Being mindful of the "why" we are involved with international research partnerships for inclusive education

Magnus, Kimberly, TK, Jacqui, me

Last night our team had the opportunity to visit TK Azaglo and the NGO he began 10 years ago called Future of Africa (click here for the website).

The visit reminded me of the "why" behind our research partnership meetings over the past 10 days.

The "why" is plural. It's the children of Ghana ... and Canada. We are building research partnerships and developing research projects so that we can examine and then tell the story of why it is important that all children have access to equitable and inclusive schooling.

TK works with street kids in Accra. In doing so, he is not only working to meet their needs but is also building the capacity of the university student volunteers who meet every Friday and Saturday night as an outreach to the children.

Sign on the outside of the FOA building

We witnessed this capacity-building work last night as a dozen or more university students from across Africa (Ghana, Uganda, Burundi, Kenya, and Zimbabwe) - all of whom attend an innovative university called Ashesi University in Ghana - met and interacted with children who live on the streets. They do this every Friday and Saturday night. Why? Because they want to make a difference.

Posted inside FOA

It was a powerful experience to observe - and interact with - both the university student volunteers and the kids. It reminded me that, despite radically different lived experiences, we share some basic aspects of humanity. Namely, we crave relationships and knowing that others believe in us.

In many ways, this parallels the work we do in supporting students with special education needs. Encouraging - and sometimes fighting for - their right to have their needs addressed in classrooms and schools with their peers begins when we engage in building healthy and supportive relationships and demonstrating our belief in their value.

As we wrap up this exploratory research trip, it was an important reminder to me to keep my focus on why we do what we do.

What does "partnership development" mean when it involves the Global North and the Global South? Avoiding new-colonial mindsets and practices

For more than a week, we have been meeting with different educational stakeholders in Ghana as we explore what inclusive education means and the types of resources needed to help teachers support students with disabilities and special education needs.

Picture taken at Ghana International School

Today, we wrapped up meetings with the Ghana Education Service (akin to Ministry of Education) and Ghana International School to discuss next steps in developing our partnership.

The goal of the Partnership Development Grants of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) - which has funded this study - is to engage potential partners in collaborative research projects. Today, we mapped out a number of potential directions our research partnership could take over the next few years. These included the possibility of working with experienced teachers, working with new teachers, working with those who are preparing to be teachers, or working with school heads to support their knowledge and resource development related to students with special education needs.

Our meetings with the Ghana Education Service (GES) have been illuminating. The director of the inclusive education unit has expressed some hesitation in the development of the partnership. She clearly wants to ensure that our work aligns with the strategic direction of the GES. She wants to prevent duplication of services. She has also indicated that she is concerned when organizations do work in Ghana but her department does not know about the research or receives a report about the research but without input from her department. These are legitimate issues and I really appreciate her attention to ensuring that the partnership is truly a partnership.

Picture taken at Ghana International School

In a way, she is expressing concern about a form of neo-colonialism in the research realm. We typically think of colonialism or neo-colonialism as being political, economic, and military-related when a particular government or group dominates and controls another group or region. But as researchers we have to be cautious that we are not perpetuating a form of neo-colonialism when we do research in the Global South in the name of "improvement" without fully and authentically engaging and working with local stakeholders.

One of the aspects of the SSHRC Partnership Development Grant program that I really value is that organizations have up to three years to foster the development of partnerships. This provides an opportunity for relationships to be fostered. Out of relationships comes the opportunity to demonstrate reciprocity and build trust. As we plan for further work in Ghana, these aspects will remain foundational as we look to build partnerships that can explore issues of real importance without perpetuating a neo-colonial mindset and practices.

On-going learning about inclusive education in Ghana: Considering the perspectives of government officials, teachers, and parents

Today we completed a full day of focus groups with three different groups of educational stakeholders in Tamale, a city in northern Ghana:

1. Officials from Ghana Education Service (similar to Ontario's Ministry of Education).
2. Teachers and parents.
3. Other stakeholders (e.g., private schools, NGOs)

We were particularly interested in hearing about three aspects of inclusive education:

1. What does inclusive education mean to you?
2. What policies guide your work in inclusive education?
3. What experiences have you had in supporting students with special education needs and disabilities?

About 30 people participated in the focus groups. It was fascinating to listen to the insights and perspectives of the participants. Here are my "top 10" key lessons I learned:

1. There seems to be a greater willingness to work with students with "mild" disabilities in the regular classroom. Students with more challenging disabilities were generally seen as needing the supports available in specialized, segregated schools.
2. Many teachers had not heard of, never mind seen, the 2015 Ministry of Education policy document that is supposed to guide inclusive education in Ghana. There seems to be a large gap between policy and practice.
3. Participants identified that one of the most significant challenges to inclusion is the pervasiveness of stigma associated with disability in Ghana.
4. Resources are scarce and most schools do not have access to specialized support (e.g., special education resource teachers).
5. Classes are large so it is difficult for teachers to focus on more significant individual student needs because of the breadth of needs in their classrooms.
6. Training of teachers on inclusive education is sporadic and without monitoring/accountability structures to ensure that students with disabilities are included. Teachers would like more professional learning opportunities and on-going support.
7. There is a recognition of a wide variety of needs. Specific disabilities that were discussed included physical disabilities, autism, mental disabilities, learning disabilities (dyslexia, dyscalculia), and intellectual disabilities.
   
8. There is a lack of assessment/diagnostic resources aside from referring children and their families to hospitals or medical practitioners. The Swiss Red Cross has played a significant role in supporting interventions such as hearing assessments.
9. Parents of children with disabilities expressed appreciation for caring teachers but also commented that there was a significant lack of resources to support their children in community schools.
10. Participants were appreciative that this is the beginning of a three year study that includes developing training resources. Participants were looking for on-going engagement and not singular training events. 

There is much to learn about inclusive education in Ghana but the reciprocity in the learning journey today is a strong indicator that the future of our partnership development work in Ghana is healthy!

Inclusive education in Ghana: Every child shines in a particular area

Dr. Jacqueline Specht from Western University

Today, our team met with about 50 teachers from Ghana International School to discuss inclusive education in their school context and the broader community. The school is one of the leading private schools in Ghana. We were curious to find out about their experiences with, and perspectives of, inclusive education.


The workshop was a balance of providing information related to inclusive education and gaining insights from the participants. We used the "heart, head, hands" framework for our instructional blocks:

Heart: what do we believe about inclusive education?
Head: what does the research say?
Hands: what can we do to support all students?




At the end of each block, we asked the participants to provide feedback on some key questions such as:

• What experiences have shaped your thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes about students with special education needs?
• Are there spaces in your classrooms and schools where only certain students belong? Why?
• What plans need to be in place to support educators on the journey with inclusion?

Dr. Kimberly Maich from Memorial University

We collected the responses from the participants on these questions and will use them to help inform our future research and project development. The workshop will be repeated next Saturday with a similar group from public schools so it served as a bit of an opportunity to determine how we can gain insight into inclusive education in Ghana.

This written comment from one of the groups of participants caught my attention and serves as an important reminder of why we work in Canada and beyond to foster inclusive school environments:

What does inclusive education mean in Ghana?

I've been in Accra, Ghana for the past two days in meetings with the Ghana Education Service (equivalent to Ontario's Ministry of Education) and administrators from Ghana International School. I'm part of a team of four Canadian researchers (Dr. Magnus Mfoafo M'Carthy and I from Laurier, Dr. Jacqui Specht from Western, and Dr. Kimberly Maich from Memorial) working with partners in Ghana to better understand what it means to be a student with a disability or special education need in Ghana.

UN Sustainable Development Goal #4: A global priority

Entrance to the Director of Inclusive Education office

Our first meeting with the Director of Inclusive Education at Ghana Education Service was informative as we heard about the historical practices - and movement to - inclusive education. Supporting students with disabilities and special education needs in schools is a relatively new phenomenon globally. Canada has been moving in this direction for the past 50 years but still has a long way to go as there are still many gaps in services and resistance to full inclusion. Similarly, Ghana has a policy on inclusive education but there is still a significant gap between policy and practice. We are here to better understand this and to identify ways that we may partner together to support inclusive education in Ghana.

We have also met with administrators from Ghana International School, one of Ghana's top schools. GIS is a partner in this exploratory study as it seeks to support its own students who may have disabilities. But GIS also is committed to supporting education more broadly in Ghana. It is serving as a host for two days of workshops we will do with teachers from GIS and other schools in Accra to better understand their own experiences with, and beliefs about, inclusive education. These two workshops are tomorrow (Dec. 7) and the following Saturday (Dec. 14). Joining us at the workshops are a number of Ghanaian scholars and disability rights personnel who will further help with developing a better understanding of inclusive education in Ghana.

One way to conceptualize the spectrum from exclusion to inclusion

Next week we will travel to Tamale, a city in northern Ghana to explore the issue in focus groups with government officials, teachers, and other stakeholders. This will provide us with some comparative information to better understand inclusive education in diverse parts of Ghana.

This trip will provide us with some baseline data about inclusive education for our work with the partners over the next three years. It will also help as we develop a comparative and international understanding of inclusive education. We anticipate doing similar work in other contexts such as Haiti and Bangladesh. The study is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

Haiti: Quo vadis?

Tonight I have a lot of work to do.

But my mind is on Haiti.

I was supposed to be in Haiti this week teaching a university Master of Education course on school leadership. It's something I've done for years and I have always enjoyed it.

But this year, the course was cancelled due to safety concerns for participants having to travel to the location just outside of Port au Prince. I have traveled two or three times a year to Haiti for the past 10 years as I support professional learning for teachers. This is the first time a trip has been cancelled.

Haiti is in the midst of a crisis. Yet, few people outside of Haiti are even aware of it. The issues are complex and yet they are also simple. The current crisis is really the boiling point of years of western interference and government corruption that has been exasperated through the collapse of Venezuela's discounted oil program with Haiti. If you want to read about some of the associated issues, I would suggest that you find articles by Jacqueline Charles of the Miami Herald and read them. Here is a good place to start (click here).

In the linked article above, the Archbishop of Port au Prince, Max Leroy Mésidor, states, “People cannot go on any longer. We are fed up.”

He is being literal in the use of the language "people cannot go on any longer."

I am hearing daily reports of people who haven't been paid in months, are surviving on bread crumbs, and who cannot travel safely. Children have not yet been in school this fall. Hospitals are regularly shut down. There is rarely electricity.

Haitians are protesting in the streets. There is real suffering. People are saying that it's a crisis like they haven't seen in decades.

My Haitian colleagues are not asking for western intervention. They know that the problem is one that they need to fix.

Yet, we need to do something. It is inhumane to watch idly as people suffer.

So what can be done?

Our Canadian political landscape has been dominated with election news over the past six weeks. It's time for Justin Trudeau and other elected leaders to stop looking internally and recognize there is a crisis in our backyard.

Haitians don't want western intervention but our government can certainly increase pressure on the Haitian president, Jovenel Moïse, to take real action in response to the suffering of the people.

Canadians can also use traditional news channels and social media to become more aware of the challenges - and the potential - of Haiti. Haitians want to know that they are not alone, that others know about their suffering. And that we care.

Haitians are marching and demanding change.

Quo vadis? Will we sit by silently or will we too demand and work for change?

Note: I am sending a version of this blog post to a number of Canadian news channels as an op-ed as part of my own efforts to mobilize knowledge around the situation in Haiti.

ELI Haiti 2019 wraps up another year in Cap-Haitien, Haiti

We have had another amazing year at the Educator and Leadership Institute in Cap-Haitien, Haiti!

Teachers from an early learning course

Kids engaged with a science and language activity

Today, we had a graduation ceremony with 200 participants who have completed three years of training. Amazing!

We also recognized 50 Haitian university students who completed a week of ESL classes.

Sr. Vieginat, our primary Haitian partner, and Josee Landirault, a Canadian principal

And, perhaps most enjoyably, we witnessed 200 girls (and about a dozen brave boys!) who completed a week of STEAM activities.

Gabriel Osson and Steve Sider at College Regina Assumpta

It is quite an effort to coordinate the entire effort but a team of four including Jhonel Morvan, Megan Borner, Gabriel Osson, and me works closely with our key Haitian partner - Sr. Vierginat - to make it all happen.

It's definitely a team effort!

How can technology bridge the educational divide?

Technology carries great potential to bridge the educational divides that exist globally. These divides include those which exist that prevent girls from attending school in equal measure as boys and those that prevent those in poor communities from having access to quality education.

Technology can help by providing access to educational resources that otherwise would not be available.

One way that this occurs in the Educator and Leadership Institute is by the use of USB memory keys. Our instructors put valuable resources on these memory keys so that our participants can use them in the training of others. They can also print documents or watch videos that are stored on these memory keys to help in their own professional learning.

Technology can also be used to break down geographical barriers.

A new experience for ELI this year was a connection that was facilitated by one of our Canadian instructors, Josee Landriault, a principal from Ontario. Josee has been instructing a course for Ontario educators preparing to be principals. She also is an instructor for the leadership group of ELI. This week, Josee was able to set up a video connection so that both groups of participants were able to meet. It was an amazing experience to see the joy that both groups had in meeting the other. What a powerful opportunity to bridge a divide.

Ontario principals join a group of Haitian principals (on the screen) through a video conference

Technology has the potential to perpetuate and even expand the educational divides that exist in the world. But we cannot let this happen. Technology has tremendous potential to ensure that every child - and teacher - can access a quality and inclusive education. Companies such as D2L, Vrette, and 360Insights - all partners in ELI - are working with us to ensure that this is how technology benefits those that are currently excluded from such a quality and inclusive education.

What does sustainability mean? Examining a model in Haiti

Organizations develop processes and structures to ensure that they can survive - and thrive - over the long term.


The question of sustainability becomes more difficult when we develop initiatives in challenging parts of the world. The "challenge factor" of sustainability increases when the initiative involves partnerships between the global south and the global north.

In 2016, we launched the Educator and Leadership Institute in Haiti. We were committed to a sustainable model and put into place a number of strategies to support its sustainability. These included:

• many meetings in advance of the launch to ensure solid partnerships between Haitian and Canadian partners
• a common goal and core values
• a financial model that included contributions from both Haitian and Canadian partners
• each participant - both Haitian and Canadian - would contribute to the cost of participating in ELI
• a budget that included no compensation for any person thus minimizing overhead
• division of responsibilities so that no person had too many things to do or too much authority
• no financial support provided from the Canadian to Haitian partners
• a research component to continually examine the model

Now that we are in our fourth year, we are still working on some of the details of how to support the sustainability of ELI in Haiti. A number of new aspects are supporting the sustainability of ELI:

• Haitian teachers who are working with the Canadian instructors and gradually taking on more teaching responsibility
• moving the location to the school of our primary Haitian partner
• a leadership development program for Haitian teachers who've been identified as having significant potential for leadership
• engaging Haitian university students who are working with Canadian university students to host the STEAM camp
• developing a Leadership in Training program for children attending the camp so that they may be future leaders of the camp

We really will not know if ELI is sustainable until the Canadian component has been significantly decreased. Will ELI continue? This year, we have reduced the Canadian component by 25% (compared to 2018) and this will increase to 50% next year. So far, things have run even more smoothly than the previous three years so that is a great sign! 

Is ELI sustainable? We have put into place many strategies to ensure this ... and so far this model appear to be highly effective with great promise for the future.

A picture is worth a thousand words: Today at ELI Haiti

Today's blog post is simple: Pictures that represent the three aspects of the Educator and Leadership Institute. Enjoy!

Learning about leadership under a tree. What metaphor could we develop from this?

Teachers engaged in a science course!

Children enjoying a story in the STEAM camp

A Laurier teacher candidate guides a science activity for girls

Our university ESL program

We have had an amazing day ... and tomorrow will be even better. Our mission of supporting the capacity of educators in Haiti is being lived out every day!

A quality education for a sustainable and positive change: A shared vision for ELI Haiti

Wow.

How else can I describe our first day of the Educator and Leadership Institute? We are off to an amazing start with 600 teachers, 200 children, and 50 university students ... and 30 Canadian educators! All on a relatively small urban school campus. This was our first year hosting ELI at this new school - although they have been a foundational partner since the beginning. And we were unsure how it would all work since it is a smaller, more urban campus than where we have been the past three years.

Opening session but what can't be seen in this picture are the dozens of teachers
who were at the back and out the back doors of the auditorium.

But our first day was "wow."

It was incredibly hot - with humidity it felt over 100 Fahrenheit - but our first day was amazing. Our Haitian participants were engaged. Through the sweat, our Canadian instructors demonstrated student-centered, active learning. Children were laughing as our Laurier university students supported interactive lessons. And the Haitian university students commented on multiple occasions how much they valued the English as a Second Language support.

Preparing supplies for classrooms including USB memory keys where participants will have access to all of the ELI materials, compliments of a donation from 360Insights, one of our Canadian partners

STEAM camp supported by a generous donation by Gay Lea Foundation

Leadership course participants

How do you feed 600 people? One step at a time! 

Wow.

Perhaps the biggest wow factor today was the "unveiling" of a common vision statement that our Haitian and Canadian participants developed this past May. One of our Laurier students developed it into an art piece and I used it as a key component of an opening talk I gave this morning.You can see the French version of the vision statement in the picture below.

 A quality education for a 

sustainable and positive change.

Wow.

Shifting practices while changing perspectives: Canadian and Haitian educators teaching together

Our full team of ELI Haitian and Canadian instructors

This is our fourth year of the Educator and Leadership Institute in Haiti and it is the year where we are sharing teaching responsibilities with our Haitian partners. Today, our 18 Canadian team members met their 18 Haitian teaching partners. The Haitian instructors have been participants in the Educator and Leadership Institute - many for three years - and also completed a weekend of leadership training in May. The Canadian and Haitian instructors spent part of the afternoon preparing their classrooms and preparing for the week ahead.

Sr Vierginat, our main Haitian partner

While the instructors were working on preparation, our university students were planning the Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) camp. There are six Canadian students or recent Bachelor of Education graduates and ten Haitian university students who are all working together to lead and support the STEAM camp.


In the midst of the preparation, I've been struck by how who we work with can shift our perspective. If we only work with those with whom we are comfortable or who have similar backgrounds as us, then we will never be pushed in our understanding. When Canadian educators work with those who have different backgrounds to our own - such as our Haitian colleagues - then we begin to have a better understanding of the "other." This week, we are excited about welcoming 100s of educators to engage in learning ... but I am really interested in the learning that will occur when the Haitian and Canadian instructors teach together. I am confident that this shift in practice will change our perspectives. And we will all be better for that..

Feels like coming home: Returning to Cap-Haitien for the start of Educator and Leadership Institute Year 4

This afternoon our team of Canadian educators returned to Cap-Haitien, Haiti for Year Four of the Educator and Leadership Institute. There are 30 of us this week who will be supporting 600 Haitian teachers and principals as well as 200+ children in a STEAM camp and 50 university students in an English as a Second Language program. It will be the largest ELI since we started.

As we took an old school bus from the airport to our hotel, a number of Canadian participants commented on how much it felt like coming home. And it does. There is a feeling of connectedness to the area. Deep relationships have been established.

And yet we really are not coming home. None of us live the life of our Haitian colleagues. For the most part we don't live in a fragile context where political protests can take over a street, where the value of a $1 a year ago is worth 1/2 that today, or where we are unsure that we are going to get paid at the end of the month.

Yet, we can feel a sense of home - not because we live or can fully understand what it means to live in a context like Haiti - but because we share common ideas of home: A place where we feel welcomed, where relationships exist, where we feel special, and where we can have uncomfortable conversations.

This does describe my/our relationship with Haiti. There are many, many aspects of this country that I will never understand. There are many aspects of my own country - and my own community - that I will not fully understand. Yet, it is still home. So too Haiti is home.

Tomorrow we build on the work of the past four years in an afternoon of planning with our Haitian partners. This year, Haitian and Canadian instructors will be supporting each other in teaching the courses. This is a first for ELI and will support the transition of ELI from a predominantly Canadian led experience to one that has shared leadership. This is what happens in homes too ... leadership transitions. Stay tuned through the week as I hope this will be a re-occurring theme!
 

Steve and Jhonel, two of ELI's leaders

Haiti Educator and Leadership Institute 2019: A model that is working

We are anticipating the fourth Educator and Leadership Institute (ELI) Haiti to take place in early August. A team of 30 Canadian and 30 Haitian educators will be providing leadership and instruction for approximately 500 Haitian teachers and principals from Aug. 5-9.

Our plan for sustainability is built on Haitian leadership. In May, we worked with 25 Haitian educators as we strengthened their leadership capacity in anticipation of the summer institute. This group will be co-instructing with Canadian educators in all subject areas. As well, administrative support for ELI will be increasingly provided by Haitian participants including tracking class attendance, ensuring graduation requirements, and printing completion certificates.

The vision statement for ELI Haiti:
A quality education for sustainable and positive change

Next year (2020) will be the final year of the five year commitment we made to providing educational professional learning in northern Haiti. We are optimistic that the structures we have put in place, accompanied with on-going support and coaching, will lead to long-term teacher professional development in this area of Haiti. Haiti's future depends on enhancing the educational system. ELI has contributed to this by ensuring that teachers are trained and supported in effective teaching methods including active, differentiated, and experiential learning.

As this model is rolled out in other contexts (Nepal, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, etc.), we anticipate that each context will teach us something new about education and sustainability. What we have learned already is that teachers and principals around the world are largely committed to being change agents. Often, all they need to increase their effectiveness is some professional support. We are already seeing the influence of this support on the learning outcomes of students and are looking forward to scaling this as we expand to other contexts.

The Heart and Spirit of Inclusion: Conference at University of British Columbia

On June 1, 2019 I coordinated and hosted a conference at the University of British Columbia on inclusion, school leadership, and Indigeneity. The goal of the conference was to bring educational leaders and Indigenous Knowledge Keepers from across Canada together to talk, listen, and learn about the inclusion of students with special education needs. More than 80 educators were at the conference and many more engaged with us globally through live broadcasts and social media.

This is a different blog post because I won't describe anything further but would encourage you to listen to the recordings from the conference. You will find them by clicking here. More information on the research I am engaged with in Canada and beyond can be found on my research website (click here).

Nepal Educator and Leadership Institute: Building on the past, influencing the future

The Educator and Leadership Insitute model continues to expand! We have been able to build a strong base for ELI in Haiti and Egypt and now, thanks to the work of my colleague Judy Halpern, the ELI evolution in Nepal has been taken to a new level. Judy and her husband Rob have been involved in education in Nepal for 18 years. Their belief in reciprocity and co-learning are key to the success of ELI Nepal.

The ELI model for Nepal is differentiated in a number of ways but the foundations are the same as our other sites:

• Professional learning conference for five days for 90 Nepali educators from 10 schools
• Courses included: Leadership, Non-traditional instruction, Critical Literacy, Early Years, Mathematics, and STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics) education 
• The conference took place in the city of Banepa, in the Kavre district, 30 km from the capital city of Kathmandu
• 20 Canadian educators made up the team including eight Laurier Bachelor of Education students and 12 other educators from Ontario, Canada
• The ELI Nepal team differentiated the professional learning for the participants by responding to requests for specialized workshops in five different Extra Curricular Activities (ECAs), including Behaviour Management, Science Challenges, Music, Photography and Eco Club 

Funding for ELI Nepal comes through Wilfrid Laurier University, private donors, HEAL Nepal foundation, and participants fees. It is truly a communal effort to make this training happen and we are very appreciative of the generous support of those in Nepal and Canada.

Our host school is Vidhya Sagar English Secondary School in Banepa, which has the space and the technological capacity for our workshops.  

One of our Canadian course instructors offering work on non-traditional instructional strategies.

Mr. Hira Sharma, the principal of Vidhya Sagar, along with Mr. Tashi Lama, director of HEAL Nepal have been instrumental in organizing our institute.

As ELI expands, we are committed to our foundational mission of building the capacity of teachers in fragile and challenging contexts of the world. We are excited about new emerging opportunities in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Ghana. Updates on these contexts will be provided in the months ahead.