The past 15 months have been life-changing ones for me. In that time I have returned to my first vocation, science education (after first taking a 25 year detour through other career paths!).  In 1985 I set off to Wits University in Johannesburg with a teacher’s bursary.  I had signed up to be a high-school science teacher…

Then I fell in love with Chemistry.  Great educators like Professors Gus Gerrans (now retired in West Virginia) and John Bradley (honorary director of RADMASTE) gripped my imagination with guided tours to the unseen world of majestic molecules and frenetic atomic-level change.  My journey was steadily diverted from my high-schooling “destination” and I spent the next 12 years “chemically bonded” to Wits.  These heady years did include many as a junior member of staff allowed to proselytize to first-year engineering and health-sciences students about the joys of chemistry.  It even included a trip to an international Chemical Education conference in Puerto Rico, where I first interacted with fervently dedicated science educators (what a blast!).

Then the confluence of a my completed PhD (Theoretical Chemistry focus with Prof Jan Boeyens) and our third child required the next major career change.  Management consulting.  The pay was good, the wooing was flattering and the barriers-to-entry were addressable (be smart, work hard).  Fifteen years of that (two international firms and then my own business) and I feel I have exhausted “it” (and it in turn has drained me too).  I slowly migrated within consulting from the advisory side to the realm of talent/leadership development.  The “educator” in me was being steadily roused.

It was only a matter of time before I started to feel the tug of going “upstream” in the talent “pipeline”, to where much younger folk with their whole lives ahead of them (or not, if a lack of opportunity is their lot) are being readied for the world-of-work.  An “outrageous” suggestion 15 months ago that I teach science at my girls’ high school, also helped!  Thanks Frank Rumboll (head master of Cedar House School).

Those 15 months have flashed by.  I have learned a lot; about “new vs. old” curricula; many conceptual minutiae in physics (which is not always as ‘self-evident’ as chemistry to me); connecting with learners; operating in a school system; juggling balls with having to teach six different grades; etc.).

I have also realised that my ability to make the biggest difference in education is not via top-tier schooling.  My eclectic background of science research and management consulting is more suited to being a midwife of “disruptive innovation” (google “Prof Clayton Christensen HBS”). Disruptive (in contrast to sustaining) innovation arises from the bottom-end of markets and not the top.  Areas of non-consumption as Christensen calls them…or potential consumers at the “bottom of the pyramid” (Prahalad) readily accept that “perfect is the enemy of good” (in contrast to high-end consumers who readily use perfection as an excuse for inaction).

That is why from 2013 I will be dedicating myself to taking science and maths learning opportunities to underserved learners that live within a few kilometres of my door.  That is the “what”; the “how” is still an emergent picture (deemed “too early stage” for the Dell Foundation) comprising:

1. Open education resources (e.g. Siyavula, SAS Curriculum Pathways, Udacity, etc.)
2. Learner engagement (FaceBook type platforms supported by volunteer e-tutors from privileged schools)
3. Educator development (encouragement & help to develop personal learning networks, support with mastering new curricular content, etc.)
4. Leadership support (guidance & coaching for heads of schools who are embarking on new ICT4D journeys)

This is what I will be immersed in 2013; working alongside audacious educators (Ned Doman High School in Athlone is the first I’ll be partnering with) to figure out the “operating model” that includes the four (and more) elements listed above.

I am confident these efforts will bear fruit.  And once the proof-on-concept is there I will (re)approach funders with a “solid business case”.  Until then, my brave wife and I will self-fund these efforts because we have come too far to turn back now.

I’ll also blog about it.  This will surely be a healthy and disciplining outlet for my creative impulses and hopefully also serve as a transcript of this unfolding journey of discovery.

Carpe diem.