A Teaching Trip
Graduate students compare notes with educators in Kenyan classrooms.
A Ph.D. student in the College of Education, Alicia Whitley is a former high school English teacher who focuses her research on teacher preparation.
Last May, Whitley and two other education Ph.D. students got to apply that expertise on a 14-day trip to Kenya, observing teachers and students in varying grades. And they offered their insight to help the schools as Kenyan curriculums shift.
The NC State students made presentations to some 80 Kenyan teachers, and covered topics such as how to ask more open-ended questions to students and how to better gauge where students are to tailor instruction to them.
Janell Miller ’13, ’20 MSED, a Ph.D. student studying literacy and English language arts, found it inspiring to watch the teachers reach the students in classrooms that are “bare bones,” facing overcrowding (around 100 students in some high school classrooms) and dealing with technology gaps. “I’m interested in this idea of learning through talking and talking to learn,” says Miller. “And I feel like because they’re working with so little, that’s what they have to do there.”
“The kids are going to play. It’s going to be OK. Those are all things that I definitely learned and I will take back with me. It was a transformative experience.”
—Alicia Whitley, College of Education Ph.D. student
The trip, now in its fifth year — there was a one-year hiatus in 2020 due to COVID-19 — was designed by Michelle Falter, a former College of Education associate professor who is now director of teacher education at St. Norbert College in Wisconsin. Falter, who received funding for the cost of the students’ travel, says the idea is to give NC State Ph.D. students exposure to global education while allowing them to take reins as leaders in the field.
They learned from their Kenyan counterparts, as well, coming home with insight they can pass on to the teachers they’ll help prepare. “The humor, the joy,” says Whitley. “The kids are going to play. It’s going to be OK. Those are all things that I definitely learned and I will take back with me. It was a transformative experience.”
