Events

Columbia Global Centers | Istanbul and Columbia Global Centers | Nairobi invite you to a live webinar on "Digitizing K12 Education: Capturing the COVID-19 Experience and Imagining the Future." The keynote will be delivered by Dr. Detra Price-Dennis, Associate Professor of Education at Teachers College, Columbia University; followed by Saliha Aslan ’15TC, Head of School, Üsküdar SEV Schools and Mary Muriuki, Regional Representative of Cambrilearn.com, who will speak about the Turkish and Kenyan experiences, respectively. The event will be moderated by Dahlia Hamza Constantine, Doctoral candidate in Curriculum & Teaching at Teachers College, Columbia University.

About the Talk
Emergency remote education during COVID-19 has exacerbated structural inequities and revealed gaps in pedagogical knowledge and infrastructure to support the use of technology for instruction. We will hear about the impact COVID-19 has had on education and instructional strategies in primary and secondary education that can support online teaching and learning - in the US, Kenya, Turkey, and globally.

Speakers

Dr. Detra Price-Dennis is an Associate Professor of Education in the Department of Mathematics, Science, and Technology at Columbia University’s Teachers College. Detra serves as Co-Director of the Reimagining Education Online Advanced Certificate Program, and is the founding director of #JustLit - a media based project that provides multimodal resources about literature, media, and social change in education. She uses ethnographic and sociocultural lenses to examine the intersections of literacy education, technology, and curriculum development as a means to identify and amplify equity-oriented pedagogies in K-8 classrooms; and has had experience in the classroom as an elementary school teacher.

Saliha Aslan holds a BA in English Language and Literature, and an executive MBA degree from Bosphorus University in Turkey. After working at various independent schools in Turkey as a teacher, department head, and division head, she received an MA degree in Private School Leadership from the Klingenstein Center at Columbia University’s Teachers College. She had the chance to observe and work at top NYC independent K12 schools during her study. Saliha is currently the Head of Uskudar SEV School, one of the top private co-ed schools in Istanbul, Turkey.

Mary Muriuki is a pioneer home educator in Kenya with 22 years of experience. She is the founder and director of Elimu Nyumbani, an organization that provides tutor services, consultancy and training to parents and teachers in Home Education. She is also the East Africa regional representative of CambriLearn, and is a founding member of EACH (East Africa Christian Home Educators). In response to the current school crisis, she launched a free e-magazine to educate parents on successful homeschooling.

(Moderator) Dahlia Hamza Constantine is a doctoral candidate in Curriculum & Teaching at Columbia University’s Teachers College. Her research focuses on how kids navigate, map and learn from the people and spaces in their communities. She has been teaching for 15 years and at nearly every level, from kindergarten to graduate students. Dahlia was a Teacher Consultant with the Northern Virginia Writing Project, traveling to different schools to share ideas with teachers about supporting immigrant children. Her proudest achievement was receiving the Agnes Meyer Award for Outstanding Teaching by the Washington Post.