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Making Information Accessible for All

The European Blind Union (EBU) has published a very useful guide for everyone who writes and publishes documents, websites, leaflets, etc. The guide aims to ensure that all information is accessible to anyone, including blind and partially sighted people, at the same time and at no extra cost.

 You can read the ‘Making Information Accessible for All’ guide on the EBU website.

 The contents of the guide include:

  •  Introduction
  • Why produce information in a way that everyone can read?
  • How do you begin?
  • How to make electronic documents accessible
  • How to make printed documents accessible
  • Alternative formats
  •  Who can help?
  •  Glossary

 

Call to action on investing in disability-inclusive education

In 2017, the International Disability and Development Consortium’s Inclusive Education Task Group launched a Call to Action  which called on governments and donors to investing in inclusive education for boys and girls with disabilities as a way of delivering the Sustainable Development Goal promise to ensure quality education for all children.

The Call to Action is still gathering support and, as of the end of January 2018, had been signed by 200 organisations from around the world.

As a follow-on to the Call to Action, the Inclusive Education Task Group has launched an e-newsletter – EduInvest Quest: Disability inclusive education financing. This resource will provide updates on inclusive education financing and show-case good practices of those answering the call to action to make inclusive education for children with disabilities a priority.

**PAST** Global Perspectives on Inclusive Education. Inclusive Education International Conference. 11–14 June 2018, Awka, Nigeria

Visit the conference website for full details.

Abstract submission deadline: 31 March 2018

Conference venue: Nnamdi Zikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria

Conference sub-themes:

  • Inclusive approaches and practice in general education
  • Inclusive approaches and practice for vulnerable groups
  • Inclusive and special education policy and practices
  • Early intervention in special education
  • Inclusive education leadership
  • Using technology to enhance inclusive education
  • Collaborative partnership in inclusive education
  • Curriculum, pedagogy and technology in inclusive education
  • Culturally responsive curricula in inclusive education
  • Identification, assessment and evaluation in inclusive education
  • Social justice and advocacy in inclusive education
  • Students’ voices in inclusive education
  • Teacher training for inclusive education.

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

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**PAST** Learn Inspire Lead. Inclusion International World Congress. 30 May–1 June 2018, Birmingham, UK

Visit the conference website for full details.

You can register online.

Conference venue: The International Convention Centre, 8 Centenary Square, Birmingham B1 2EA, UK

 

The Inclusion International World Congresses are the largest gatherings of self-advocates, families, friends and supporters, in the world. Join in and add your voice; share your experience, and be part of a movement for change.

The programme will include:

  • ‘How-To’ style workshops: starting a local self-advocacy group; closing institutions; deliver inclusive education training for teachers.
  • Inspirational talks and by self-advocate leaders; families; supporters and thought leaders who will share their stories of motivation and social change.
  • Discussions and presentations on key policy issues such inclusive education; employment; poverty and support to families will help shape our agenda for the future.

In addition to a fun social programme, there will be lots of opportunities for networking and connecting with self-advocates and families from around the world.

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

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**PAST** Improving Assessment and Feedback. UCL Education Conference, 17 April 2018, London, UK

Visit the conference website for full details.

You can register online.

Abstract deadline: 30 January 2018
Notification of accepted abstracts: 15 February 2018
Conference venue: UCL Institute of Education, 20 Bedford Way, London WC1H 0AL

Specific sub-themes could include, but are not limited to:

  • Innovative assessment and feedback practices
  • Curriculum for wellbeing
  • Supporting students via the personal tutor role
  • Engaging students in research and with researchers at all levels of the curriculum
  • Students as partners in curriculum change
  • Connecting education with local communities, the wider world and employability
  • Using new technologies and delivery modes to create more flexible and accessible curricula
  • Building bridges between disciplines
  • Diversity and inclusion in the curriculum
  • Subject-discipline researchers’ contribution to education
  • Connections between academic and other roles in the university.

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

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Coming soon… NEW Inclusive Education Video & Participatory Training Guide

EENET is making a brand new teacher training video illustrating real-life inclusive education approaches and practices. This long awaited resource will include a participatory teacher training facilitation guide. The guide will enable trainers to use the video in a variety of ways, for short and longer training courses, with new or experienced teachers as well as with other people working in education.

Why is EENET making this new resource?

EENET originally set out to address a shortage of information on inclusive education focused on countries often referred to as being in the Global South* and the need for free information about inclusive education in resource-poor contexts. Over the years we have received more requests for support, not in understanding what inclusive education is, but in moving to the next level – understanding how to practically implement the ideas that are available on paper.

We noticed that among the thousands of inclusive education video’s available online, many contained good messages about inclusive education, but little practical guidance. They left the viewer thinking “great idea, but how do I make this happen in reality?” Our new video and training guide takes an important step towards filling this gap.

Over the coming weeks running up to the video’s launch on World Teacher’s Day, 5th October 2017, we will show you behind the scenes and introduce you to some amazing teachers, parents and students who we hope will inspire you to make your own educational community more inclusive.

Blog photo 2

To learn more about EENET’s Inclusive Education Video & Participatory Training Guide:

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EENET’s new video-based teacher training resource has been made possible thanks to grants from Open Society Foundations and Light of the World.

 

* The Global South includes the nations of Africa, Asia, Central and Latin America that are less developed or have limited resources. The term comes from the idea that a large number of these countries are located in the southern hemisphere.

Call for Articles for Enabling Education Review Issue 6, 2017

The theme of the 2017 edition of Enabling Education Review will be:

“Young People’s Views of Inclusive Education”

The deadline for submitting first drafts of articles is 31 July 2017. This year, as the title suggests, we want articles written by children and young people. Contact info@eenet.org.uk with any questions or to receive a full information pack on how to facilitate writing sessions.

Continue reading “Call for Articles for Enabling Education Review Issue 6, 2017”

Call for Articles for “Enabling Education Review” Special Edition, 2017

The theme of this special edition will be:

 “Inclusive education and street-connectedness”

 The Enabling Education Network (EENET) is publishing this extra edition of the Enabling Education Review.

The deadline for submitting first drafts of articles is 23 June 2017. Details of suggested topics and how to submit your articles are provided below. Contact info@eenet.org.uk with any questions.

Continue reading “Call for Articles for “Enabling Education Review” Special Edition, 2017”

Call for Articles for “Enabling Education Review” 2015

The theme for the 2015 newsletter will be:

“Inclusive education management”

 

1. Why have we chosen this topic?

This year we would like the Enabling Education Review (EER) to share practical experiences of planning, budgeting and fundraising for, managing, monitoring and evaluating inclusive education initiatives.

EENET has the benefit of being both an information network and a consultancy service provider. Through this diverse work we are privileged to learn about many different inclusive education initiatives – we get to see what makes them work well, and the problems they face.

For instance, we have seen first-hand that organisations and governments often invest heavily in baseline studies, but these studies are not always high quality or used effectively to inform project/programme design. We see that budgeting and resourcing for inclusive education can be a challenge, particularly when seeking funding to scale-up and move beyond pilot projects or model schools. We carry out many evaluations. A common challenge is the limited qualitative and quantitative record keeping, making it very difficult to collate information for the final evaluation. We also notice that more money is spent on final evaluations than on mid-term reviews, yet a high quality mid-term review (and/or effective ongoing monitoring) can enable improvements to be recommended and implemented ‘before it’s too late’.

However, we also know that there are organisations and governments working hard to improve their approaches to inclusive education planning, budgeting, fundraising, monitoring and evaluation. We therefore want to provide an opportunity for those involved in such initiatives to document and share their experiences.

 

2. What could you write about?

 Here are some ideas…

 

Planning

  • Your experience of conducting a high quality, practical and relevant baseline study. In particular we would like to hear about efforts to conduct participatory baselines, involving stakeholders and beneficiaries in the research activities (and even as researchers), so that the baseline process becomes an integral part of the initiative (not just a formal or academic ‘outsider research’ process).
  • Your experience with participatory planning – ensuring that your inclusive education initiative responds to the needs and ideas of stakeholders and beneficiaries; and/or ensuring that the initiative is planned as a genuine collaborative effort between NGO and government.

 

Financing and resourcing

  • Your experience with convincing large/international donors to support inclusive education (particularly convincing them to provide longer-term support – because inclusive education is not a ‘quick fix’).
  • Your experience with developing funding strategies that ensure shared financial responsibility between local/national government and NGOs, or which promote increased financial responsibility from the government for inclusive education.
  • Your experience of successfully reallocating resources to support inclusive education (rather than seeking new/extra resources).
  • Your experience with developing community-level financial, material or human resource support for inclusive education.

 

Monitoring and evaluation

  • Your experience of developing approaches that enable implementers/managers, stakeholders and beneficiaries to regularly reflect on and document their experiences, throughout the life of the inclusive education initiative.
  • Your experience or reflections on what makes a useful, high quality mid-term review or final evaluation.
  • Your experience with developing relevant and useful indicators for measuring progress/impact.
  • Your experience of developing joint monitoring and evaluation mechanisms, so that multiple partners (e.g. NGOs and government) contribute and learn collaboratively.

 

How do you submit an article?

Please email your article to ingridlewis@eenet.org.uk or send a hard copy to the address at the end of this document.

Length – either 550 words (for a single page article) or 1,100 words (for a double-page article). We may edit longer articles down to a single page, depending on the quantity and quality of articles received.

Style – please keep the article easy-to-read and non-academic. We encourage the use of sub-headings, bullet lists, etc. Have a look at previous editions of the publication if you are not sure what style to use.

Editing – we are very happy to help with editing the article, so don’t worry if you are not an experienced writer, we can work with you to improve the structure and content of your article, make it shorter/longer, etc.

Photos – it is great if you can add photos, drawings or diagrams to your article. Please send us high resolution images by email (these should be at least 1mb in size), or post us an original print/drawing. For every image you want to add to your article, you will probably need to remove about 75-100 words of text – but we can help with this editing. Please ensure that the people in any photos have given their permission for the photos to be published, or that parents/guardians have given permission for photos of children to be used.

Deadlines – the first deadline for draft submissions of articles is 30 June 2015.

But we welcome submissions as soon as possible so we can spread the editing workload. We will then review all articles and work with the authors to edit them. This process will happen July-August. We then aim to finalise articles and design the publication in September-October, so that it can be printed in November-December 2015.

Selection – please note that we might not publish all of the articles we receive. In addition to ensuring that we publish articles that are easy-to-read and of practical use to a range of education stakeholders, we will also ensure that the final selection includes:

  • articles from a variety of countries/regions
  • articles about a range of different issues
  • articles by authors from different backgrounds (e.g. teachers, NGOs, parents, academics, government representatives, etc).

Articles that are not selected for publication in the newsletter may instead be published on EENET’s website.

Queries – if you have any questions, please email ingridlewis@eenet.org.uk.

Postal address ­– if you want to send an article in hard copy or as an audio recording (e.g. on CD), please send to:

 

EENET CIC

37 Market Street

Hollingworth

Cheshire, SK14 8LS

UK

Street-connectedness and returning to mainstream education

At EENET we see inclusive education as encompassing the inclusion of many different marginalised groups into education. One group that I actively advocate for is street-connected children. I am currently completing a PhD in education at the University of Manchester, exploring the experiences of transition of children and youth leaving the street in Kenya.

I use the term ‘street-connected children’ rather than ‘street children’. This is because ‘street children’ infers a specific situation that often fails to describe the lived reality of many children or young people found on the street. It is also a term that can stigmatise children by presenting them as being the problem. Street-connectedness better represents the varying levels of engagement with the opportunities and challenges inherent to the street. It also describes the situation of the street rather than defining the child or young person by the street. In so doing it does not lend itself to the traditional stereotypes of street children as either victims or delinquents. Instead, being a street-connected child or young person suggests a continuum of possible interactions with the opportunities and challenges inherent to the street.

Support to leave the street

Community-based organisations working with street children often prioritise assisting the children to leave the street. There are a number of different ways that this is done. Street-based outreach work or drop-in centres are a means of getting to know the children on the street and building trust between them and the teachers and social workers working with them. Some organisations provide rescue centres or interim care centres that are (semi-)residential. The children will stay at these for a number of months to overcome addictions they have developed on the street, to undergo counselling and to complete catch-up education, while the organisation decides if home is the best place for them. Most of them will go home, but in a minority instances (for example when parents are unable to adequately care for their children) extended family or foster parents may be encouraged to get involved. Older youth may be assisted with living independently. (Sarah Thomas de Benitez has written a participatory review of four such street to school projects in different countries, which is included in the EENET resource collection).

Returning to school

One of the important aspects of leaving the street and moving back home is going (back) to school. It can be difficult to start school at a much later age than your peers, or return to school after months or years away, especially when you are much older than your new classmates. Life on the street is very different to sitting in front of the teacher and it can be difficult to adapt to concentrating for a long time or doing everything you are told. On the street, children and youth must look after themselves, and are able to experience a relatively high degree of autonomy and freedom. But when they (re)enter the classroom the lessons are often teacher-led and proscriptive. For a small number of individuals, school was the reason that they went to the street in the first place, for instance due to arguments with teachers, boredom, or because other learning needs were not being met, and they felt they didn’t fit in.

Organisations such as Retrak or Child Rescue Kenya, working to assist children as they move away from the street, often provide intensive catch-up education to help them prepare for going (back) to school. The children I have interviewed in Kenya find such education important for helping them settle in to regular classes. However, this informal education is often more interactive and less structured than the education they will encounter back in school.

The importance of inclusive education for street-connected children returning to school

As advocates of inclusive education we understand that children leaving the street would benefit if the schools they move to use inclusive teaching practices. When teachers treat every child as a unique individual, and try to include all their learning needs into their planning and teaching, everyone benefits. I have read many articles that describe how teachers work on adapting to the needs of one child that is traditionally deemed in need of extra support, but then find that all members of their classroom are positively affected. Therefore, teachers working in areas where many children and youth migrate to the street need to be better prepared to include these children when they return to formal education.

A first step in trying to ensure a successful transition from the informal education provided by the community-based organisation to the mainstream classroom, would be for the teachers at both centres to collaborate and develop a supportive framework within which the transition takes place. The teachers and social workers employed by community-based organisations working with street-connected children and youth should work with regular teachers to help them recognise the issues faced by these children. Together they can develop a more informed plan of delivery for the informal education curriculum that better prepares the children for school, and at the same time change the teaching practices of regular teachers to be more inclusive.

Su Corcoran

Further reading on the education-focused research I have been conducting can be found in the Summer 2014 edition of Childhood Explorer and the Autumn/Winter 2014 edition of BERA’s Research Intelligence

You can also find lots more information about how to develop inclusive teaching practices on EENET’s website.

Su Corcoran is EENET’s Network Coordinator. She also spends time as a volunteer working with street-connected and vulnerable children in urban contexts in East Africa.