Teachers and educators have been charged to build better relationships with children to deliver on their mandate as destiny moulders.
The Associate Dean of Teacher Education, Queens University, Ontario, Canada, Peter Chin, PhD, gave the charge while delivering his keynote presentation at the seventh edition of the Edves Catalyst International Education Conference.
He said, “The fundamental job of a teacher is to connect kids to their dreams. Yes, we are trying to teach maths, literacy, but what we are fundamentally doing is to connect people to their dreams.”
He said achieving the fundamental task requires that teachers build relationships with the children they tutored. He noted that teachers ought not to only know what is of interest to their children, but they must also know what are the barriers that may hinder the children from achieving their dreams in order to provide the support systems that can help the children overcome some of the barriers to achieving their dream.
The keynote speaker noted that at times, teachers become the barriers themselves through certain practices such as taking decisions for the children based on factors such as social construct, economic background, intellectual capacity, without even considering what the children might actually want.
“Learning to teach is learning to see and we do not see things the way they are but the way we are”, he said.
To address this, he urged teachers to reflect on their practices and look out for ways to see how they might become barriers to the dreams of their pupils and students.
The two-day hybrid event which commenced Friday June 2nd at the Landmark Event Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos Nigeria gathers together educators from around the world to explore possible solutions to advance education in Africa.
Speaking on the initiative, the Chief Executive Officer, Edves, Dimeji Falana said the conference which was first introduced in 2017 seeks to address the challenges in the education sector which technology on its own could not fix.
Falana said the theme for this year “Audacious” signified taking a bold step to focus to address the learning crises currently prevalent in Africa by identifying solutions to improving learning and education in the continent.
“Edves Catalyst is not just a conference, it is a platform for innovation, networking, critical thinking and exchanging ideas that will advance education in Africa”, he added.
According to the organisers, the seventh edition with a line- up of speakers and panellists from around the world who will be addressing key themes and issues in education promises to be the richest so far.
