Preparing the Next Generation of Teachers

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check the achievements of the student and issue a certificate [3]. It is question- able whether online courses can replace the role of a physical education institute .... cializing in ICT or computer science, but also any liberal art/humanities or.
Preparing the Next Generation of Teachers Gertjan van Stam SIRDC, Harare, Zimbabwe [email protected]

This is the text of the address for the national dialogue for ICT in Education for Sustainable Developmet in Juliasdale, Zimbabwe, 11-14 March 2014.

1 Introduction This contribution to the Zimbabwean national dialogue for ICT in Education for Sustainable Development (ICT4ESD) is labeled “Preparing the Next Generation of Teachers”. Let me start with the end in mind, drawing up a vision of the‘’University of the Future’, then dive into three proposed aspects involved in the teachers preparation. These are Engagement, Progress, and Authenticity, which ends with touching upon African indigenous aspects that undergird real sustainability.

2 A vision for the University of the Future Education, like science, goes through identity crises. It must reinvent itself constantly [1]. Education needs a firm foundation in human values. It must cultivate a form of life with which students and teachers can identify [2]. Therefore, our education system will have to address moral issues and address the needs of both the local and global societies. Also, topics like research and entrepreneurship need to be intertwined with education. In the future, students will not have to choose a specific education institute. Instead, they can select various courses by the best professors and put together their own programme. Still, there will be a need for some authority which will check the achievements of the student and issue a certificate [3]. It is questionable whether online courses can replace the role of a physical education institute entirely. An important part of education consists of the interaction with educators and peers. Students have to learn to collaborate in teams. They need their peers to engage in discussions on values and to develop a shared vision on future challenges for science and society [4]. The form of future education will most probably be a kind of blended learning: a combination of online lectures for transfer of explicit knowledge, combined with interactive classwork where the educator and students meet and discuss [5]. Undoubtedly, online interaction and group work utilizing social media do supplement real life interaction.

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From this, a picture of the University of the Future emerges. This will be a networked institute, embedded in the global academic community [4]. It will have some strong regional as well as long-distance links and a lot of weaker global links. The university will remain to be a meeting place for students and scholars. Here they interact in projects and discussions on science, research and innovation, on the challenges for the future, and on the role of science in the local society as well as in the world at large. Through ICT, the students, scientists, and teachers will be part of a global network. Students will select their courses from the network rather than from within their particular university. Further, teachers will provide their courses to the network while scientists participate in international projects. So primarily, the university becomes a hub in a network, connecting people in different places. At the same time, the university will be a physical focal point and meeting place, where debate takes place, where critical thinking is stimulated, where students and educators are challenged, and where moral issues are taken seriously. It will be a place where connections are fostered between academic disciplines and where a holistic view and understanding of reality will be developed, explicitly enshrined within the local societal and cultural context.

3 Example from rural Zambia From 2003 up to and including 2012, I lived in the village of Macha in Zambia. Internet arrived in this village in 2004, mobile telephone late 2006 [6]. Our research in this setting showed that internet availability links-in with education opportunities. Indeed, when we deployed an online survey in the village about the use of Internet after 7 years of its presence in the rural community, we found that 71% of respondents were using the internet for learning [7]. The first person to jump on the opportunity to study online was an impressive woman who wanted to strengthen her abilities for a leadership role in the local church. At first, she was not accepted in that role. However, after completing a theological education and gaining a formal divinity degree through the internet, she was allowed into a position of leadership. In this rural community, the internet facilitated sustainable progress for her important church work focussing on ‘peace and reconciliation’.

4 Preparation of next generation of Teachers through Engagement, Progress, and Authenticity So, how to prepare the next generation of teachers for the current revolution in education? There is much debate and literature on the subject and the issues are relatively well known. There are justified cries for prioritizing the inclusion of teachers, right from the start of any development. This can be a messy, timeconsuming and resource-intensive process1 . Also, there are issues of access and 1

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Fig. 1. Esther Kalambo, divinity degree holder by study through the internet from rural Zambia (Picture: Tony Roberts, 2007)

affordability as prominent barriers to use of ICT. Further, There are great differences between countries and significant spatial, social and ethnic divides within most countries [8]. In general, for preparing the next generation of teachers, there is need for – – – –

access to infrastructure and services, and thus education resources strengthen the ability to use infrastructure and services actually use infrastructure and services, and discussion on the applicability of western educational resources for sustainable progress of Africa

No doubt, there will be other contributions during this dialogue diving deeper in these important issues. I propose the next generation of teachers are going to be prepared for the future through processes of – Engagement – Progress, and – Authenticity

5 Engagement For effective engagement in our networked and connected world, there must be an environment with shared values, a common purpose, and sufficient levels of applicable skills. Engagement in the networked world operates in a situation flush with paradoxes that need careful reconciliation [9]. In recent work on Inclusive Community Engagement in Social Innovation, case Africa [10], I have show this can be done through – – – –

holistic, transdiciplinary approaches local empowerment reciprocity enthusiasm

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. Instead of going into the theory of these important aspects, let us dive into a contemporary case to show these aspects: the case of the course the Evolution of the Internet (EVOINT). 5.1 EVOINT, an experience of integration of ICT in Education In order to respond to the need for a course that gives a broad understanding of the development of the Internet, in the spirit of webscience, the course the Evolution of the Internet (EVOINT) is as part of a Masters programme at Tilburg University in the Netherlands. This course was constructed in a world wide cooperation. Currently it runs in its fifth session. EVOINT was tested as a ‘presentation series’ at the University of Zambia, and reported upon at the ICT4Africa conference in Harare in 2013 [4]. Apart from lectures, social media facilitates communications and provides for sharing and discussing of information, with students engaging through Twitter, Facebook, and other (social) means of communication, with worldwide interaction during the course period2 The ability to understand technology deeply and the ability to engage with technologies like ICT might define the difference between the citizen of the past and citizen of the future [11]. Therefore, the course not only suits students specializing in ICT or computer science, but also any liberal art/humanities or engineering/science students. Students benefit and acquire necessary skills for the digital era. 5.2 Continuous Education and Transdisciplinarity Teachers are committed to preparing the next generation to be able to lead a purposeful and fulfilling life in which they can develop themselves and contribute to the progress of humanity. Our society need teachers who have acquired digital literacy and are well versed in digital skills. Ongoing swift, and even accelerating, developments require lifelong learning. The knowledge that teachers acquire in schools and universities expires in a very few years, and some of it has already expired. Facilitation should focus on learning how to learn so that teachers can take responsibility for their own continuous development after the formal education. Teachers need to understand not just the use of devises and communication networks, but also their interaction with human society, to engender endogenous progress [12, 13]. Therefore, preparation of teachers must be increasingly transdisciplinary in its nature. ICT influences the content of education and the form in which education takes place. This holds for courses in all disciplines. 2

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6 Progress: A vision for education and research in Sub-Sahara Africa The changing and blended teaching environments require teachers to be able to complement online presence by meeting in class to discuss the inter-relations between the various aspects of their course. The opening up of class to the world, content is being placed within the context of the culture of society. The revolution in the education system presents new challenges to established institutes of education. At the same time, it can provide solutions to overcome the obstacles that our current education infrastructures are facing. ICT can mediate the challenge of African teachers to both positioning culturally close to the African society and to linking intellectually to wider scholarly and scientific values of the world of learning [14]. In Africa, teachers can now overcome Africa’s legacy of Western-centricity by integrating and reviewing their courses utilizing ethnography, storytelling and trans-diciplinarity. This contributes to the need of African universities as Mazrui [14] put them for us: 1. de-colonizing modernity by African education seeking cultural nearness to African society; 2. diversifying the cultural content of modernity, moving African education from a multi-national corporation to a multi-cultural corporation; 3. instigating an African flow of influence into the Western civilization. Further, the openness of the Internet, can support the thrust for more symmetric education partnerships, which are currently asymmetric [15]. Starting from our more or less greenfield situation future teachers can leapfrog and take advantage of the possibilities of ICT to align with priorities as set by national policies in an innovative and exiting manner. They have opportunities to explore traditional African views and their allegiances, and expose the unique cultural, political, economical, and social context in Africa to the World. The lack of excellent lecturers can be overcome (at least to a great extent) by making use of the wide spectrum of available online lectures of high quality. Of course, these online courses must be accompanied by coaches helping students to put together their palette of courses, monitoring progress, and adjusting the process along the way as desired. In this manner, the teacher becomes co-learner. The future teacher will have embarked on sustainable progress when she/he transmits (African) courses and not consumes only. The challenge is how we can strengthen African dignity, amending the hegemonic western viewpoints, based on predominant scientific assumptions and a singular capitalist economic models. This brings us to the third component of the preparation of future teachers: authenticity.

7 Authenticity: African Thought Leadership I have seen in rural Africa that future education frameworks and infrastructures allow for a new opportunities to ‘strengthen the African message to the World’.

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Even Pope Francis recently acknowledged the value of the Internet when communication is at the service of an authentic culture of encounter3 . In the future, African teachers not only teach their local students, but also are invited to disseminate African knowledge and wisdom to the world. I posit this knowledge and wisdom to be enshrined in the components Ubuntu, Orality, Relatio, Dominatio and Animatio. 7.1 Ubuntu Ubuntu underlies the structure of Sub-Saharan African language and culture. The South African scholar, Khoza, explains Ubuntu as an epistemology and humanistic philosophy, a metaphor embodying the significance of group solidarity [16]. The Ubuntu culture is a key to African values, involving collective personhood and collective morality. Tutu writes“[Ubuntu] also means my humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in theirs. We belong in a bundle of life” [17]. He contrasts western philosophy and Ubuntu through: ‘it is not I think therefore I am. It says rather: I am human because I belong’. Why is Ubuntu relevant? Let us look at the the devises that facilitate ICT; When we create and handle goods and services, we are using expressions that result from a political, value-laden act. Westerners designed those technologies, almost exclusively. Generally, these technologies do not align with Ubuntu. They mostly serve the values of Western cultures. Thus, it is no wonder that technology often stands idly. When there would be more widespread knowledge of Ubuntu, such could revolutionize the way that, for instance, technology is viewed and designed. This can lead to new ways of interactions of ‘the World-of-Things’ with the ‘World-of-Humans’, with products of services consequently designed, produced, and utilized in co-creation, collaboration and community. Likewise, Ubuntu knowledge and skills can influence governance, legislation, and more. 7.2 Orality The practice that the African society is based on interactions utilizing oral discourse. One can observe how community members regard verbal interaction as valuable. Among others, orality offers the unique ability to assess comprehension and effect instantly [18]. Orality ensures the social cohesion of the African civilization. Orality influences everything as it does in most parts of the world. A ‘second orality’ is emerging, instigated through pervasive computing, the omnipresent mobile phones, and video cultures. It can be expected that there are benefits by using oral characteristics in research and development for future services and products. 7.3 Relatio In African communities, there is much duality, also in economic systems. Parallel economic systems exist, each addressing the basic questions of choice and 3

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resource management. One is a traditional rational Western system, the other a relational, communal African system, which I dubbed the Relatio-economy [19]. In the Relatio economy, the distribution of goods relies on the level of relationships, how one is interwoven with the other [20]. It recognizes that we are linked in our sphere of influence, in our extended families, in our communities, in our nations; de facto in all our relationships [21]. History matters. In Africa, we allocate resource in macro-economic terms, by satisfying the relationship-equivalents of banking, markets, and regulation. The majority of micro-economic actions undertaken by those of the Relatio mindset is working towards long-run stability. Of course, to be successful in our building of relationships - to support peace in a more and more connected world - the primary means of resource allocation in the local context must be taught. Without that understanding, developments managed exclusively through a Western understanding of economic rationality makes only limited progress. 7.4 Dominatio Dominatio is about how Africa has dealt with, and deals with, social injustice and domination. I refer to shining examples of African leaders and the underlying notion of African Renaissance. It is well known that ‘outsiders’ revere this aspect of the African society; where against all odds and tantalizing historical facts, in daily practice most people live in harmony and mutual acceptance. In my view, the work of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission stands out as a prime example of the importance of working towards peace. It shows examples of instruments of reconciliation. There is no future without forgiveness [17]. There is no solace in the isolation of extreme individualism, deconstruction and decontextualization of reality. We are all connected, and Africa knows this. 7.5 Animatio Animatio is the tuning in activities in an African rhythm that sustains progress It provides the solidity of everyday life, the strength to stand tall amidst tidal waves of change, difficulties, and enshrines the collective search for African guidance in situations of change. The strength of the African rhythm, the tuning into local culture, sustains balance. It provides the sense of belonging and aids in finding equilibrium, time and again. It honors birthed connections with one’s family, the community, the nation, the continent, and humanity at large. It connects to the environment, defines and regulates ethical behavior and measures and evaluates the works. Animatio assures that human values as love, solidarity, and empathy, fuel caring for the other, the environment, and ecology. This yields balance in expressions of humanness, also in music, poetry, dance, and sports. Animatio assures a solid basis for growth, that change only occurs when cultural roots have gone deep. It aims for fair play and sustains courage in times of difficulties. Then sustainability is assured.

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8 Conclusion There is a fundamental change affecting future teachers: a revolution in Education as spurred on by ubiquitous Information and Communication Technologies. This opens existing possibilities, for which teachers need to be prepared. There is a future where Africa will strengthen the core components of its society, and take up its rightful position in a world where one can be global while acting locally. Teachers will be the first port of call on that way, and must be the first ones to be equiped through processes of engagement, progress, and authenticity.

9 About the Presenter Gertjan van Stam (48) was born in the Netherlands. From 2003 up to and including 2012, he and his family lived in the rural village of Macha, in the Southern Province of Zambia. Before that he stayed for 2 years in rural Murambinda, Zimbabwe. He has been involved with strategic developments in ICT, in Africa, since 1987. Currently, he is Research Fellow at the Scientific and Industrial Research and Development Centre in Harare, Zimbabwe. His goal is to identify and inspire local talent and introduce appropriate technologies to build the necessary capacity for community-led activities to yield sustainable human development outcomes. His quest is for a logical framework for understanding dynamics of change in African communities and engendering leadership capable of inspiring, initiating, implementing, operating, and scaling up sustainable progress and the use of technology in the local community. Since 2011, Gertjan has volunteered in strategy-making in the IEEE, the largest professional institute in the world. He works on Social Innovation, specifically in ’thought leadership and advocacy’, and is actively involved in serving and providing guidance for students in academic studies. His activities in Zambia were featured in IEEE’s The Institute, and his career was documented in an award-winning IEEE video at TryEngineering. The activities in Zambia were shown worldwide though BBC Clicks. Gertjan authored the book Placemark, is fervent blogger, and has published over 30 peer-reviewed papers on findings and lessons learned in rural and urban Africa.

References 1. Mark T. Mitchell. Michael Polanyi. Wilmington, Delaware, 2006. 2. J¨ urgen Mittelstrass. The Future of the University and the Credibility of Science and Scholarship. Ethical Perspectives, 13(2):171–189, March 2006. 3. Gertjan van Stam. eLearning in Africa and the Opportunity for Innovative Credentialing. In Fifth International Conference on eInfrastructure and eServices for Developing Countries (Africomm 2013), Blantyre, Malawi, 2013. 4. Gerard van Oortmerssen, Gertjan van Stam, and Alec Malichi. A Novel Model for Academic, Transcultural, and Global ICT Education, employing the full potential of ICT. In International Conference on ICT for Africa, Harare, Zimbabwe, 2013.

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5. Milton Chen. Education Nation: six leading edges of innovation in our schools. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 2010. 6. Karel Matthee, Gregory Mweemba, Adrian Pais, Gertjan van Stam, and Marijn Rijken. Bringing Internet connectivity to rural Zambia using a collaborative approach. In IEEE/ACM International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD2007), Bangalore, India, 2007. IEEE. 7. David L Johnson, Elizabeth M Belding, and Gertjan van Stam. Network traffic locality in a rural African village. In Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development, pages 268–277, Atlanta, GA, USA, 2012. ACM. 8. Tim Unwin. Ensuring that we create an Internet for All. In Stockholm Internet Forum 2013, 2013. 9. Gertjan van Stam. Is Technology the Solution to the Worlds Major Social Challenges? In IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference, Seattle, USA, 2012. IEEE. 10. Gertjan van Stam. Inclusive Community Engagement in Social Innovation, case Africa. In Fifth International Conference on eInfrastructure and eServices for Developing Countries (Africomm 2013), Blantyre, Malawi, 2013. 11. Moshe Kam. Engineering as Liberal Art. In Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh, 14 Aug 2012, Edinburgh, 2012. 12. Chrisanthi Avgerou. The significance of context in information systems and organizational change. Information Systems Journal, 11(1):43–63, 2001. 13. Tegawende F. Bissyande, Daouda Ahmat, Jonathan Ouoba, Gertjan van Stam, Jacques Klein, and Yves Le Traon. Sustainable ICT4D in Africa: Where Do We Go From Here? In Fifth International Conference on eInfrastructure and eServices for Developing Countries (Africomm 2013), Blantyre, Malawi, 2013. 14. Ali A Mazrui. Towards Re-Africanizing African Universities: Who Killed Intellectualism in the Post Colonial Era? Turkish Journal of International Relations, 2(3):135–163, 2003. 15. John D Holm and Leapetsewe Malete. The Asymmetries of University Partnerships between Africa and the Developed World: Our Experience in Botswana. In Going Global 4 - The British Council’s International Education Conference, 2010. 16. Reuel Khoza. Let Africa Lead: African Transformational Leadership for 21st century Business. VezuBuntu, South Africa, 2005. 17. Desmond Tutu. No Future Without Forgiveness. Doubleday, New York, 1999. 18. Gertjan van Stam. Information and Knowledge Transfer in the rural community of Macha, Zambia. The Journal of Community Informatics, 9(1), 2013. 19. Kevin Sheneberger and Gertjan van Stam. Relatio: An Examination of the Relational Dimension of Resource Allocation. Economics and Finance Review, 1(4):26 – 33, 2011. 20. W P Weijland. Mathematical Foundations for the Economy of Giving. Cornell University Library, 2014. 21. Gertjan van Stam. Oral Budgeting in rural Macha, Southern Province, Zambia. Anthropological Notebooks, 18(3):41 46, 2012.