Action Learning

"Understanding Community Initiatives to Improve Access to Education"

An action-learning project

Tanzania Global Development Learning Centre workshop report - July 2001

What is the aim of this Project?

This is a small-scale project, linked to the overall aims of EENET. Its aim is to help people who are involved in different types of inclusive education to:

• learn from their experience of inclusive practice;
• document it;
• share it with other people.

What is the background to this Project?

One of EENET's core beliefs is that some of the most interesting and pioneering practice on making education accessible for all is happening in countries of the 'South'. But there are many barriers that prevent people in other projects and cultures from learning about these experiences. EENET committee members took advantage of an opportunity offered by DfID in early 2000, and developed this small project to learn more about how to overcome some of these barriers.

Who is funding this project?

The UK Department for International Development (DfID) is funding EENET for two years to implement this project as part of their Education Research programme. They will provide £50,000 over two years.

Who will be involved?

This action learning project will be coordinated by a Facilitation Team who work together throughout all the phases of the project. This team will consist of:

• 4 Facilitators co-ordinating local activities in Zambia, Tanzania and India.
• 3 Facilitators based in the UK, each working with one of the countries. This team will also include other people from the projects in the South identified by the key facilitators.
• The EENET co-ordinator, Susie Miles, is the overall project co-ordinator

Each team will ensure that people from all different groups who have an interest in increasing access to learning are involved. This could include disabled adults and children, family members, people from other marginalized groups, community leaders and professionals. Actively involving a wide range of different perspectives is a core part of this project.

Who will benefit from this project?

The project will benefit people who are practically involved in increasing access, and removing barriers to learning, both in the South and North. It will do this directly through the project processes, and also through the publications and various materials produced, which will be widely disseminated to other practitioners, policy-makers and donors.

What will the outputs be?

• People: all those involved in this project will have improved their skills in thinking about, documenting and sharing their experience.
• Programmes: there will be improved access and fewer barriers to learning within each of the 3 projects on the ground.
• Publications: the project will produce:

1. training materials on how to help people learn from their experience, document and share it.
2. Documented 'stories' from each project,
3. An EENET report on the process and content of the whole project.

What is the timescale?

The project begins in April 2001, and ends in March 2003, a two year period divided into 3 phases of 6 to 9 months each. Precise timing will differ according to each country's needs.

How will it be carried out?

• During the first phase (April - December 2001) the Facilitation Team will focus on:

1. preparing a range of potentially useful materials on learning from experience, documenting and communicating it.
2. identifying and engaging the people who will be involved,
3. Working together to plan the details of the project.
4. This phase will include a planning workshop in each country involving Facilitators allocated to that country.

• During the second phase (approx. January to June 2002) the Facilitation Team will:

1. Learn how to use the tools (methods, processes, activities) for helping people to learn from their experience, document and communicate it.
2. Help others to do likewise.
3. Document this process.
4. Create other tools as required in the local context.
5. This phase will culminate in a "Sharing, Learning and Communicating" workshop in each country during which the tools are used and evaluated, and the processes documented.

• The third phase (June 2002 - March 2003 will focus on the final analysis and producing the publications.

UK-based facilitators will make two country visits each and will use a range of ways of offering support to partners in between visits.

What are the key questions?

Some initial questions include:

• How can people with very different types of knowledge, skills and perspectives be helped to think about, document and learn from their own experience to improve access to learning for all?
• What needs to happen to make this process empowering particularly for practitioners and people from marginalised groups?
• How can the particular experiences of one community speak to a wider audience and at the same time remain authentic?
• How can 'outsiders' and 'insiders' best work together to improve practice?

Many more questions will be developed during the planning process.

Is this a Research Project?

In formal terms, yes. However, EENET prefers to use terms such as 'action-learning' and 'reflective practice'. This is because EENET believes everyone, no matter what their level of formal education or literacy is capable of being helped to think about and communicate their own experience.

This project should give added value to what people are already doing in the course of their work.

Why is this project exciting?

For many reasons!

• It has a strong focus on the importance of 'learning from the South'
• Rather than trying to extract information from people and projects, its aim is to empower the people and improve the projects.
• It will acknowledge and explore areas that can be extremely enriching, yet have within them real tensions and challenges. For example:

1. the relevance of learning across cultures.
2. bridging oral and literacy-based cultures.
3. collaboration and power issues between South and North.
4. exploring how participatory processes can be fully inclusive.

For further information about this project, contact:

Susie Miles
EENET Co-ordinator
Educational Support and Inclusion
School of Education
University of Manchester
Manchester
M13 9PL

Tel: +44 (0)161 275 3711
Fax: +44 (0)161 275 3548
Email: info@eenet.org.uk

Action Learning

04/09/2002