WEBINAR: COVID-19 AND HOMESCHOOLING: AN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE.

The Departmental of Educational Foundations hosted an international webinar on Wednesday 21st April, 2021 from 3.00 PM – 6.00 PM. The subject of the webinar was COVID-19 and Home schooling-an International perspective.

The webinar was officially opened by the Principal; CEES Prof. Isaac Jumba. Also present during the webinar were; the Dean, School of Education Prof. Gunga, the  Chairman of the Department of Educational Foundations Mr. Isaac Muasya, and staff from the School of Education.  The webinar attracted a total of 130 participants from different countries in the world including UK, Jamaica, Sweden, Trinidad, South Africa and host, Kenya. The webinar was moderated by Dr. Daniel Gakunga.

The main speakers of the Day were:

Dr. Per-Olof Hannson- Linkoping University Sweden (Bio)

Dr. Hansson’s presentation focused on Swedish trainee’s online teaching in Japan, India, Kenya and the US under pandemic. He presented the findings of the research Linkoping University had conducted to investigate the various challenges the Swedish trainees and pupils were experience in the uptake of Online teaching and learning. Linkoping University has partnered with various Primary and Secondary schools in Kenya, US, Japan, and India. Their trainees taught various schools during the 2020 COVID pandemic; from this partnership, Linkoping University was able to observe challenges at a technical, social, and pedagogical level: Full Presentation.

Adirah Aishet-Tsalmiel, Exec. Director Ujuzi Curriculum Consultants (Bio)

Adirah made a presentation on Gaining Government Support for Homeschooling. Her presentation highlighted among other things; the right to education for all children and statistics from the homeschooling community which showed that there is an influx of parents to homeschooling support groups and that many parents are now seeking non-traditional teaching and learning platforms. Adirah called on governments to establish a division that is dedicated to the development and support of home education and Network and share best practices with fellow education officers around the world.  (Full presentation)

Melissa Wakhu-  Founder - Learning At Home (Bio)

Melissa’s Topic was Educate Effectively. She started her presentation by stating that learning starts at home; all Parents are educating at home and that Home is where all Initial Learning happens. She further highlighted 4 simple tools that parents and guardians can use to educate effectively like goals, resources, environment, and assessment. ( Full presentation)

Dr. Laura Loyola-Hernández School of Geography, University of Leeds, UK (Bio)

The title of Dr. Laura’s presentation was No entiendo nada! (I don’t understand anything!): teaching and learning as a migrant caretaker during Covid-19. Her presentation highlighted how various communities adapted to the many challenges brought about by the pandemic. Dr. Laura shared various photos to show community resilience and approaches to deal with the pandemic. Further, she highlighted how the pandemic has exposed the digital divide and inequalities. (Full Presentation)

Dr. Christine Kahigi - University of Nairobi (Bio)

Dr. Kahigi presented on COVID-19, Homeschooling And Mental Health. The presentation mainly focused on the issue of mental health of the learners in covid-19 from a social perspective. Dr. Kahigi drew a connection between Mental illness and how Economy, Politics, Education, marriage-or Social problems, in general, can trigger mental health issues. Furthermore, the effects of COVID-19 such as loss of employment can worsen the mental health of the population and such effects are more likely to remain long after the COVID-19 pandemic (Full Presentation)

Dr. KZ Moichela University of South Africa  (Bio)

Dr. Moichela discussed the COVID-19 and Homeschooling- A South African Perspective Adapting to homeschooling out of choice. Her paper discussed the findings of research they had carried out to explore Homeschooling” in South Africa: An “out of choice option for children’s learning” from the field they established that Parents wanted to ensure that their children are provided with an individualized experience, which is particularly beneficial for those with special needs and that Some parents struggled to find the balance between their role as a parent and a teacher. Dr. Moichela also highlighted the impact of COVID-19 on future education stating that parents can opt to home school their children as they continue to offer moral support and social guidance (Full presentation)