Blog

**PAST** Teaching for Sustainable Development. Workshops for UK teachers. March & April 2018.

Contact Dr Su Corcoran at Manchester Metropolitan University for more details: su.corcoran@mmu.ac.uk

Workshop theme: Teaching for sustainable development through ethical global issues pedagogy

Workshop dates and venues:

  • Birmingham Centre for Voluntary Action (Digbeth), UK               16th March 2018
  • Manchester Metropolitan University (Hulme), UK                        23rd March 2018
  • Amnesty International, New Inn Yard, London, UK                      27th April 2018

Logo for SDG target 4.7

The workshops will bring UK teachers of Year 10 & 11 students together to share their experiences of teaching global issues and develop supportive networks. Teachers will also learn about and give feedback on an approach the facilitators have developed based on latest research into how to add complexity to teaching global issues. The workshops will inform a resource to support teachers to bring multiple perspectives into the teaching of global ethical issues. The resource will be developed through contributions from teachers in the UK, Sweden, and Finland.

The workshop will be 3-4 hours in length and involve up to 10 teachers. Participants will contribute to the expertise being developed by sharing their experiences of teaching about global issues and reviewing a tool drafted by the researchers for use in secondary classrooms. They will also receive direct input from the researchers and other teachers to support their teaching.

Teachers attending the workshops should bring along one artefact (e.g., an anecdote about something that happened in their classroom, example of an activity they have facilitated, a great resource they have used), and the workshop will begin with sharing of the artefacts. The workshop will then focus on the presentation and active review of a pedagogical tool provided by the researchers to help support teaching. This tool will be published in the resource to be created by the end of the project, so the workshopping with teachers will be extremely important. There will also be opportunities to contribute to the development of a community of practice among teachers from the UK, Finland and Sweden including a shared website for the project where the final resource will be published.

 Refreshments will be provided and cover costs for supply teachers can be claimed if they are required.

Participation is open to UK teachers only.

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

 

 

 

New DFID Education Policy

The UK Government’s Department for International Development has just published it’s new ‘Education Policy: Get Children Learning‘. DFID says the policy “calls for a united effort by global and national leaders to address the learning crisis and ensure poor and marginalised children – who face the greatest challenges – are not left behind.”

Front cover of DFID policy document

The policy document has a relatively strong focus on inclusive education. One of the policy’s 3 priority areas is “Step up targeted support to the most marginalised”, and within this there is a focus on 3 priority groups of learners: children with disabilities, children affected by crisis, and hard-to-reach girls. EENET and many of the stakeholders we work with, will be keen to monitor the implementation of this policy.

Global Health and Disability. Leaving no one behind: disability, health and wellbeing in global development

Visit the course website for more details.

This is a 3-week (maximum 4 hours per week) free online course from the International Centre for Evidence in Disability at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

Course starts 26th February 2018

The course aims to raise awareness about the importance of health and well-being of people with disabilities in the context of the global development agenda: Leaving no one behind.

Topics for the course will include:

  • The magnitude of disability and relevance of disability to the global development agenda
  • Defining disability and how it can be understood and measured
  • The challenges to health and wellbeing amongst people with disabilities and why people with disabilities might have poorer health
  • Why people with disabilities may have difficulty in accessing health services
  • Links among longer term health conditions and disability
  • How to improve access to health care and rehabilitation for people with disabilities
  • Community based inclusive development for improving access to health and rehabilitation for people with disabilities.

Woman and child sitting on floor. Both holding the same toy car.

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

**PAST** 6th CBR Africa Conference, 7-11 May 2018, Lusaka, Zambia

Visit the CBR Africa Network website for more details.

Conference theme: CBR for resilience building and sustainable development: Leave no one behind

The CBR Africa Conference is aimed at all disability and development stakeholders, including members of disabled people’s organisations, NGOs working in the disability and development field, CBR workers, government personnel, academics, civil society organisations and more.

Registration costs $350 (early bird $320).

Sub-themes include:

  • SDGs and CBR – country progress
  • Strengthening CBR/CBID networks and associations
  • Livelihood initiatives for resilience building
  • CBR/CBID in a humanitarian crisis
  • Ownership and sustainability of CBR programmes
  • CBR/CBID training and education
  • Action research, documentation and information sharing
  • Neglected tropical diseases and CBR
  • CBR, gender and child protection.

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

Free app to make documents accessible

A new app called EasyConverter Express has been launched which aims to help blind and partially sighted people in developing countries access information in braille, large print and audio formats. Users will be able to produce braille, large print, MP3 and DAISY talking book formats from Word files.

The app is available free for people living in developing countries. Users in other countries have to pay for the software. Here is a short video which explains what the free app can do.

It has been developed by Dolphin with support from the Royal National Institute of Blind People, and with grant support from Google.org as a gift to the World Blind Union and International Council for Education of People with Visual Impairment.

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.

—————————————————————–

**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.

—————————————————————-

**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.

—————————————————————–