As an educator, you understand the transformative power of education. You know in your heart that it has the potential to reshape individuals, communities, nations, and the world. However, traditional models of education are often designed to reproduce existing societal structures rather than transform them. This system by design continues to produce graduates with numerous certificates, yet it results in slow socio-economic growth and stagnant development on personal, national, and continental levels.
We believe this injustice can only be corrected by those directly impacted by it. This is our mission.
The INTENTional Pedagogy Programme is a unique, collaborative, and carefully curated initiative designed to empower educators at all levels. We help you cultivate, articulate, and act on transformative, critical pedagogies that challenge the status quo. By running alongside the INTENTional Parenting Programme, we create a holistic bridge between home and school.
This brochure outlines our underpinning philosophy, the INTENT Framework and our comprehensive 12-month curriculum.
The INTENT Framework for Educators
Based on the doctoral research of founder Andrea Yankah, the INTENT framework is a dynamic, cyclical system originally designed to revolutionising education through the empowerment of educators, and has been adapted into a systematic strategy for parenting. It follows these six steps:
- IDENTIFY: Define your Pedagogical Manifesto: Approach your teaching with the same rigor and visionary planning as a social architect. Conduct an intensive examination of your perspective on the role education should play in society. Reflect on how your values, personal history, and unspoken assumptions shape your classroom culture.
- Two guiding questions for this stage: 1) What kind of world are you preparing your students to build? 2) What kind of educator does that future require you to be today?
- NEUTRALISE: Deconstruct the Systemic Lens: Critically examine the environment in which you operate. We all exist within a system designed for standardization and compliance; you must “neutralize” these external pressures to see your students through fresh eyes. Analyze the historical, social, and political contexts of your school and community.
- The Goal: Identify where the “traditional system” conflicts with your identified vision and determine how to navigate those tensions within your practice.
- THEORISE: Develop a “Working Theory” on your Cohort: Finalize your manifesto and use it to develop a strategic plan for holistic development—physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. You are your students’ primary advocate. Move beyond grades to observe and document their interests, cultural assets, and unique learning triggers.
- The Application: This documentation builds a “working theory” of your students’ potential, allowing you to implement and defend a pedagogy that is responsive rather than reactive.
- EXECUTE: Activate the Manifesto: Put your plan into action with radical confidence! Based on your “working theory,” design specific learning experiences that honor the unique genius of your students. Execution is an act of collaboration with your learners, viewed through the lens of your pedagogical manifesto.
- The Action: Monitor how students respond in real-time, tracking engagement and agency to inform the next turn of the spiral.
- NEGOTIATE: Rebalance Power and Advocate: Conduct a systematic review of your impact in collaboration with key stakeholders—students, parents, and colleagues. Negotiation is about making the necessary adjustments to stay responsive to your students’ evolving needs.
- The Shift: This stage is about identifying gaps in the current curriculum and filling them with your curated resources. It involves reframing your relationship with leadership and “the system” to rebalance power in service of the child’s genius.
- TRANSFORM: Revolutionize your Practice: The INTENT framework is a spiral, not a destination. Establish a long-term system for implementation and consistent review. Reflect on how your pedagogy has evolved and the tangible impact you have made on your community.
- The Evolution: Use the patterns you observe to plan for medium- and long-term systemic change. This is your checkpoint to ensure you haven’t fallen back into “routine” and to confirm your approach still aligns with your evolving worldview as a transformative educator.
The INTENTional Parenting and Pedagogy programmes converge in our monthly INTENT Course. This is a dedicated space where parents, educators, and global experts dismantle traditional boundaries to co-create a new educational reality.
Each month, we engage in an in-depth exploration of a core theme, moving beyond surface-level advice to reach the root of transformative care and instruction.
- Research Through an African Lens: We decenter Eurocentric norms by exploring current educational and developmental research through an African-centered perspective, ensuring our practices are culturally grounded and community-focused.
- Expert-Led Seminars: Gain insights from practitioners and visionaries who are actively decolonizing education and parenting.
- The Village in Action: Through structured community discussions, we translate high-level theory into practical, everyday strategies for the home and the classroom.
INTENT Course: Programme Overview
1. Introduction to the INTENT Framework
An orientation to the INTENT philosophy, the spiral model, and practical applications across home and educational settings.
2. Pedagogy & Philosophy
Exploring the philosophies underpinning INTENT and developing your personal guiding principles as a parent or educator.
3. Reclaiming Play
Understanding the critical role of play in development. Learn to observe children in their natural state to understand who they are and what they need.
4. Whole-listic Development
An exploration of child development through an African-centred lens, integrating cognitive, emotional, physical, spiritual, and social growth.
5. Fundamentals of Learning
Unpacking how children learn beyond compliance and memorisation to create environments that support deep, meaningful engagement.
6. Safeguarding
Protecting and nurturing innate creativity so it is not lost to standardisation, fear, or over-control.
7. Critical Thinking
Facilitating questioning, reasoning, and independent thought, preparing children to navigate information, power, and choice.
9. Problem-Posing Education
An action-oriented approach that positions children as thinkers and change-makers rather than passive recipients of knowledge.
10. Effective Collaboration
Rebalancing the power dynamic between home and school to build intentional partnerships in the service of the child.
11. The Politics of Education
Understanding the broader social and historical contexts shaping education and identifying where agency and resistance are possible.
12. Towards a Utopia
Imagining and actively building a more just, humane world through the transformative power of education.
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The Umija Community
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The Nia Community
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The Umoja Community
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Investment: Partners from the diaspora
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£199 PA
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£799 PA
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£49 PA
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Investment: Partners from the continent
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1,999 GHC PA
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7,999 GHC PA
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499 GHC PA
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Recognition as a member in all our documentation and in our future facility
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INTENT Library: A curated set of resources, including research, toolkits, frameworks, and seminar recordings, curated for intentional practice
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Global Community: A dedicated space for collaborative growth and discussion
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Quarterly Strategy Meetings: Contributing to the strategic growth and development of NORI
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Group support: Group support and accountability to implement findings into one's own practice
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Personalised coaching: 1 year of 1:1 coaching to apply the INTENT framework to your practice
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Unlimited messaging and email support
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