Leading for Transformation: Day 1 & 2

This blog was written by Learning Leaders Karen Gerritsma and Gayle Monsma who are Zambian educators and leaders as part of the Leading for Transformation: Teaching for Transformation Walking Together project.

Day 1- The first day was led by local school leaders as we (Karen and Gayle) were still in transit.  They spent the day reviewing Teaching for Transformation (Throughlines in particular) for both the new people as well as those who were familiar with the content.  Meanwhile, we met up in the airport in Ethiopia, flew to Malawi and then had a bit of a marathon drive to Lundazi, made longer by poor road conditions and a bridge that had been washed out.

Day 2 – On Tuesday morning, we met close to 40 school leaders who would be spending the rest of the week with us.  This day, as each other day, we began with a circle time where 3 elements were included: everyone heard their name, a fun initiative/activity that got people moving (and laughing), and a reading to unite and inspire. 

The local community had asked us to cover 2 topics during our time together: taking the next steps in TfT and spending time looking deeply at the relatively new comprehensive sexuality education curriculum.  We spent the morning reminding ourselves of the purpose of Christian education and the call to be “peculiar” (based on James KA Smith: “The primary purpose of Christian education is the formation of a peculiar people whose hearts desire is the Kingdom of God and thus undertake their life’s expression of that desire.”).  The participants spent the afternoon reflecting on their “why” of teaching and then crafted their Deep Hope.  Some of the writing was very inspiring:

• “My deep hope is to make my students discover the presence and love of God in my subject area and in return develop compassion and kindness to foster unity.”
• “My deep hope is that my students will create a deeper understanding of God’s complexity in creation and discover a good relationship with God and other members of society.”
• “My deepest hope is to have learners who will be able to critically compare and contrast their way of perceiving God’s creation to that of other people around the world so that mutual understanding on how the world can be restored is accomplished.”
• “My deep hope is to teach for transformation in order to change the lives of my learners and teachers for a better world.”