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Session Submission Summary

Practical approaches to supporting and empowering teachers and schools to secure quality equitable learning in uncertain times: Lessons from Kenya, Uganda and Zambia

Wed, February 22, 1:30 to 3:00pm EST (1:30 to 3:00pm EST), Grand Hyatt Washington, Floor: Independence Level (5B), Independence E

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

Teaching and school leadership are the most important elements that build quality learning environments in schools. During an acute emergency, teachers and school leaders play an essential role in sector level gap analyses through their participation in education needs assessments, despite the fact that most of them have little or no training in crisis leadership. Our panel will discuss how teachers and school leaders can be supported and empowered to provide quality learning for all students amidst the challenges of emergencies, such as Covid-19, in Kenya, Uganda and Zambia
During the Covid-19 pandemic, school leaders have had to recreate many school policies to reopen successfully – a daunting task for which guidance is often needed. School leaders and administrators around the world have taken up many additional responsibilities: rewritten policies, communicated with stakeholders, and engaged in crisis management. They have done their best in a difficult situation with no blueprint and their practices are likely to have changed considerably. Yet there is limited research related to school leadership during the pandemic, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Equally, there is a limited evidence base on practices that ‘worked’ in the field, which would originate from the ongoing programmes and interventions in African schools and coming from African teachers.
Available evidence suggests that school leaders had to work in an adaptive, emerging dynamic to navigate the challenges of uncertain educational environments. Other challenges include increased workload during the pandemic and, in lower-resource settings, hardware needs, such as limited access to radios or TVs, which were the main sources of distance learning solutions.. Moreover, the studies have been largely focused on identifying how school leaders have been responding to the crisis, if and how they have been able to support parents and students during school closures, and their priorities once schools reopen.
However, there remains an under-developed evidence base to help guide and inform contextualised practice in fragile and low-income settings. Existing literature has examined the essential role of teaching and leadership in the functioning of a school, teaching performance and student learning, but focuses on high-income countries. Therefore, these questions are particularly relevant for Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, which are at different stages of improvement of their education systems, but that share important challenges in their teaching and school leadership systems.
Against this backdrop, we will offer practical insights from programmes and studies, with presentations covering approaches to support teachers through distance education, educational technology (EdTech) and professional development programmes in Kenya, Uganda and Zambia, as well as a study to understand barriers to teachers' use of EdTech in Zambia. The panel provides practical examples of tools that projects having been using in order to provide teachers and schools leaders with the necessary skills, knowledge and confidence to manage the difficult challenges of providing equitable and quality teaching during the pandemic. This includes a diverse array of examples from programmes including initiatives, which: target critical thinking skills teaching, employ scenario-based approaches to contextualise teacher education in everyday work and mainstream the use of Edtech among teachers and school leaders to empower them to prepare their students for the challenges of modern life.
Recognising that equity and inclusion is a core issue in education in emergencies, our research will also explore how the different approaches can help teachers and school leaders strengthen inclusion in their schools. This is especially important in light of evidence showing that vulnerable learners, who are often from backgrounds of the lowest socio-economic status, are most at risk of exclusion and being left behind during emergencies. The panel will apply an equity lens to our research to understand the impact of the work on the most vulnerable learners.
The panel brings together presentations from stakeholders outside academia to share practical insights and gives opportunity for discussion guided by insights from civil society to apply a community-based, global perspective to the panel. The panel is chaired by UK-based independent research organisation, which helps to ensure links between the panel and wider research.
Panel presentations will focus on:
1. Outcomes from a blended approach towards training and coaching of educators in Kenya
Looking at a programme for schools in informal settlements and rural areas of Kenya, which uses a blended learning approach to strengthen schools’ leadership, improve instructional quality, and provide the infrastructure that will help create an environment where all students can develop the skills to thrive and succeed.
2. Understanding the barriers to the equitable use of education technology in Zambia during Covid-19.
Using evidence from Zambia, this paper looks the status of education technology and literacy levels among teachers, parents and learners and, along with examples of good Alternative Modes of Education Provision practices, discusses feasible mitigation strategies that guarantee equitable access for all learners.
3. ICT integration from a project in Kenya
This paper discusses a model designed to develop and implement a set of frameworks to transform secondary schools in Kenya into digital schools of distinction.
The project focuses on embedding the use of ICT to promote good teaching in STEM subjects, raising the standard of teaching and learning throughout the school, which in turn is expected to lead to improved learning outcomes and skills for students.
4. A school-based approach to supporting teachers in Uganda and Zambia
Covering lessons learned from supporting teachers during school closures, this paper uses the experience of a non-state actor in Zambia and Uganda, with data from 35 schools and over 15,000 students, and looks how supporting teachers’ wellbeing is a critical first step in their ability to effectively support students.
5. A Whole System Approach to Skills Enhancement for Improved Resilience and Lifelong Learning: Lessons from Uganda teacher and head teacher training programme
The project focuses on a programme of training aiming to embed critical thinking skills in Ugandan classrooms through a teacher professional development and a leadership programme. The programmes worked with the government stakeholders to ensure sustainability of its outputs.

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