Joanna Durham-Barnes, assistant professor of elementary education, gave a presentation as a part of the Summer Achievements in Research and Creativity series.

The presentation involved sending teachers from the U.S. to Kenya for three-to-four weeks to train Kenyan teachers.

Durham-Barnes spent the 2010 summer in Bungoma, a small town 45 minutes from the border of Uganda. She went with three main objectives in mind — to scout locations to send U.S. teachers, interview the teachers from Kenya to determine what they need most and to examine the methods used by teachers in Kenya.

In Kenya, education is split into three schools — primary, grades one through eight, secondary, grades nine through 12 and university.  There is also what is called pre-primary schooling for students ages 2 to 6.

Test scores play a big role in the education in Kenya. Durham-Barnes said some students don’t pass through school because they cannot pass the end of the school year tests due to missing a lot of class.

“We had a student that was 8 years old that was still in the preschool program because he had not passed the behavior test to get out of preschool,” she said.

Durham-Barnes went to two schools — St. Teresa’s, a secondary school in Kabuli, and Epico Johns, a pre-
primary and primary school in Katali.

She also asked teachers why they chose the profession and what goals and skills were needed.

The pre-primary teacher said she taught because she loved children, and there was no stress while the male primary teacher taught because there was a shortage of teachers, and teachers were respected in the community.

Durham-Barnes said most of the Kenyan teachers said the students needed technology.

“All of the teachers felt like technology was the one key to allowing Kenyan students access to the world,” she said. “The secondary school actually has a computer lab, and they never use it because no one in the school knows how to use it.”

Durham-Barnes said she hopes to structure the trip with one week of observation and one week at each school.

She also said the teachers were interested in doing an exchange program where the teachers from Kenya would come to the U.S. for training.

By AMANDA CHIAMULERA

Staff

alchiamu@umail.iu.edu