Putting teachers at the heart: a participatory approach to professional development for Accelerated Education teachers in West Nile, Uganda

• In Event: Roundtable Session (Wednesday III)
  In Refereed Round-Table Session: Sustainable and holistic teacher professional development in crisis contexts: challenges and solutions

Proposal

Save the Children’s model of support to teachers in the refugee response in Uganda provides an example of a more sustainable approach to teacher professional development across the humanitarian-development divide. Critically, the model has been designed through a participatory approach with teachers; involving them in each component of programme design, implementation and evaluation. This presentation will give an overview of the model, highlight key findings from the ongoing participatory research, and share reflections on how this teacher-centric approach could be taken forward.

There are currently more than 682,000 school-aged children among the refugee population in Uganda and of these only 39% (267,337) have access to some form of education. Accelerated Education Programmes (AEPs) are a lifeline for the large numbers of overage, out of school children within the refugee settlement areas. And yet AEP classrooms provide a particularly challenging teaching environment. Teachers are expected to condense the curriculum, to bring individual children up to the expected age-appropriate learning level, to support young people whose mother tongue is different from their own, and to meet the different needs of children who may be suffering trauma – all within under resourced and overcrowded classrooms. As in so many conflict contexts, despite the huge needs, professional development and support for teachers is limited and of varying quality (Burns and Lawrie, 2015).
While Save the Children have been working to support children and teachers in the world’s poorest and most fragile countries for several decades, in recent years there has been a concerted effort to develop a more sustainable and holistic approach to teacher professional development.
This Teacher Professional Development approach is based on 5 evidence-based principles:
1. Treat teachers as professionals adapting the TPD programme to their individual needs and context
2. Measure teacher's improvement utilising a relevant teaching quality definition and set of indicators
3. Utilize multiple forms of long-term blended-learning professional development
4. Ensure teacher-trainers, head-teachers and other officials can support their teachers
5. Strengthen teacher-education systems and advocate for policy improvement

This presentation will highlight lessons learnt in applying these 5 principles in the Ugandan accelerated education context. Inspired by the successful Teachers for Teachers work in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya, the model pays particular attention to principle 1, and puts teacher professionalism and empowerment at its heart (through an extensive teacher needs assessment, peer coaching and support, and participatory research). The findings from the participatory approach and concurrent research illustrate that the best solutions to the teaching and learning crisis in EiE contexts come from the teachers themselves.

Author

• Charlotte Louise Bergin, Save the Children