John Rutayisire and Innocent Mugisha: Bringing Facing History to Rwanda
Rwanda, a country
tarnished by the 1994 genocide, placed a moratorium on the teaching of
history since 1994 and has grappled with how to face the past to
educate the future. John Rutayisire, Director of the National Curriculum Development Centre at the Ministry of Education and Innocent Mugisha, a
teacher trainer at the National University of Rwanda, are two educators
dedicated to this challenging task. Working on a joint project with
Facing History, the Ministry of Education of Rwanda, the National
University of Rwanda, and the University of California at Berkeley
Human Rights Center, Rutayisire and Mugisha have helped develop a new
history resource book, which contains case studies identified by
Rwandans about their history. Facing History is pivotal to the next
stage- orienting the hundreds of teachers who will use the book in
their classrooms.
"This represents a major shift in the way that we have been teaching in Rwanda- where teachers talk and students listen. The Facing History approach now gets people to talk, to debate, there is participation, interaction between children and teachers...We don't see Facing History in terms of history, but in terms of students' lives." - John Rutayisire
