As mentor teachers at the UVM Campus Children’s School, an Early Childhood Education program in the College of Education and Social Services, we have responsibilities as classroom teachers and as mentors to UVM students who complete their student teaching practicums in our classrooms.

In 2015, The University of Vermont and the Vermont Center for International Learning Partnerships (VCILP) began forming an affiliation that would facilitate meaningful learning for Vermont students with international partners to promote global citizenship.

Through the partnership, we sought to address two provocative questions:

• How does a community use education to build capacity to improve lives in a sustainable way?
• How can educators build on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that address Female Entrepreneurship, Food Sovereignty, Permaculture, Food Safety, and Early Childhood Education toward that end?

These important questions, coupled with Kenyan educators and students articulate and profound beliefs for thinking and acting globally, inspired us into action. 

Throughout the fall 2018 and spring 2019 semesters, we completed a course titled CDAE 295 Sustainable Development and Education: Kenya, taught by UVM College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) Community Development and Applied Economics Professor Jane Kolodinsky and Nutrition and Food Science Lecturer Farryl Bertmann.

Over UVM’s winter break, we traveled to Kenya and partnered with both the St. Charles Lwanga School in Nairobi and their sister school, St. Vianney Educational Center in Rodi.  There we collaborated by observing teacher practice and discussing the recent implementation of the Kenyan Curriculum Reform.  Enacted in 2017, the Kenyan Curriculum Reform will be implemented in Early Childhood Education first, followed by subsequent grades over the next 13 years.

Touching down in Kenya, we were struck by the welcoming nature of the people and their enthusiasm to embrace us as collaborators, learning together while creating trusting relationships.  Kennedy Osmondi and Florence Evans, representatives from the St. Charles Lwanga Secondary School in Nairobi, greeted us with “Jambo” (Hello!) and warm smiles. 

During our time in Kenya, both the high school students of St. Charles Lwanga and the children at St. Vianney articulated brilliantly their value of education and the impact that it has on their lives as contributing members not just to their community, but also to the global responsibility that we all share.

We also noted how the adults foster this sense of agency and accountability to others through respectful encounters and trusting relationships.  They allow children space to see themselves as necessary members of the collective while guiding them to take risks and challenge themselves.

Kindness, respect and community engagement are all foundational components of our work with young children to assist them in seeing themselves as citizens of their world and contributing agents of change.

The first day when we arrived at St. Charles Lwanga, the students were there to greet us with a handshake, eye contact and a smile.  They became the ambassadors of their school, touring us around the campus, answering our questions and building relationships as our collaborators for the next few days.  The message this sends to students is that they are essential members of their community, representatives of their school, and that they have an important role when it comes to the guests that visit. 

Throughout our time in Kenya, we built rapport with the teachers and focused on observation and opportunities to collaborate with them to gain insight about their current curriculum, along with changes made since the new curriculum reform began in 2017. We worked primarily with three teachers – Mackline, Joyce and Lauraline – and we were invited to be part of their classrooms and conversations.

The traditional approach to education is alive and well, where teachers are disseminators of information and children are the receivers. However, and it’s a big however, we constantly observed children of all ages contributing to their community and caring for each other. We experienced community development as a process where individuals come together to act and build communities that are stronger and more resilient, grounded in the creation of trust and connections. 

Our work with Thomas Thiango, Project Coordinator at St. Vianney Educational Center, was filled with ways to build relationships prior to engaging in the work we were setting out to do together.  We began each day with him playing a few games and sharing laughter, making a personal connection as the groundwork for moving forward.  His holistic approach to a way of being – which touches on almost everything we do at the UVM Campus Children’s School – illuminates the ripple effect of small change leading to a big impact.

These encounters left us all with a deep respect for him and his practice as well as awe for his commitment to his work in the Kenyan schools.

In addition, we were offered the opportunities to speak with Eunice Owino, Chief Officer of Education for Homa Bay, Kenya and Meryln Agwa, Chief Officer of Energy and Natural Resources for Homa Bay.  These conversations highlighted resource availability and distribution to schools in rural and urban areas, both private and public sectors, the role of language learning and acquisition (trilingual), and the concept of education being an academic and intellectual field while being solidly grounded in the humanities and relationships.

We continuously saw that Kenyan teachers and government officials all stressed “education as a means for advancement in life” and shared its importance from an early age. 

Kenya’s investment in the care and education of the countries youngest citizens is not unlike others around the world. When early education and knowledge are held in high regard, it opens doors for individuals, but more broadly for society. While students develop their sense of self, they’re offered opportunities to experience and practice agency, make contributions to their communities, and actualize their commitment to making the world a better place.

Likewise, back at UVM, the College of Education and Social Services and the Campus Children’s School, we see these values and beliefs mirrored back to us in an ongoing commitment to the welfare of individuals in the context of communities.

We are eager to continue reflecting on our experiences abroad with the children in our classrooms, listening for observations and questions that express their ideas about equality, access to resources, and culture and with the broader community, discussing the importance of teaching and learning experiences that are community-engaged and culturally competent.

In March, the Vermont Agency of Education, the UVM Early Childhood Education Program, and the Vermont Association for the Education of Young Children (VTAEYC) hosted the 27th Annual Kindergarten Conference.  This year’s conference focused on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to help early educators understand how to integrate these goals into their everyday work with young children.  We were pround to present and share stories from our work and time in Kenya.

Dawn St. Amour, Morgan DeVarney and Jen Olson are Mentor Teachers at the UVM Campus Children’s School, an Early Childhood Education program on campus that serves children from six weeks to five years of age.