Livingstone International University (LIU) in Mbale, Uganda, recently invested heavily in the abilities of their teaching staff to teach a values-based and practice-oriented curriculum, by participating in a training consisting of online parts in December and on-site days in January 2024.
UNITE, LIU, Woord en Daad and Driestar Christian University are a consortium, that aims to raise the standards of all teachers in Uganda, both existing and prospective, to the B. Ed level, in line with the national ambitions of the Ugandan government. As a follow-up to our programme in June 2023 with representatives of Unite, we were now asked to equip the teaching staff of LIU with the concepts and tools that enable them to teach from a Christian perspective.
Both teacher educators and lecturers of the other departments (e.g. Agribusiness) took part in the training. It was amazing to see how involved they were and how much they want their vision for Uganda to become reality. LIU, as well as Unite, embody the Benedictine adage of praying and working (ora et labora) and we indeed used parts of the Rule of Benedict (± 450 AD) to reflect on values, teaching and learning, our roles as staff and as learners.
Dr. Piet Murre (professor of education in school subjects and teaching methodology from a Christian perspective) felt blessed to be asked again to contribute to this long-term project.
