In a first for Rwanda, this week, the Rwanda Initiative launched a teacher training program for Rwandan journalists who want to work as journalism educators and raise media standards in their country.
The first stage in the program is a week-long teaching certificate course being delivered by Carleton University’s Educational Development Centre (EDC). Twelve Rwandan journalists from all sectors of the media are registered in the intensive course. It will cover such fundamentals as lesson planning, course design and how to assess students. Each participant will also be required to complete a number of assignments and deliver a short lecture.
After obtaining their certificate, the teacher trainees will immediately be put to work, helping to facilitate a week-long training workshop called Rwanda Now to be conducted by the Rwanda Initiative, from March 1 to 5.
The teacher training program marks a new phase for the Rwanda Initiative.
“Since it began in 2006, the Rwanda Initiative has brought dozens of journalists to Rwanda to work as visiting lecturers and to help to fill the gaps in a sector devastated by the 1994 Genocide,” said Rwanda Initiative co-director Allan Thompson, a Carleton journalism professor. “This teacher training program is a historic step for this project, a real move toward further building the capacity of the Rwandan media by helping local journalists to take over the task of teaching the next generation of journalists.”
The Rwanda Initiative is a partnership between the School of Journalism and Communication at Carleton and its counterpart at the National University of Rwanda. Since it was launched in 2006, the Rwanda Initiative has brought more than 60 visiting lecturers to Rwanda to teach at the National University of Rwanda and the Great Lakes Media Center and to work as trainers in newsrooms.
In 2009, the Rwanda Initiative joined in a partnership with the Washington-based International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX) in the Rwanda Media Strengthening Program, which is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Millennium Challenge Corporation. The Rwanda Initiative’s ongoing work is part of a broader media strengthening program. The teaching certificate is being delivered by Carol Miles, Director of Carleton’s EDC, along with colleague Everett Igobwa, a post-doctoral fellow at the EDC and Curtis Lee, with the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons.
Miles said she was impressed by the calibre of the participants in the program. “It is very impressive how much actual teaching experience there is in that room right now. What a lot of them are looking for is a formal model for teaching.”
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For more information:
Allan Thompson
Co-director, Rwanda Initiative
Associate Professor, School of Journalism and Communication
Carleton University
prof.allanthompson@gmail.com
(mobile) 011-250-78-893-0005
Lin Moody
Media Relations
Carleton University
613-520-2600, ext. 8705
Tuesday, February 23, 2010 in News Releases
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