I am really enjoying the opportunity to present at the AISA conference being held at the International School of Kenya in Nairobi.

Having a group for seven hours has provided the opportunity for many deep and insightful conversations. I made a couple of observations at the end of day 2.

The first observation had to do with getting past my own bias. I came into this event with a notion that the challenges facing teachers and schools would be mild as they were dealing with a fairly exclusive population of children. With tuitions running in the $20,000 range I thought it would be a piece of cake to teach here. The concerns are the same I’ve heard in jurisdictions across Canada and the United States. Challenging the status quo on assessment, student engagement, and collaboration time are concerns here as elsewhere.

The second observation came as a result of conversations with a number of teachers who came from the United States. The leading rationale for being here wasn’t the travel (my initial thought and certainly a nice benefit as viewed by those here) but to leave a system that is “broke”, “not conducive to learning”, and “heading in the wrong direction”. Definitely food for thought!

Part of the group that participated in the workshop on day 2 of the conference. These participants were all from Nigeria.