POSITION PAPER ON INCLUSIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

Transcription

1 POSITION PAPER ON INCLUSIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

2 TEN/MET POSITION PAPER ON INCLUSIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT Background Tanzania Education Network links over 163 educational organizations (national NGOs, CBOs, FBOs, other NGOs found in the districts) and international NGOs to promote quality education in Mainland Tanzania. Emphasis is on carrying out advocacy work among education stakeholders to influence and solicit support for the improvement of basic education across the nation. Apparently, it is difficult to talk of quality education without underlining Inclusive Education (IE). Recently, TEN/ MET has given special attention to I E by making it the main theme of the 7 th Quality Education Conference (QEC) in June Then followed the Quality Education High Level Meeting (early August 2014) that convened key decision makers in education to reflect on what was discussed in the QEC. Both forums worked with the following sub-themes: (i) Concepts and conceptions about Inclusive Education (ii) Teaching and learning environment (iii) Language of teaching and learning (iv) Policies that relate to IE. The papers that were presented and the discussions conducted in both forums stimulated the need for extended dialogue to clarify meanings and to develop strategies for articulation. It was noted that there was a major shift of paradigm from taking IE as the initiative to integrate children with disability to understanding it as giving equal opportunity for all to acquire quality education. A new awareness was developed that IE had to include the marginalized groups: girls, people oppressed by poverty, the gifted, the learners with disabilities and many other groups. Poverty appeared to be the major alienating factor. That line of thinking propelled TEN/MET to hold yet another meeting of stakeholders (end of August 2014) to focus on Inclusive Learning Environment in Tanzania. The meeting laid the ground work for writing a position paper that concretizes the extended dialogue. The draft position paper stated five stand-points taken by TEN/MET regarding the Inclusive Learning Environment in Tanzania. These are affirmations that show the objective condition under which the Tanzanian learners get their education. It is the conviction of TEN/MET that collective spirit and effort can alleviate the denial of quality education by changing the learning environment. The climate of learning is complex in that it is constituted by: (i) how people understand IE (ii) how the policies enhance its development (iii) how teachers shape or destroy the learning environment (iv) infrastructure, facilities and materials (v) how the language of thinking and learning affects the quality of learning. This position paper is arranged according the standpoints. Position One Many people still hold the wrong meaning of Inclusive Education (IE) as the integration of children with disabilities into the normal school. Correctly, IE is the provision of quality education that takes care of the diverse needs of all learners. This means giving equal opportunity to all learners, including the marginalized groups: the poor, the talented and those with disabilities. Mind sets shape the environment for learning. Education is still wrongly looked at as a competitive area where only the fit can belong. It is seen as a standardized field that does not take all people with their diverse needs. Until now very few people accept the fact that everyone has the right to contribute to knowledge (Doll, 1983). It was only until recently that the world engaged in Education For All and then Education for Sustainable Development (UNESCO, 2009). But who are the All? This question still nags the bureaucrats and academics that plan for education. Education needs to be humanized in order to make every human being able to shed light on the world s/he lives in (Boss et al, 1977). We need to borrow the Heideggerian thinking of beingness. Every human being has the right to shed light on the lived world and what fills it. Then that sense of being shapes interpersonal relations and finally everyone has to relate to his/her own inner-self. In a nut shell, education is about consciousness and harmonious living together. Education is not meant for the selected few. It is for all that live in this world. No one should be excluded from rightful consciousness in life. Formalized literacies through schooling have excluded many people for ages. Schools have been institutions with standardized content (Bernstein, 1971). Curricula are heavily structured and abstracted into specific subjects, not harmoniously related to the lived experience. The framing of knowledge excludes many people from contributing to it. Even those who get access to school are still excluded in one way or another in the classroom interaction. Traditional teaching procedures are not aware that learners have diverse learning tastes and inclination according to their unique apprehensions of their lived worlds. Howard Gardner identifies these inclinations as multiple intelligences (Fisher, 1995). But, again, the many walks of life in Tanzania, 1 Position Paper on Inclusive Learning Environment

3 and in the world, tend to exclude many people from quality education (Mhando, 2014; Mkonongwa, 2014). In Tanzania, the most outstanding features of exclusion from quality education can be seen in: social stratification, gender, geographical location, ethnic identities, religious containment, street children, child workers, HIV/AIDS and systemic structures e.g. restrictive pedagogical practices, assessment and examinations, rigid timetables, homes and hotels, school feeding, motivation and punishment. The list is hard to exhaust. There are those who could doubt the viability of the paradigm shift from exclusion to inclusion. They have fears that if poverty and rural life are taken as major categories of exclusion from quality education, then Tanzania might be condemned as one of the cases that shall hardly achieve IE. About 70% of the Tanzanian population is rural, and this assumingly complicates the vision and ambition to realize IE. This doubt is worsened by those who have the misconception that IE is about mixing all kinds of students, including those with severe mental and physical challenges, in one classroom. They have a stereotyped view of education, generalizing that learning is about homogeneous groups and approaches. Indeed, IE considers school as a learning community that has to arrange for social sharing, but learning has to be arranged according to identified diverse needs. IE is not about chaotic gathering of learners. The truth is that there cannot be established an exclusive community of the heavily challenged. Learning communities are about living together harmoniously and not socially excluding any one of us. IE is about building capacity to live together and to learn from each other. Our uniqueness can be organized to enrich the unity and variety of our unlimited human experience. Indeed, the universe has its own center, but in each one of us there is that center (Solzhenitsyn, 1974). Fears have been raised about how the school personnel shall be arranged to sufficiently cater for the diverse needs of all the learners. The solution is not to just let go and forget about our unique endowments. That is why the dialogue has to be extended and efforts have to be made now to ensure that inclusiveness is a necessary condition of quality education. Bureaucrats tend to shy away from IE with the argument that it puts too many demands on the government budget. And indeed our education budgets are slimmer than they should be. Governments argue that our poverty has to be addressed from broader angles than education. But it should be understood that poverty can only be eradicated by developing the human capital, as it is the one that can change all other factors of human development. Inclusive education is the heart of human capital. TEN/MET strongly contends that quality education has to be understood as the empowerment of all the people, regardless of their diversities. All education stakeholders have to join forces towards the development of human capital to the finest detail. Position Two Our education policies have not yet made it clear that competence is the ability to think and act. Therefore, there is little understanding on the competence based curriculum. The learning environment is inclined to the banking hangover, drilling and memorizing content. That is why even our assessment and examinations have failed to facilitate quality education. The examinations are strictly based on paper and pen and they cheaply stereotype the learners, assuming that they all are homogeneous. The school culture is guided by policies, curricula and regulations. These are supposed to define the profile of the intended citizen. Profiles bear identities that show the hand prints and foot prints of the experiences of the learning community (Wenger, 1998). Therefore, knowledge is always situated. Those who plan for what the people need to know in order to live and progress together must understand the view of the world of the society in question (Lundgren, 1983). Globalization has confused our designers of curricula to the extent of alienating the people s experience and abstracting knowledge into illusions. This alienation and abstraction excludes many people from quality education. The Tanzanian Education and Training Policy acknowledges Education for Self-reliance as the philosophy to guide education in Tanzania. However, the content of the curriculum and of the classroom practices does not emphasize on becoming self-reliant (Nyerere, 1968). Our education is not based on learners developing knowledge from participating in community activities. Knowledge seems to be in books and not in life. Quality education has to be based on hands-on experiences of the learners in their society (Down, 2008). Learners need to be strong in their applied competences (Kimaryo, 2011; Mhando, 2012). These applied competences have to combine practical competence (can do), foundational competence (can explain the principles behind actions) and reflexive competence (can innovate under changing circumstances). The Tanzanian curriculum claims to be competence-based, but there is every cause to suspect its relation to the description of competence given above. Competence is necessarily the ability to think and act. Even the modes of assessment used in the school education are not in line with applied competence. There is no mention of rubrics, performance charts or check lists to verify what the learners can do, how they can explain the principles and how they can show the levels of innovation under changing circumstances (Arter and McTighe, 2001). Most of the assessment tools used are reinforcing banking. Learners spend most of their time cramming model answers Position Paper on Inclusive Learning Environment 2

4 for past examination papers and end up with shallow rather than deep understanding (Marton and Saljo, 1997). The curriculum is based on traditional subjects and has little or no inclination to aesthetics and life skills (Meena, 2014). Creativity is not featured in what is taught in the classroom and assessed in their continuous development or examined at the end of the programs (Lindstrom, 2003). The educational authorities defend their curricula and assessment in many ways. They argue that standardization is very important for them to be able to select students for continuous education. It is also largely believed that the refined competence based model is meant for the teaching of handcrafts. Curriculum designers, teachers and examination boards have a very narrow understanding of theories on the competence based approach. Many of them condemn the approach as confusing and not giving clear evidence of learners accumulation of knowledge. Still there are many people who believe that the traditional approaches are easier to follow. And a good number of the decision makers think it will be too costly to spend the scarce resources on disseminating the changing paradigms. This kind of confusion has complicated educational practices in the country and it is hard to plan for quality education. TEN/MET insists that joint effort has to be invested in order to have policy and theoretical inclinations clarified for the goal of achieving quality education for all. Resignation and stagnation in traditions cannot raise the quality of education. Position Three Teachers can create or destroy the teaching/learning environment. Our teachers are poorly trained, poorly facilitated (developed) and poorly motivated. The pre-set and inset programs are not in tune with the shift of paradigm in IE. It is necessary to understand teaching in order to judge how it can create or destroy the learning environment. Teaching was traditionally known as the act of filling learners with selected information that could be reproduced at the end of the program. In this way learners were regarded as empty vessels and their teachers as donors of knowledge. In the shift of paradigm from teaching to learning, teachers roles have been reinterpreted. Learners are now taken as the makers of meanings for their own lives. Teachers only become supporters to their learners in the act of making sense in the lived world. Teachers who impose or impart meanings can destroy the learning environment. Good teachers create suitable environment for the learners to make meanings and harmonize them with other meanings in the community of practices. Teachers have to be understood as supporters of meaning makers. Bruner looks at teaching as scaffolding in the building of meanings (Fisher, 1995). Scaffolds do not build, but they are necessary for the builders to stand on to reach heights. Feinstein in Fisher (1995) is portrayed as understanding teachers as mediators. Learners need experts to mediate them with the learning matter on one side and with the learning process on the other side. Indeed teachers that are not skilful in the act of mediation can pollute the learning environment and corrupt the making of meanings. Constructivists believe that learners can make meanings on their own to a certain extent without the support of experts. Beyond that extent they need the help of a teacher. Vigotsky calls the gap between what the learners can learn independently and what they can learn with the help of experts (teachers) the Zone of Proximal Development (Good, 1998). Teachers help to close gaps between what the learners know and what they want to know. They can arrange for learners to make the next step forward. Our teachers are poorly trained and cannot perform to the extent suggested above. The results from TEN/MET forums reveal that we need teachers who are transformative intellectuals (Giroux, 1998) in order to manage inclusive education. They must be independent in their thinking and be guided by informed wisdom (praxis) that grows from reflection on action and reflection in action (Schon, 2005). They must reflect on theory in order to have informed practices and then illuminate on their own practices in order to improve theory. They should not depend on memorized procedures carried down from their training and curricula. Teaching as a transformative commitment is not mere transfer of knowledge. It is the development of a reflective subject/individual rather than a reflected object/content (Carlgren, 1991). Teaching involves negotiation of intentions of the curriculum, of the texts, of the community, of the learners in their uniqueness and then of the teacher her/himself. This kind of negotiation is necessary for IE and cannot be managed by a teacher that is not epistemologically aware, pedagogically knowledgeable, reflective and independent. However, we still have many people in the decision-making system that think that anyone who is good at his specific subject can make a teacher. This is a misconception that undermines the development of inclusive learning environment. Such people think that candidates meant to join teacher education can be recruited from the cadre of low passes at exit high school examinations. With this kind of recruitment, it can be difficult to develop teachers that are transformative. In that way, transformative initiatives like IE can be misunderstood as unnecessary complication of schooling. When we have weak teachers we also dilute the value of all other professions; teachers are the foundation on which every technology and profession stands. TEN/MET affirms 3 Position Paper on Inclusive Learning Environment

5 that teachers must be competently trained/developed, properly facilitated and adequately motivated while working. The excuses that teachers are too many to be financially motivated are meaningless. The postmodern era of the knowledge society cannot avoid teachers who are good negotiators of diverse meanings that fill the present global knowledge culture. Our teacher education and teacher practices must assume a new perspective in pedagogy (science of teaching) and didactics (inquiry on teaching). We have to watch out that our deteriorating knowledge culture does not push us to the delicate and frustrating fringes of a networking world (Castells, 1998). Position Four Infrastructure, learning/teaching materials and human relations in the schools are not friendly to IE. Also little priority is given to learners with special needs, including experts and materials for Braille skills, sign and tactile languages as well as assisting devices e.g. canes and wheelchairs. It does not need to be emphasized that infrastructure in our schools is discouraging. The buildings in the schools are inadequate and the ones that are available are not friendly to people with special needs. The walk ways and stairs become a major obstacle to physically challenged people. There are many problems with furniture schools do not have enough desks for the learners. Toilet and water facilities are very hostile, especially to girls. The classrooms are overcrowded even when the teacher-pupil ratio is prescribed to be 1:45. In some schools the ratio can rise to 1:80. This appalling condition sets contexts that do not encourage quality education (UNESCO, 2009). Textbooks are very important in the learning environment. First and foremost, the pupil- book ration must be convenient. The primary Education Development Plan had prescribed a ratio of one book to three pupils, but this has not been practical in many schools. In some schools the distribution of books is so poor that more than six students have to share one book. Sometimes learners in a group are forced to read the book upside down. The funny story is that in some districts books are provided but teachers preserve them in the cupboards for fear that pupils might spoil them (Palme and Hojlund, 1998). It has also been noticed that textbooks, especially in primary school mathematics and science, have major errors in concepts and language. There is a continuing debate on who should write textbooks and how many books per subject to be allowed. The multi-textbook practice seems to confuse the teachers. Teachers are not conversant with the taxonomies that help in organizing teaching and learning (Mhando, 2012). The only taxonomy that seems to be faintly familiar to the teachers is the Bloom s Taxonomy. Even that one is not regularly used. There is lack of pedagogical literature to inform the teachers, especially at this time when there are shifts of paradigm from teaching to learning. The current shift of paradigm, basing on constructivism, puts emphasis on situated learning that uses the physical and social contexts as material for learning (Wenger, 1998). Teachers are not adequately empowered to use contexts for the development of knowledge. This weakness on the part of teachers alienates learners from their rightful identities. In the same manner, school learning is not closely linked with the parents and community. There is suspicion that even school feeding initiatives have failed in many schools because teachers have not been able to influence parents cooperation. Learners cannot make meanings on empty stomachs. Authorities have their defence regarding failures in infrastructure and materials that control the learning environment. There are excuses that insufficient funds cannot support the improvement of the learning environment. Many learners with special needs are denied of necessary facilities e.g. wheelchairs, white cans, Braille machines, and many other assisting facilities. More so, there is inadequacy of experts in special needs (Mnyanyi, 2014). TEN/MET is convinced that there is very little awareness on IE and that is why quality education has not been given its proper attention. All education stakeholders need a new awakening about IE as a human right in order to have commitments. A new understanding might change decision-makers attitude towards public conspicuous spending. Much money is wasted in buying expensive cars for officials, allowances for unnecessary travel and redundant meetings; also poorly planned seminars run by the cascade model whose effect does not reach the intended people. Careful spending could change the status of the learning environment. Position Five People think clearly and learn in the language they know best; the status of Kiswahili as a language of thinking and learning has not been clarified in the Education Policy. Therefore, the language system confuses the learning environment at all levels of schooling in Tanzania. Theory and experience show that Tanzanian learners can express themselves better in Kiswahili than in English. However, there is hesitancy in using Kiswahili as a medium of instruction in post-primary education. Position Paper on Inclusive Learning Environment 4

6 Before joining pre-primary school most of the children in the rural areas use their vernaculars. Therefore, most of the Tanzanian learners have to undergo two language transitions in their education. The journey from vernacular to Kiswahili and then from Kiswahili to English can be very frustrating, if the learners are supposed to engage in participatory classroom activities (Mtana, 2014). Learners are found in a double conflict. First, there is the conflict between the known concepts and their new versions. Teachers are supposed to assist their learners in positively handling the cognitive conflict (Sahlberg, 2002). Then there is the conflict between the first language and the new language. The processing of meanings (cognitive reflection and meta-reflection) can be facilitated or inhibited by the status of language proficiency of the learner (Cummins, 1996). Therefore, the language conflict can complicate the cognitive conflict. This is because in the transitions, the learner may experience linguistic and cultural discontinuities (McKeon, 2007). Meaning making needs harmonious growth by expanded dialogue. Explanations in the classrooms cannot be understood without seeing how, through language, they fit into yet broader scale explanations. Explanations exist on many time scales all at once (Ogbon et al. 1997). Language is supposed to be a tool for learning, but when students are forced to use a language they have not mastered, it turns to be a weapon against them (Msofe, 2001). The question arises as to why Kiswahili has not been adopted as the medium of instruction in the entire Tanzanian education system, if English has failed (Rubagumya, 2001). It is suspected that the elite want to retain English as a medium of instruction so that the foreign language serves as a gate-keeper for their interests. English can be used as an instrument of exclusion; to block the marginalised from gate-crushing into elitist positions and privileges. Indeed, the elite have struggled to protect English with the excuses that it is the language of globalization. They even falsely glorify it as the language of knowledge. It is very unfortunate to believe that knowledge is in the English language. There is a scenario where university students of engineering and medicine are asked about language use. They admit that when a topic becomes difficult and they have to discuss it in their hostels, they use Kiswahili. Asked why they do so, they say that they can clarify the concepts among themselves better in Kiswahili. Asked, again, why they do not simply use Kiswahili with their Tanzanian lecturers, they say that English is the academic language at university level. Implicitly the argument that Kiswahili does not have the right kind of vocabulary collapses. Perhaps our educators and policy makers have problems in understanding the relationship between language and thinking. Unfortunately even the defenders of English are not sufficiently proficient and fluent in the English language. Most of them have cultural gaps in their use of the English language. Mostly they use English words, but they do not achieve refined meanings in the English language. It is at this point that TEN/MET believes that Kiswahili should be given its proper status as the medium of thinking and learning in Tanzania. This does not mean to abandon English. In fact, English should be properly taught as a language of communication. Until now it is not clear whether Tanzanians teach English as a second or as a foreign language. The approach matters quite a lot. Proper mastery of Kiswahili can serve as a strong foundation for learning English and other foreign languages. The Scandinavian countries have been successful in using their languages as medium of learning at all levels of schooling. But they also have good command of English as a foreign language. Windows of hope Tanzanians do not have to despair about developing favourable inclusive learning environment. In the first place, the government has shown political will towards IE. There is the Big Results Now (BRN) initiative that has set strategies for quality education. The government had initiated the Complementary Basic Education in Tanzania (COBET) project to mainstream school drop-outs, and now it intends to have partnership with nonstate agencies to actualize the same intention. The Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (MOEVT) works together with non-state agencies in addressing the IE question. Non-state agencies are free to organize in Tanzania. It is this kind of freedom that allows TEN/MET and others to carry out their advocacy without fear of severe censorship. The press is also free to give promoting and critical comment on educational development. There are many experiments by non-state agencies in alleviating exclusion from quality education. The government is encouraged to study them and emulate their experiences accordingly. The Tanzanian economy is growing, especially with the hope seen in mineral prospecting, and the returns might boost initiatives in inclusive learning environment. 5 Position Paper on Inclusive Learning Environment

7 REFERENCES Arter, J. and Mc Tighe, J Scoring Rubrics in the Classroom. Cornwin Press Inc. Thousand Oaks, California. USA. Bernstein, B On the Classification and Framing of Educational Knowledge. Boss, M. et al in (Ed.) Sahakian, W. Psychology of Personality: Readings in Theory. Rand Mc.Nally College Publishing Company. Chicago. USA. Carlgren, I Professionalism and Teachers as Designers. Journal of Curriculum Studies. Vol. 31 No. 1. Castells, M The Rise of the Networking Society. Blackwell Publishers. Oxford. UK. Cummins, J Knowledge, power and identity in teaching English as a second language. In (Ed.) Genesee and F. Educating. Second Language Children: the whole child, the whole curriculum, the whole community. Cambridge University Press. Doll, W A Post-Modern Perspective on Curriculum. Teachers College Press. Columbia University Press, NY. Down, L Extending the Constructive Paradigm: A new Approach to Learning and Teaching for Sustainable Development. Caribean Journal of Education Vol. 1 No.30. Fisher, R Teaching Children to Learn. Nelson Thornes Ltd. UK Giroux, H Teachers as Transformative Intellectuals. in Giroux,H. Teachers as Intellectuals. Bergin and Harvey. Good, D How Children Think and Learn. Blackwell Publishers. UK. Griffith, M Action for Social Justice in Education: Fairly Different. Open University Press. Philadelphia, USA. Kimaryo, L Integrating Environmental Education in Tanzania: Teachers Perceptions and Teaching Practices. Abo Akademi University. Finland. Lindstrom, L Creativity: What is it? Can teachers assess it? Can it be taught? In (Ed.) Rogala, W. and Selander, S. Technology as a challenge for school curricula. Lundgren, U Between Hope and Happening. Deakin University. Marton, F. and Saljo, R Approaches to Learning in (Eds.) Marton, F. et al. The Experience of Learning. Scottish Academic Press. Edinburgh. McKeown, R. (Ed) Good Practices in Teacher Education Institutions: Education for Sustainable development in Action. UNESCO Education Sector. Meena, W A Walk to Inclusive Curriculum. Paper presented at the Quality Education Conference (June 2014). TEN/MET website www. tenmet.org Mhando, E Reflective Teacher: Essays on Education. Elimu Reflective Networks. Morogoro. Tanzania. Mhando, E Extending Inclusive Education Beyond Known Disabilities. Paper presented at the Quality Education Conference (June 2014). TEN/MET website Mkonongwa, L Inclusive Education in Tanzania: Is it well understood and implemented? Paper presented at the Quality Education Conference (June 2014). TEN/MET website Mnyanyi, C Inclusice Education Policy Review: The Road to Improving Quality of Education. Paper presented at the Quality Education Conference (June 2014). TEN/MET website Msofe, L Consequences of language of instruction in teacher training: An overview of in-service programmes in Southern Tanzania. in (Eds. Hojlund, G., Mtana,N., Mhando,E.). Practices and Possibilities in Teacher Education in Tanzania. Ministry of Education and Culture. Dar es Salaam. Nyerere, J.K Ujamaa: Essays on Socialism. Oxford University Press, Dar es Salaam. Ogbon, Jon et al Explaining Science in the Classroom. Open University Press. Philadephia. USA. Palme, M. and Hojlund, G Textbook Usability in Tanzanian Basic Education. Stockholm Institute of Education, Graphium Consult and Opifer Tanzania HB. Rubagumya, C The Language of Teaching and Learning in Tanzania: Implications for Teacher Education. in (Eds. Hojlund, G., Mtana,N., Mhando,E.). Practices and Possibilities in Teacher Education in Tanzania. Ministry of Education and Culture. Dar es Salaam. Sahilberg, P Reading Package for LATE MOEC. Dar es Salaam. Schon, Donald The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Thik in Action. Ashgate Publishing Ltd. UK. Solzhenitsyn, A The Gulag Archipelago. Harper & Row Publishers. New York. UNESCO Review of Contexts and Structures for education for Sustainable Development. Learning for a sustainable world. UNESCO. Paris. Wade, R. and Parker, P EFA-ESD Dialogue: Education for a sustainable world. Education for Sustainable Development Policy Dialogue No.1. UNESCO. Paris. Wenger. E Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning and Identity. Cambridge University Press, UK. Position Paper on Inclusive Learning Environment 6

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