Icons of Change International Awards 2025br Dr. Sarah Roelkerbr Education Advisor, Comundo – St. Martin CSA (Kenya)br Former Advisor, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH (Malawi)br Former Lecturer & Researcher, Paderborn & Osnabrück Universities (Germany)br Sustainable Development Goal 4 – Quality Educationbr Changemaker for Transformative and Inclusive Education (Kenya)br ---br For Dr. Sarah Roelker, education is not a neutral transaction—it is a force for dignity, peace, and empowerment. A German national whose academic foundation lies in curriculum studies and teacher training, Dr. Roelker has dedicated her career to bridging the gap between theory and practice in contexts where education is often fragmented, under-resourced, or disconnected from real-world needs. Since 2014, her professional path has taken her across continents, from Malawi to Kenya, embedding her expertise in classrooms, communities, and policy frameworks to advance Sustainable Development Goal 4 Quality Education.br Her career began in academia, as a lecturer and researcher at the Universities of Paderborn and Osnabrück in Germany. There, she conducted doctoral research on curriculum relevance in diverse contexts, including a deep case study in a Peruvian shantytown. This formative experience sharpened her conviction that education cannot be standardized to the point of irrelevance. Instead, it must be localized, contextual, and inclusive—designed to meet the actual needs of learners in their social, cultural, and economic environments. Her time in academia also honed her ability to translate complex theories into actionable frameworks, a skill that would later prove essential in her work in Africa.br From 2014 to 2021, Dr. Roelker worked in Malawi with GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit), where she concentrated on teacher education and curriculum reform. Recognizing that the heart of education is the teacher, she helped design holistic standards for teacher training that emphasized reflective practice, professional identity, and empowerment. By equipping teachers to see themselves not merely as instructors but as leaders of change, she elevated the profession and enhanced its long-term impact on learners. Her contributions helped establish a curriculum for teacher education that balanced knowledge delivery with the cultivation of self-awareness, empathy, and pedagogical innovation.br In 2021, she shifted her focus to Kenya, where she partnered with Comundo and St. Martin CSA, a community-based organization dedicated to social transformation. There, she tackled one of Kenya’s most pressing education challenges the implementation of Competency-Based Education (CBE). Though introduced nationally in 2017, CBE remained largely theoretical, with many schools and vocational institutions continuing to rely on outdated, exam-centered methods. Dr. Roelker saw the urgency of this gap.