Empowerment through Action: Preserving the Teaching Workforce and Indigenous Practices

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

While protests can occur based on a number of reasons - grievances, efficacy, identity, emotions, and social embeddedness - they all stem from a place of perceived necessity. In recent years, teachers around the world have protested for higher compensation, improved working conditions, and increased investment in countries’ education systems. However, very few policy or leadership changes have occurred following protests. Given the impact of teachers, especially as it relates to student learning, inaction to better support teachers and education at large is concerning.

Nonetheless, as teachers continue to voice their concerns, there is a shift to increasingly engage communities to generate local solutions. Community engagement and localization can be transformative to education and lead to innovative solutions, community support, more equitable outcomes, and sustainability. This panel will explore ongoing protests by teachers and discuss practical, localized approaches to education and teacher development in Tajikistan, Kenya, and South Africa.

In Tajikistan, teachers and school directors are silently protesting by voting with their feet. Due to inadequate support and capacity building to effectively support learners, student learning outcomes and teacher motivation and retention have suffered. Notably, their silent protest is exemplified through the leaving of the teaching profession and migrating to other countries. Research conducted by the USAID/Tajikistan Learn Together Activity (LTA) details both the causes of the silent protest, as well as links between teacher qualifications, the working environment, and improved teacher engagement and retention. Moreover, LTA will share tools that have allowed them to successfully build trust amongst all actors in the education ecosystem, creating a platform for advocacy and effective reform.

The second presentation on this panel builds on the need for teacher and school leader support, and centers local education actors. Dignitas, a Kenya-based organization committed to empowering educators to lead school transformation, implores the importance of alignment between local context and culture and teacher development. As such, they will showcase the development of and findings from their Coaching at Scale study. Enabling collective understanding and indigenous models of leadership and school improvement, this study resulted in evidence for sustainable, locally-driven school improvement. Dignitas will share how local school leadership can be a critical lever in shifting power to local communities.

Similarly, Axium Education is working to ensure power is in the hands of the community. Through their Nobalisa program, Axium Education will present a local solution to school improvement that simultaneously addresses other issues in the community. This program, which is being implemented in rural South Africa, allows post-school youth to support primary school learners to read in their mother tongue (isiXhosa). Their localized approach to teaching has resulted in students outperforming their peers in reading by as much as three times. Nobalisa serves as an exemplar for effective community engagement in education, in turn improving foundational literacy and numeracy skills, combating youth unemployment, and addressing the decline in South Africa’s teaching workforce.

This panel brings together both researchers and practitioners who will present study findings and share details on approaches to empower teachers, school leaders, and communities, and develop localized solutions to challenges impacting education.

Sub Unit

• General Pool

Organizer

• Ashley Hill, Chemonics International

Chair

• Emerson Mohr, Chemonics International

Individual Presentations

• There are more Teachers than Teachers - Melanie Smuts, One World Network of Schools

• Strengthening School Leadership: Meaningfully Embedding Teacher Development and Support in Schools for Improved Learning Outcomes - Deborah Kimathi, DIGNITAS LIMITED; Nancy Gikandi, Dignitas

Discussant

• Jackson Wu-Pong, Chemonics International