. 2011

Back to Canada ... but with thoughts of Haiti (and generosity)

I returned to Canada on Saturday night with minimal delays and inconvenience.  I'm always reminded of the stark contrasts between Haiti and Canada on these return trips.  Just looking in the windows of the high end shops in Miami airport is enough to bring one to tears after seeing the extreme sacrifices of teachers and principals in Haiti. I know it is a financial struggle for many of the principals just to get a tap-tap (mini busses/trucks which transport people throughout the country) after a week of a course.

And yet, my Haitian colleagues are so generous.  They are generous in their verbal encouragement of each other and me.  They are also financially generous - they pooled funds and bought a beautiful hand-sculptured, Haitian wood carving for me (see picture below).  My colleagues reminded me again of the importance of commitment to a cause - developing a solid educational system in Haiti - but also to never lose sight of being generous in our relationships as we work toward that cause.

Johnny ... more heroes

A week of teaching has wrapped up and I'm exhausted. However, principals like Johnny Philippe motivate me. Johnny is about half way through his MEd while working full time and raising his family with his wife. After we were done today, he was ready to head home ... but the ancient car he was driving wouldn't start. A couple of guys jumped in and, over the next few hours, proceeded to hot wire the car. Johnny had a few hours to go before he'd make it home so hopefully his car made it! These are my heroes.

Last night we had an amazing celebration as 60+ people joined us as 4 MEd students presented their projects and completed the requirements of their MEd ... more heroes!

Guava jelly and CocaCola

My morning started with fresh bread from a local bakery and a lovely container of guava jelly - my favourite! Tonight, I'm relaxing with a tall Coke! What a Glocal connection in Haiti!

Yesterday I met with the director for the Nord department of education. We formalized the agreement we have to provide teacher training in his region. Today, the new gov't was installed in Haiti and it has all happened without incident. I am hopeful that a new era of peace and stability has come to Haiti. There is great potential for long-lasting change here and the teacher-training program in the north could be a very significant step in that direction.

Tonight, 4 students who I have supervised for their MEd project provided their presentations. There was about 60 people in the audience so it was quite a powerful evening. I'm hoping to take some of the best projects and developing a book on leadership practices for Haiti. I also met with a group yesterday to talk about establishing a professional teaching magazine or journal in Haiti. I'm quite excited about this possibility!

The materials collected by the WLU students has been distributed and my suitcases are empty of supplies ... It must be time to return home. One more day of teaching and then I shall make the transition back to Canada. I always leave with mixed feelings - I love the passion, questions, and dedication of my colleagues in Haiti ... But there's no place like home!