Language and Literacy in Ugandan Accelerated Education Programmes:

• In Event: Building the evidence base for accelerated education

Proposal

The Role of Assistant Teachers, English Language and Literacy Acquisition, and Supportive Continuous Professional Development Practices

The Accelerated Education Programme Guidelines for Uganda emphasize that Level 1 of Accelerated Education focus on teaching English literacy and language acquisition as well as basic numeracy. The language of instruction may be the dominant language used by learners in order to facilitate the understanding of curriculum concepts and content as well as to accelerate the pace of English language acquisition. The Guidelines emphasize the need for considerations and accommodations within the learning environment such as the use of Assistant Teachers to provide additional classroom support and translation as well as the use of good practices for teaching in a multi-lingual environment. Additionally, the Guidelines also address the need for Continuous Professional Development of AEP teachers focused on pedagogical skills specific to the context through peer learning, teacher learning circles, mentoring/coaching and other supportive practices.
A recent assessment was conducted by Save the Children International (SCI) in consortium with other partners using a contextualized and adapted version of the ASER literacy tool. The tool was progressive in nature with the highest level being the equivalent to expected Ugandan Primary 2 level of literacy competence. Of 239 AEP Level 1 learners assessed, the majority were only able to identify 4 English letters by name (41.8%) or were only able to read 4 basic English words (36.8%). This has tremendous implications for the methods and strategies that are utilized in the AEP Level 1 classrooms.
The use of Assistant Teachers in the Ugandan refugee context has been widely accepted and used. However, a recent report found that the role of Assistant Teachers in the learning environment is inconsistent across the refugee response and not serving the intended purpose of providing additional classroom support and translation. Furthermore, teachers do not receive training in strategies for effective English language acquisition nor in strategies for teaching in multilingual classroom. The report concluded that short-term trainings for teachers should be given more effort. Topics should include how to teach initial reading and writing, how to handle lessons with language support available, how to use a multilingual approach in the classroom, how to teach English in mixed-ability classes, using a strong activity base.

This action research explore how best to utilize supportive practices of continuous professional development for AEP English language and literacy acquisition through multilingual approaches. It will draw upon a broad range of data and existing resources (SCI’s Literacy Boost resources, TiCC resources, Uganda Primary Teacher Training resources, English Language Acquisition resources, etc.). The presenter will showcase the development, utilization and analysis of data from a Teaching Situation Analysis conducted by SCI across 26 AEPs in 4 refugee hosting districts. The presenter will discuss how this teaching situation analysis data was used to contextualize and adapt existing continuous professional development training modules and the progress in the use of peer learning strategies and other supportive practices throughout the 2019 teacher continuous professional development cycle.

Author

• Lindsey Allene Hall, Save the Children