ABSTRACT
The George International School sits at the end of a side street a few blocks from one of the main boulevards of Kano, a large provincial capital in northern Nigeria. With a population of about 4,500 students, “George” (as everyone calls it) is the largest and oldest private school in the city. It has a strong reputation due to various longstanding relationships with external networks in the UK, and because of these relationships, George regularly receives expert British teacher trainers to work with its own local teachers. The following dialogue stems from a training workshop at the school:
Rachel (British Teacher Trainer) : Here’s a question that goes through my mind at some points in our training. Here I am, turning up in Nigeria like some kind of missionary with my bag of tricks. What am I actually doing here? Is that really not an issue for you—being trained by an outsider from Great Britain?
Kebe (First Nigerian Teacher) : Not at all. You have a Ph.D. from a famous university in Britain. If you weren’t an expert, I wouldn’t be in your workshop.
Chinelo (Second Nigerian Teacher) : I think it’s good to be open to new things, and that’s the way we see it. We can’t be stuck in our old ways. I’m looking for some new techniques that I can adapt for my classes, even if they do come from Britain.
Rachel : You don’t have any issues about it at all? You have no worries that I’m just bringing what I learned that was relevant in London, and thinking it would be relevant here in Kano? Doesn’t that sound like educational imperialism?
Chinelo : The English language belongs to you, to the British. The science of instruction belongs to you. The textbooks belong to you. Why should we have issues with that?
