Virginia Tech’s 2023 East Africa Summer Institute for Educators

Have you ever been stirred to open a window or go outside to take in and observe a stunning sunrise, sunset, rainbow, or unique cloud formation that caught your eye and attention? As an extension specialist with Virginia Tech and Virginia Cooperative Extension, I am fortunate to live and work in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, a region known for its history, agriculture, natural resources, bucolic landscapes, and scenic views. Living in west Rockingham County, I am frequently reminded when I look out a window or sit on the porch to take in the natural beauty of my surroundings to possibly broaden my perspective on current realities and life in general.

Recently, I was afforded a professional development opportunity to participate in Virginia Tech’s 2023 East Africa Summer Institute for Educators to widen my view and window of what extension education programming entails in an international setting. The VT East Africa Summer Institute for Educators was organized through VT’s Global Education Office, Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, and College of Natural Resources and the Environment with support provided by the U.S. Department of Education Bureau of Cultural Affairs' Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad (GPA) grant program. As a participant and fellow, I traveled with a cohort of graduate students, high school teachers, faculty, and staff from Virginia to Tanzania and Kenya to learn, experience, and explore ways to strategically strengthen education and incorporate knowledge about Africa and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into high school and university curricula, and extension education programming. 

Over the course of three weeks in Tanzania and one week in Kenya, the cohort visited four major universities (i.e., University of Dar es Salaam, Ardhi University, Sokoine University, and Egerton University) and numerous nongovernmental nonprofit organizations (e.g., Practical Permaculture Institute of Zanzibar, Kijabe Environment Volunteers, etc.) to immerse ourselves in the intercultural experience and learn from Tanzanian and Kenyan colleagues and partners about East Africa’s history, cultural geography, agriculture, natural resources, extension education programs, educational systems, and present social, political, and-economic realities. I was generally interested in Tanzania’s and Kenya’s extension education programming and research related to agriculture, forestry, food systems, and soil health to overall community wellbeing, resilience, and food security. I specifically wanted to learn and discover if core soil health principles (i.e., keep soil covered, minimize soil disturbance, maximize living roots, and energize with diversity) commonly adopted and implemented by Virginia and U.S. farmers are similarly translatable and transferrable to food production and natural resource conservation efforts in Tanzania and Kenya. 

In visiting and talking with Tanzania and Kenya colleagues during the VT East Africa Summer Institute, the importance of listening, focusing on people and durable relationships, building capacity, respecting personal and cultural values, and sensitivity to local cultural context was emphasized. My participation in the Institute reinforced for me how I continually need to be aware and cognizant of culture-specific contexts whether I am working in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia or visiting the highlands of Tanzania and Kenya. Extension education programming is deeply relational and remains about working with and alongside people and communities with trust, respect, and dignity.

By: Eric S. Bendfeldt, Ph.D.,Extension Specialist, Community Viability and Food Systems,Associate Director, Center for Food Systems and Community Transformation