91亚色鈥檚 Faculty of Education, Centre for Refugee Studies and the Borderless Higher Education for Refugees (BHER) Project will be hosting the final event of the 2021-22 BHER Speaker Series on Wednesday, March 16 at 9 a.m.

The event, 鈥淗igher Education in Comparative Perspective: Opportunities and Challenges鈥� will explore the global access to post-secondary education and how it has expanded significantly over the past two decades. It will also highlight international higher education becoming an increasingly connected and competitive sector.

This BHER Speaker Series event will welcome a panel of academic administrators and higher education experts involved in a range of internationalization efforts. They will discuss the opportunities and challenges to expanding higher educational access across borders and consider the possibilities for, and constraints to transnational higher education partnership. They will also bring attention to how public and private universities have become spaces for transnational engagement and despite the global growth in post-secondary enrolment, how there remain to be significant disparities in who can access higher education within and across national borders. 

The panel includes Samson Madera Nashon, head of the Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy at the University of British Columbia (UBC); Donald Kisilu Kombo, an associate professor and dean at the School of Education at Kenyatta University; Fouzia Warsame, deputy chief of party 鈥� policy, curriculum and government liaison for the Bar ama Baro program at Creative Associates International; and Kerry Bystrom, an associate dean, and associate professor of English and human rights at Bard College Berlin. 

Moderators of the event are Philemon Misoy, project liaison officer at BHER, and Rachel Silver, assistant professor at the Faculty of Education. 

This event is a part of the BHER Speaker Series 2021-22 Reciprocal Learning Beyond Crisis. The BHER Speaker Series remains the first of its kind hosted at the Faculty of Education that equally features experts from 91亚色 and from institutions that are comprised of or work with refugees.聽

To learn more about the panellists and join the virtual event, click here.   

Article originally published in the March 7, 2022 issue of .

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The next session, titled "Racialized Implications of COVID-19 in Toronto: An East African Perspective," will take place at 10:30 a.m. EST/5:30 p.m. EAT .

The past year has presented unprecedented challenges to students and educators across the world. It has also provided new spaces of opportunity. This session will feature a panel of young people who are both activists and educational experts who work with , which is a collaborative, youth-led, community-based movement in Toronto鈥檚 Jane-Finch community that provides youth with holistic supports to complete their education and facilitate their trajectories of success. Panelists will discuss their experiences navigating schooling, scholarship, and community work amidst COVID-19, which has disproportionately influenced racialized communities like Jane and Finch where SBL is located. Panelists will also reflect on new possibilities for justice and connection that have emerged in Toronto, among East African diasporic communities and beyond.

The panel will feature:

• Kherto Ahmed, a fourth-year life sciences student at McMaster University, who founded McMaster鈥檚 first Black Students Association;
• Sam Tecle, an assistant professor of Community Engaged Learning at New College, University of Toronto, whose work focuses on Black and Diaspora Studies, Urban Studies and Sociology of Education;
• Ekram Maye, a 17-year-old Grade 12 student at Westview Centennial Secondary School, who is a past SBL mentee and volunteer, and current SBL mentor; and
• Tesfai Mengesha, executive director, Operations at SBL.

91亚色鈥檚 Borderless Higher Education for Refugees (BHER) Project, Faculty of Education, and Centre for Refugee Studies are partnering to present the "Reciprocal Learning in Times of Crisis" colloquium series that examines the intersections of refugee education, anti-Black racism, and COVID-19 in Canada and East Africa.

This colloquium is the first of its kind to feature experts from 91亚色 and from institutions that are comprised of or work with refugees in equal measure. Together, this series will: (1) deepen connections among refugee communities, educational leaders, and scholars within and across institutions; (2) foster a sense of reciprocity in learning; (3) recognize and validate the unique expertise that refugee communities bring to time- or resource-constrained situations; and (4) educate all attendees on a range of topics relevant to refugee education, COVID-19, and anti-Black racism.

Article from the April 5, 2021 issue of

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鈥淐OVID-19 and vulnerable migrants across Africa鈥� takes place on March 10 at 9:30 a.m. EST/5:30 p.m. EAT .

Moderated by 91亚色 doctoral candidate Mohamed Duale, the event will feature Helidah Ogude and Tamuka Chekero from the World Bank, who will share their findings from a World Bank-led social analysis of the risks and impacts of COVID-19 for mobile populations across Africa.

Refiloe Ogude, a South African-Kenyan national, is a social development specialist at the World Bank. Her work focuses on the development dimensions of migration and forced displacement, social cohesion and violence prevention, and the political economy of reform. She holds a MSc in international relations from New 91亚色 and is a doctoral candidate in Public and Urban Policy at The New School.

Chekero a Zimbabwean national, is a PhD student in anthropology at the University of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa and part of the Africa Fellowship Program of the World Bank, in the Social Development Global Practice. His doctoral research, based in Cape Town, interrogates mobility and conviviality among migrants from African countries. He holds an MSc in social anthropology from UCT, and a BSc honors degree in social anthropology from Great Zimbabwe University, Zimbabwe.

91亚色鈥檚 Borderless Higher Education for Refugees (BHER) Project, Faculty of Education, and Centre for Refugee Studies present the 鈥楻eciprocal Learning in Times of Crisis鈥� colloquium series, which examines the intersections of refugee education, anti-Black racism, and COVID-19 in Canada and East Africa.

This colloquium is the first of its kind to feature experts from 91亚色 and from institutions that are comprised of or work with refugees in equal measure. Together, this series will: (1) deepen connections among refugee communities, educational leaders, and scholars within and across institutions; (2) foster a sense of reciprocity in learning; (3) recognize and validate the unique expertise that refugee communities bring to time- or resource-constrained situations; and (4) educate all attendees on a range of topics relevant to refugee education, COVID-19, and anti-Black racism.

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On Wednesday, Feb. 10, a panel of education experts from Kenya, Canada and the U.S. will gather virtually to discuss the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on girls鈥� education in Kenya and beyond at the next talk in the Reciprocal Learning in Times of Crisis monthly colloquium series.

The session takes place at 9:30 a.m. EDT/5:30 p.m. EAT via Zoom.

Since March 2020, experts have decried the threat that COVID-19 poses to girls鈥� education around the globe. According to the Malala Fund, 20 million adolescent girls may never return to school after lockdowns, including up to half of refugee girls in secondary school (2020). The United Nations estimates that the pandemic could result in seven million unintended pregnancies (UN, 2020). These statements reflect anxiety that the coronavirus will exacerbate girls鈥� vulnerabilities and imperil decades of progress toward gender equitable education.

In this session, panellists will consider:

1) the gendered construction of risk in international and national discourses on COVID-19 and education;

2) the lived experiences of young women as they navigate schooling amidst a pandemic in Kenya鈥檚 Dadaab refugee camps; and

3) the possibilities for interventions to mitigate the full range of challenges facing girls who seek to return to 鈥� and stay in 鈥� school.

The panel, which will be moderated by 91亚色 PhD candidate Hanan Duri, includes:

• Sharareh Kashi 鈥� PhD candidate, 91亚色
• Rachel Silver 鈥� assistant professor, Faculty of Education, 91亚色
• Alyssa Morley 鈥� postdoctoral research associate, Michigan State University
• Priscilla Ndegwa 鈥� lecturer, Kenyatta University
• Dahabo Ibrahim 鈥� MEd student, 91亚色 campus in Dadaab, Kenya
• Joseph Mutua 鈥� Kenya Equity in Education Project

Reciprocal Learning in Times of Crisis is a monthly colloquium series on the intersections of refugee education, anti-Black racism, and COVID-19 in Canada and East Africa. The series is presented by 91亚色鈥檚 Borderless Higher Education for Refugees (BHER) Project, Faculty of Education, and Centre for Refugee Studies.

Join the Zoom session at .

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Participants in the Faculty of Education鈥檚 Borderless Higher Education for Refugees (BHER) program have seen the impact of change upon multiple fronts, because the program involves faculty, students and community partners at 91亚色鈥檚 Keele Campus, as well as in the Dadaab Refugee Complex in Kenya. Rachel Silver, an assistant professor of education at 91亚色, with the help of a team of her colleagues in both Toronto and Dadaab, has created a virtual colloquium series, Reciprocal Learning in Times of Crisis, for the program鈥檚 faculty and students and other interested parties to consider the issues arising from the confluence of education, the pandemic, and the new waves of resistance to anti-Black racism.

鈥淲e鈥檙e in this moment together, despite our different individual positions, different colonial histories, and different national public health and education system responses,鈥� Silver said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 an opportunity to learn from each other about how we make sense of and respond to a global crisis in distinct local contexts.

鈥淲e can see how systemic inequity is reflected in each space, and how COVID-19 brings to light the underlying systemic issues.鈥�

Silver put together a committee comprising Esther Munene, the academic administrator of the BHER Learning Centre in Dadaab; Philemon Misoy, the BHER project co-ordinator; Molade Osibodu, a Faculty of Education colleague whose work draws heavily on African de-colonial theories; and two international 91亚色 graduate students, Sharareh Kashi from Iran and Theodata Fafa Bansah from Ghana, to plan and organize the colloquium, which is a monthly event.

鈥淲e have planned to change the format each month with different speakers and different hosts,鈥� said Silver. 鈥淲e are drawing on the talents of diverse graduate students and academics in Kenya and in Canada. But we also wanted to feature our Kenyan institutional partners and BHER students speaking from their lived experiences in the camps.鈥�

鈥淭his series is not only for a scholarly audience, but also for community leaders, NGOs and students in both countries.鈥�

The remaining events in the series will touch on a range of topics, including the unique needs of inter-African migrants in southern Africa during COVID-19; the Toronto diasporic community; and the gendering of pandemic-related risks in Kenya, featuring a panel of 91亚色鈥檚 academic and organizational partners there.

鈥淭he series is even more important since we haven鈥檛 been able to meet face-to-face with our 91亚色 colleagues for months due to COVID-19,鈥� said Misoy. 鈥淭his really opens the lines of communication and allows us to share our experiences working during the pandemic.

鈥淲e can look at issues of social, economic and racial discrimination and consider how we support people emerging from conflict. We can take stock of achievements and, by hearing from different people, get ideas how we can shift toward the future. It鈥檚 important for north-south relations that we can share ideas freely and help each other.鈥�

Munene agreed.

鈥淚t鈥檚 good to get the Toronto context on many issues, such as race and gender and learn what it鈥檚 like there,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hey can also get to understand our context.鈥�

An eagerness to learn about the Dadaab context was apparent at the most recent session of Reciprocal Learning in Times of Crisis on Nov. 4. It focused on the educational challenges faced in Dadaab due to the pandemic and featured representatives of 91亚色鈥檚 partner organizations in Dadaab, as well as Abdikadir Bare Abikar, a graduate of the first class of 91亚色鈥檚 Dadaab-based Masters of Education students, who is now teaching in Somalia. All of the educational organizations based in Dadaab collaborate to ensure that there is no duplication of effort.

Schools in Dadaab have been closed since mid-March, forcing educators to be creative in offering lessons in the camps, where not every student has a computer or laptop and internet connectivity can be suspect.

鈥淭he president of Kenya announced the school closures on a Sunday and they had to close the next day,鈥� said Norah Kariba of Windle International Kenya, which runs the secondary schools in Dadaab. 鈥淭his left students confused about how to continue.

鈥淭he quick fix was to introduce radio lessons, although not all learners were able to access them, and there wasn鈥檛 enough air time to handle all of the content. However, at least it was a starting point.

鈥淭eachers also formed classes through WhatsApp [a popular phone application used to communicate with groups] and contacted their students. They were able to create a timetable and students were able to download lessons.鈥�

At the university level, there was also disruption.

鈥淜enyan universities didn鈥檛 offer online learning,鈥� said Munene. 鈥淚t delayed graduation and caused stress, something we had to address with students. A few universities offered online exams, but exams here are usually administered in person, so it was a big hill to tackle.鈥�

Luckily, 91亚色 continued to offer online courses through its BHER project, and even though the learning centre in Dadaab was closed, students could access lectures.

鈥淚t was an abrupt shift to online learning, and many students weren鈥檛 used to the lack of interaction,鈥� said Munene. 鈥淏HER also had to buy laptops or tablets and data bundles, so the students had access. We have learned to adapt to technological change.

鈥淗owever, many students had lost jobs due to the pandemic and it was tough for them to concentrate on school. We tried to comfort them and did some mental health awareness work about the value of sharing their concerns.鈥�

Dakane Bare, a representative of the United Nations High Commission on Refugees in Kenya, offered an observation that served as the motto for the group going forward: 鈥淲ith calamity comes opportunity.鈥�

Silver and the colloquium organizing committee hope that the series continues to provide excellent opportunities for learning and connection.

鈥淥ur big goal is to push back against the notion of expertise being located only in one geo-political space, such as the university,鈥� Silver said. 鈥淭here is much learning to be done.鈥�

Visit the series website at /edu/reciprocal-learning-in-times-of-crisis/ for a full listing of upcoming talks and to view the Zoom recordings from all previous talks.

By Elaine Smith, special contributing writer

Article from the , a special issue of YFile devoted to teaching and learning innovation at 91亚色. It offers compelling and accessible feature-length stories about 91亚色鈥檚 commitment to excellence in teaching, learning, internationalization and the student experience.

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Welcome to the November 2020 issue of Innovatus, a special issue of YFile that is devoted to teaching and learning innovation at 91亚色.

This issue of Innovatus focuses on teaching, learning and the student experience in the Faculty of Education. I am so pleased by the rich variety of stories offered in this issue because they showcase the expansive depth of the Faculty's approach to the "act of education" to quote Interim Dean Sharon Murphy.

Education is universal and the Faculty's work with refugees in the Dadaab Refugee Complex in Kenya, homeless youth and in re-envisioning early childhood education are displayed among the fine stories offered in this issue. As well, Dean Murphy's letter is a testament to the Faculty's commitment to excellence, and the story highlighting the innovation shown in moving the Faculty of Education's Summer Institute online and transforming it to a year-long effort is amazing. Encore!

Thank you again for the many wonderful comments about our September and October issues. I value each of your responses. Please continue to contact me with your ideas, classroom innovations and thoughts about teaching, learning and the student experience.

As I close, the snow is starting to fly and with it, the holidays are approaching. I would like to take a moment to wish each of you good health and happiness at home, which is especially important this year.

Featured in the November 2020 issue of Innovatus

In her letter to the community, Interim Dean Sharon Murphy writes about how the Faculty of Education is constantly working to enliven new visions of education and society, visions of possibility, equity and social justice. "Our work focuses not only inward on curriculum and pedagogy, but very much looks outward towards the idea of education being situated within a complex and seemingly evermore fragile world."

One of 91亚色's hallowed traditions, the Faculty of Education Summer Institute (FESI), may have bowed to COVID-19 in terms of format, but it is unbowed in terms of mission and content. For 2020-2021, the institute has morphed into a series of five free webinars titled Up Close and Personal: Conversations on Anti-Oppression.

Stephen Gaetz, the 91亚色 Research Chair in Homelessness and Research Impact and a professor in the Faculty of Education, is using his excellent research and communications skills and grant-writing ability to attack the challenges within youth homelessness, which need broad solutions and a meeting of many perspectives.

Rachel Silver, an assistant professor of education at 91亚色, with the help of a team of her colleagues in both Toronto and Dadaab, has created a virtual colloquium series, Reciprocal Learning in Times of Crisis, for the Faculty's Borderless Higher Education for Refugees (BHER) program. The series considers the issues arising from the confluence of education, the COVID-19 pandemic and new waves of resistance to anti-Black racism.

Lucy Angus and Cristina Delgado Vintimilla, assistant professors new to 91亚色 and the Faculty of Education, have created a lecture series titled Disrupting Early Childhood: Inheritance, Pedagogy, Curriculum to explore new ideas about early childhood education (ECE) and create a space to bring together the innovative research conversations that are changing the field of ECE.

Innovatus is produced by the Office of the Associate Vice-President Teaching & Learning in partnership with Communications & Public Affairs.

I extend a personal invitation to you to share your experiences in teaching, learning, internationalization and the student experience through the Innovatus story form, which is available at .

Will Gage
Associate Vice-President, Teaching & Learning

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Through a series of talks, film, and an open-mic event, experts will consider the unique challenges that the twinned pandemics pose to refugee communities and educators in Canada and/or East Africa; highlight the unique knowledge that refugee communities and the educators who work with them bring to learning in situations of constraint; and offer new lenses to make meaning of our current moment.

This colloquium is the first of its kind to feature experts from 91亚色 and from institutions that are comprised of or work with refugees in equal measure. Together, this series aims to deepen connections among refugee communities, educational leaders, and scholars within and across institutions; foster a sense of reciprocity in learning; recognize and validate the unique expertise that refugee communities bring to time- or resource-constrained situations; and educate all attendees on a range of topics relevant to refugee education, COVID-19, and anti-Black racism.

The colloquium series will be held monthly throughout the academic year at 10 a.m. online via Zoom.

This month's event is "e/Thinking and Acting Holistically in our Times: Discussions on Conceptual Multiplicity" featuring (91亚色) on Oct. 7.

What lenses do we use to give meaning to a sociopolitical and economic landscape marked by questions and uncertainties? Dlamini offers her thoughts at a time of the intersection of multiple contemporary crisis and challenges including: the global pandemic, COVID-19; the public lynching of black and indigenous people; demonstrations and protests against social injustices; national and domestic border policing; anti-immigrant sentiments; etc.

In the face of these challenges and crises is a need for the spirit of hope, healing and opportunity. The international responses to these public lynchings bring hope to a possibility of re-imagining a future that, through dialogical conversations like this one, we can start and continue to re-envision, rebuild and heal. As we move forward towards a different normality, we must acknowledge and address the wounds created and those spirits murdered.

This talk offers layers of concepts for engagement towards this new era. It is an invitation to ponder about meaning making resources and their impact and effects on the 鈥渟elf鈥� as a collective 鈥� an invitation to examine interconnections between the intellect and the soul in teaching and learning. Embracing this interconnection requires that we engage thinking with tools that go beyond the familiar so as to meaningfully participate in the production of an innovative politics of existence.

Join the Zoom session at .

View event flyer with full listing of scheduled talks in series

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