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New journal article from EENET about teacher training

An article written by members of the EENET team has just been published in the International Journal of Inclusive Education. The article is entitled: ‘Time to stop polishing the brass on the Titanic: moving beyond ‘quick-and-dirty’ teacher education for inclusion, towards sustainable theories of change’.

The article takes a critical look at the way many teacher training programmes for inclusive education are designed. It analyses some of the assumptions that are common in inclusive education training programmes, reflects on why the assumptions may not be accurate, explains the consequences of basing training programmes on inaccurate assumptions, and looks at alternative approaches.

Experiences from a teacher training programme in Zambia and Zanzibar are featured in a case study, illustrating ideas for how to move away from ‘quick-and-dirty’ training approaches towards higher quality, longer-term teacher education for inclusion.

There are 50 e-prints of the article available to download for free from the journal publisher’s website. Please feel free to get a copy.

If you do not manage to get one of these free downloads, you can also find a manuscript version of the article on EENET’s website:

Download manuscript in PDF.

Download manuscript in Word.

We hope you enjoy reading the article and please do share your thoughts on the subject of inclusive education teacher training.

EENET’s inclusive ECE video project – progress update 2

Making a film with a limited budget is challenging and requires a lot of careful planning and preparation. One of the first tasks in our new project to make some inclusive early childhood education videos is therefore to write some storyboard outlines.

The storyboards describe what we want to film – which topics we want to cover and what the main facts or arguments are. We also brainstorm ideas for the sort of footage or images that might help us illustrate these facts and arguments. Because we are making a training video and filming in real-life schools and communities, our storyboards are a bit like wish-lists, showing all the things we hope we can film. It’s not like making a fictional movie where the director can make anything happen, using actors and computer-generated images! In reality we won’t be able to find and film all of the experiences on our wish-list, but we have some extra ideas up our sleeve this time to help with filling gaps.

Once the storyboards have been drafted, we will carry out scoping visits to two countries, so watch this space for news about which countries have been selected.

 

EENET’s inclusive ECE video project – progress update 1

A few weeks ago we held an online consultation meeting. We asked participants to reflect critically on our existing video-based teacher training resource (‘An Inclusive Day‘) and to help us think about what additional or different messages are needed for a training resource aimed specifically at inclusive early childhood education practitioners.

Through the meeting and written inputs we received loads of fantastic ideas – enough to make 10 more films! We’ve been analysing all the ideas, ready for the next step – developing storyboards.

What is the most important message you think we should include in a video about inclusive early childhood education? Tell us your ideas!

Visit the ECE project section of our website for more information about the project.

Short compilation video from EENET and British Council

EENET has compiled a 5-minute video – ‘Is our Teaching Inclusive?’ – for the British Council based on our ‘An Inclusive Day: Building foundations for learner-centred, inclusive education’ video-based teacher training on inclusion.

The edited video was shown at the British Council’s signature event at the International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL) International Conference in Liverpool in April 2019.

The British Council’s event at the conference was entitled ‘Is English Teaching Inclusive? Do we practise what we preach?’. Videos of many of the sessions from the conference, including the British Council session, are available online.

We also recommend watching the opening session at the IATEFL conference by Paula Rebolledo entitled ‘Teacher empowerment: leaving the twilight zone’. It is a very engaging and powerful analysis of teacher empowerment issues.

New EENET project: Inclusive early childhood education videos

During the next year EENET will be developing a new video-based training resource. It will be similar to EENET’s ‘An Inclusive Day’ training resource, but this time focusing on inclusive early childhood education.

We will provide regular updates so you can follow our progress as we develop the storyboards, carry out location scoping visits, start filming in various locations, embark on a huge editing process, write the training manuals, and then build up to launching the new resource in mid-2020.

Achieving the SDGs through innovation, access, and lifelong learning. 7th Africa Forum on Visual Impairment October 7-11, 2019. Ethiopia

Dates: 7-11 October 2019.

Venue: Elilly International Hotel, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Call for papers deadline: 15 April 2019.

See conference website for more details.

The conference theme is ‘Achieving the SDGs through innovation, access, and lifelong learning’. It is open to individuals and agencies with an interest in blindness in Africa. With a five-day programme and participants from diverse backgrounds across the globe, the 7th Africa Forum will serve as a one-of-a-kind marketplace of ideas and products for scholars, consumers, decision-makers and service providers alike.

NOTE: This event is not organised by EENET. Please contact the organisers directly with any queries

There’s still time! Submitting articles for Enabling Education Review 2019

You still have 2 weeks before our extended deadline for submitting an article for this year’s edition of Enabling Education Review (EER) which will focus on the important role of parents, families and communities in inclusive education.

Find out more about the 2019 edition and read the call for articles (in Arabic, English, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Ukrainian). The new deadline is 5 April.

If you are interested in submitting an article, but are not sure what to write or need more time, please contact us. We can discuss your ideas, help you to start writing, and even arrange a new deadline for you.

If you know other people who might be interested in submitting an article, or who might be interested in being interviewed for this edition, or who might like to submit a photo story or drawing, please let them know about the call for submissions.

We’re looking forward to hearing from you!

Su and Ingrid, EER editors

Harnessing the Capacity of ICT to ensure Inclusion, Quality and Impact in Education and Training in Africa: Call for Submissions from African innovators

African Union Innovating Education in Africa Expo 2019.

Deadline for submissions: 30 April 2019.

This call is for African innovators to submit their relevant ICT-based inclusion and quality focused education innovations that are being successfully applied in African education systems. The innovator may be an individual or an organization, including government, non-government and for-profit agencies.

Submissions will be rated according to their quality, impact and potential for widespread application.

The selected innovations will benefit as follows:

  • Presentation of their innovations at the Innovating Education in Africa Expo2019.
  • Funding support to participate in the event.
  • A chance to receive the AU Education Innovation Prize.
  • Publication of the innovations in the Africa Education Innovations Handbook 2019.
  • Membership of the Africa Education Innovators Network (AEIN)
  • Certificate of recognition for Innovation

Read the full details of the call for submissions. 

 

**Deadline expired** Technical Assistance to document Early Childhood Intervention Project in Georgia

Application deadline: 26 March 2019.

An individual consultant is required to carry out work necessary for planning, managing and producing detailed documentation of what has been achieved in Georgia since 2011 in relation to early childhood intervention (ECI), as a result of the efforts of the Ministry of IDPs from the Occupied Territories, Labour, Health and Social Affairs of Georgia (MILHSA), Ministry of Education and Science (MoES), the Georgian Coalition of ECI Organizations, UNICEF, various universities, and other partners with technical support from ECP. This documentation will result in a series of reports aimed at different target groups.

This consultancy is primarily focused on carrying out objective, external, and participatory documentation of the OSF-ECP funded initiative in Georgia which has focused on improving the quality of ECI for young children at risk for and with developmental delays, disabilities, behavioural and mental health needs, and with special educational needs. Documentation will identify processes, practices and approaches that may be replicated and/or adapted for use in other post-Soviet countries. The consultant is expected to work closely with OSF Georgia, the Georgian Coalition of ECI Organizations, and the ECP team to document ECI development from 2011 to the present.

Read the full details in the Terms of Reference (PDF).

 

**Deadline expired** Evaluation consultancy – inclusive ECDE, Southern Africa, OSISA/OSF

Application deadline: 28 March 2019.

Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) and the OSF Early Childhood Programme (ECP) supports 8 organisations in Southern Africa working towards inclusion of children with special educational needs in early childhood development and education.

An evaluation is now planned:

  • To provide a full-scale evaluation of whether or not the funded civil society organizations attained the objectives of this body of work;
  • To assess key lessons, successes, challenges and impact of the work in each of the countries covered;
  • To determine the sustainability of the project work supported with the view of understanding whether or not it should be continued;
  • To assess and document best practices and effective models of inclusion that have emerged from this body of work in the target countries based on the interviews and the Learning Stories publications;
  • To delineate the extent of strategic partnerships, community participation and state involvement in this portfolio of work;
  • To assess to what extend the eight organisations implemented or integrated into their organisational development 1) recommendations of organisational assessment exercise, 2) knowledge and skills gained as a result of capacity building workshops provided by OSF-ECP and OSISA on resource mobilisation, financial management, measuring progress.

The evaluation will focus on the work undertaken in the target countries of Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Lesotho, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The evaluation will be conducted through document review and remote interviews; no field work or travel is involved.

Read the full details in the Terms of Reference (PDF).