Chapter 19: Contextual Educational Reforms: An Epilogue

When asked in 1998 at the University of Berkley, “Does one individual stand out as a more important mentor for you as a child?,” the Nobel Literature Laureate of 1986, Wole Soyinka, who was born in 1934 in Abeokuta, near Ibadan in western Nigeria, responded (Soyinka, 1998):

Indeed, teachers are influential people in individuals’ lives. Jointly with other figures involved in the educational endeavor, teachers do make a difference.

The book Education in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Middle East constitutes a collection of enlightening chapters concerning educational processes that are initiated and carried out in spite of hardships, obstacles, and frequently even against all odds. But above all, the voices of individuals and communities are heard in this volume, loudly and clearly in their aspirations for educational arenas that balance the need to develop modern, self-sufficient, independent, and post-colonial societies with the need to strengthen cultural values and identities. Implicitly and explicitly, the studies give the reader the feeling that education is the essence and the core of a nation—its history, its present, and, most of all, its future. The wide range of described educational experiences are bounded by the thread of a common theme woven through them—educational improvement and reform. A closer look at each of the reported stories of local changes reveals that these changes and reforms—although local and situated in the specific social, cultural, political, and economic contexts—represent core ideas regarding educational reforms anywhere over the globe. It seems that beyond the local needs, possibilities, and available resources, the human spirit prevails.