American teachers to visit Kenya for benchmarking

By , K24 Digital
On Thu, 23 Sep, 2021 12:41 | 2 mins read
PHOTO/COURTESY

Teachers who work in the United States of America (USA) will be sent to Kenya in January 2022 for benchmarking workshop that will take five weeks.

Official details have revealed that a total of 14 teachers who work at Northern Illinois University (NIU) will visit Kenya to acquire new skills in readiness for their jobs in the US.

The 14 teachers include seven graduate students who are on practice while the other seven are undergraduate teacher licensure candidates.

They will be attending the workshop courtesy of a program dubbed Educate Global.

With the main aim being learning Kiswahili, some of the teachers will be sent to Tanzania.

They are equally going to learn and know how racism affects the US at large through learning and understanding social cohesion.

“It is very important that teachers change their perspective, learn how race affects US citizens and reflect on themselves differently as cultural and racial beings and use the opportunity to grow,” James Cohen who is an official in the College of Education said.

Kenya and Tanzania are known to be tribal and never racial despite the fact that both countries were colonized before getting independence.

Cohen said that all the teachers who will be brought to East Africa have racialized perspectives whether they acknowledge them in any way or not.

He further said that once the teachers are done with the training, they will be in a position to eliminate race and also get the best way in which their students will also work towards the same direction.

“We hope the teachers will look at individuals from a knowledge perspective rather than race or colour," Cohen added.

Equally, the teachers will also make great interactions with Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs).

They will also meet local leaders in Kenya and Tanzania to learn more about traditions and culture.

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