A “Yes, and…” Response to Ms. Hughes’ Article in The International Educator
Socratic discussions are a key pedagogical tool in the Critical Global Citizenship course at the International School of Kigali (ISKR). Socratic discussions involve participants challenging each other with questions about an object of knowledge, such as a text; they also involve offering alternative arguments, or building upon arguments already presented. In class, we have to deliberately practice the types of interactions that foster productive Socratic discussions, which, in addition to questions, include responses such as: “I disagree, because,” “yes, but…,” or “yes, and…”.
All of that was preamble to set up the purpose of this post. Ms. Estelle Baroung Hughes, Secondary Principal at the International School of Dakar, recently (June 18, 2025) published a short article in The International Educator, which summarized an address she gave at a conference earlier this year. I encourage you to check out the article, which is titled Nurturing Passion for “Glocal” Citizenship. Like in an effective Socratic discussion, I would like to present a “yes, and…" response to Ms. Hughes.
Syllabus for a High School Critical Global Citizenship Education Course
During the first two years of my Ed.D. program, I focused much of my research on the concepts and practices of service-learning and global citizenship education. Arising from this research, I proposed a high school, one semester course, intended for seniors, at my school, the International School of Kigali. The course was rooted in the Global Citizenship standards put forth by UNESCO in alignment with UN SDG #4. I then proceeded to pilot the course with a small group of students during the 23-24 school-year. Then in the following school-year, we implemented as a required course for all seniors.
I plan to write a few different blog posts about my experience with this course. In this post, I’m just providing the syllabus so that readers can get an overview.
A Graduation Speech on Human Faces and Relationships
Till that word can be dug out of us, why should they hear the babble that we think we mean? How can they meet us face to face till we have faces?
These lines appear near the end of a novel that I recently reread by C.S. Lewis called, Till We Have Faces. It’s a creative retelling of an ancient Greek myth involving Cupid and Psyche. These lines are spoken by Orual, the main protagonist and narrator of the story, shortly after she’s had a mysterious encounter with the gods. The “they” to which she refers – “why should they hear… how can they meet us…” – are the gods. If you know this book and you know C.S. Lewis, you know that he’s working on a theological theme with these lines. But in rereading the story recently, I was struck by the significance of the face. Lewis is drawing on the sense that our face is where our true selfhood is expressed and it’s where we see the unique personhood of others.