Improving literacy attainment across the GCC among K-12 students | Leading non-profit initiatives to support community schools in the UAE
"It's hard to be happy right now, it's hard to feel normal with all that's happening..." I'd been succeeding in keeping the 'personal' apart from the 'professional' very effectively up until now, but something snapped in me the minute an educator shared this during an icebreaker for a PD session last week. Amid intense uproar online and offline, and a horrible sense of grief and helplessness that hangs over so many shoulders right now, I wonder what our school communities and education fraternity is doing to help each other cope with the intensity of the current crisis and injustice in our region. Are we equipped to hold this pain and grief? Are we prepared to make room for difficult conversations? Are we considering the impact of the news we are absorbing and our reactions on our students? Are we able to contextualize current events and equip our students with a vision for peace-building and restoration? Today, I’m reminded of the frustration I feel with the lack of a strong social science curriculum in schools across the Middle East, and an almost total absence of social sciences in higher education. STEAM is essential to have the tools and skills to build a future. The social sciences are essential to be able to imagine and evaluate what that future could look like and what role we can play in it, as individuals and as communities. Once the dust settles, which I hope - like you - that it does very soon, I wonder if this is a conversation education leaders in the region would be willing to take on.