
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.