Meet Beth Mudaki
20+
Years in Education
8
Countries
4
Continents
Global
In Person & Virtual
Global Educator • Modern-Day Griot • Narrative Thinking Specialist
Bringing the knowledge carried through story into contemporary education.
Beth Mudaki is a Kenyan-born, New York-based educator and Narrative Thinking Specialist. Her distinctive perspective comes from her identity and practice as a Modern-Day Griot, drawing on African storytelling and diverse knowledge traditions to explore how narrative can strengthen learning and thinking. Her work sits at the intersection of story, critical thinking, literacy, ethical reasoning and global understanding.
She has worked across international schools as a literature and critical thinking educator, Theory of Knowledge teacher, curriculum designer, professional learning facilitator and educational leader. Across these roles, one question has continued to shape her work: How can stories help us understand not only the world, but the ways in which we come to know it?
Who Is The Modern-Day Griot
In many African traditions, the storyteller is more than an entertainer. Stories carry memory, history, knowledge, values and ways of understanding the world from one generation to another.
Beth uses Modern-Day Griot to describe her contemporary role at that intersection: Preserving and carrying knowledge through story while translating it for new audiences, contexts and generations. Her Kenyan heritage and lifelong relationship with storytelling inform this work, but the purpose extends beyond preserving tradition.
She asks what stories can do in contemporary education. How can they help students: question assumptions, examine perspective, develop literacy, reason ethically, communicate across difference, recognize how narratives shape belief, encounter knowledge beyond their own experience? This is where her work as a griot meets her work as an educator.
Her Mission
Her mission is to preserve, amplify, and reimagine African storytelling as a powerful source of knowledge, learning, and connection. Through storytelling, education, professional development, curriculum design, speaking, and multimedia resources, she creates opportunities for learners and educators to engage with heritage, examine perspectives, question assumptions, and discover new ways of understanding themselves and the world.
Her Vision
She envisions a world where African stories and knowledge traditions are recognized as an essential part of our shared human story. A world where stories enrich education, expand perspectives, strengthen connections across cultures and generations, and inspire people to think more deeply about the world they inherit and the world they are capable of creating.
From Kenya to a Global Classroom
Beth's approach has been shaped by both her cultural roots and her professional life across continents. She grew up in Kenya, where oral storytelling and intergenerational knowledge shaped her understanding of how stories carry meaning. Over more than two decades in education, she has worked across eight countries and four continents, teaching and leading in diverse educational environments. Her experience includes: Literature and critical thinking education, IB Theory of Knowledge, Curriculum development, Professional learning and teacher development, Educational leadership, Storytelling and cultural facilitation and Interdisciplinary education.
These experiences have convinced her that education is not simply about transferring information. It is also about teaching people how to interpret the stories through which information becomes meaningful.
What Beth Is Building:
Today, Beth is developing evidence-informed educational approaches that use narrative, literature and interdisciplinary learning to strengthen critical thinking, literacy, ethical reasoning and global understanding.
Her work brings together:
Story -The human capacity to make meaning through narrative.
Education - The practice of developing knowledge, inquiry and intellectual independence.
Knowledge Traditions - The wisdom carried through African oral traditions and diverse ways of knowing.
Critical Thinking - The ability to question, examine evidence, recognize perspective and revise one's understanding.
The goal is is to help people become better thinkers about the stories they encounter, inherit and create.
How a Collaboration with Beth Works:
Beth works with schools, educators, conferences and organizations through:
Professional Learning
Storytelling, narrative pedagogy, critical thinking and interdisciplinary learning.
Speaking
Stories, education, culture, knowledge and the narratives that shape how we understand the world.
Curriculum & Educational Frameworks
Developing learning experiences that use narrative to deepen inquiry, literacy and critical thinking.
The African Storyteller/Modern Day Griot
Exploring African stories, oral traditions and Indigenous knowledge as sources of contemporary learning and reflection.