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Following from engagement with Decision makers in TVET, a TVET Instructor training was done on the 15Th September, 2023 at Bucolic Resort in Adjumani District- West Nile region. The training was facilitated by Backup Uganda- a non- governmental organization that focuses on inclusive education and inclusivity at large. This training was attended by various professionals instructing TVET to refugees in the Northern region of Uganda. The targeted number of participants was 30 and people that managed to show up were 35, of the 35 participants 12 were males and 22 females. It is also important that three were persons with disabilities.
The training emerged as a result of the DRIVE Research that indicated that refugees living with disabilities have very few learning and career pathway opportunities beyond primary school. Many of them are pushed into a range of formal, informal, and non-formal TVET programs, however the programs largely do not meet their needs- especially girls and women. Thus, we developed the idea of this professional development training. A major goal of this one day training was to engage instructors to start thinking about a style of teaching that is inclusive of all learners.
Prior to the training, we invited participants to fill in a survey related to their prior knowledge and experience. Here are some of their responses
You can give the survey a try yourself if you are interested
SUMMARY OF TOPICS COVERED IN THE TRAINING:
Introduction of relevance & purpose of training, brief background of disabled refugee students in Uganda.
Universal Design for Learning in TVET
Differentiated instruction and assessment in TVET
Promoting accessible workplace experiences for TVET students
Addressing bullying and discrimination in places of learning
Plenary brainstorm about a professional learning community.
The main activity objective was capacity built in relation to inclusive curriculum, pedagogy and assessment practices in TVET and by the end of the training session, every instructor was to be able to:
Understand what a universal design means and how it looks like in the context of teaching.
Understand differentiated instruction in the context of the different teaching methods.
Be able to know how to design an inclusive lesson plan.
Understand the different concept of exclusion, segregation, integration, inclusion, ableism, dis-ableism and reasonable accommodation.
Understand the different impairments and disorders.
Universal Design for Learning in TVET
When explaining the concepts of Exclusion, Segregation, Integration and Inclusion. We identified groups and asked each group to have both left and right handed people to bring out the explanation of the four concepts clearly, and other groups were able to bring out the explanations so well.
A presentation was done on universal design for learning and the differentiated teaching methods that are tailored to meet diverse needs and abilities of the different learners and also exploring individuality to include remedial teaching that helps the struggling learners to catch up .
An experience was shared by an instructor who applied a differentiated learning approach on his student who failed the DIT and they agreed on specific training on practical in mechanics and the student is now a supervisor at Daniel Comboni institute.
Another instructor shared a story of a boy who stopped in P.6, was struggling, repeated class and finally was taken to do wiring since that was where his interest was and right now he is in Arua he is one of the best people in wiring and he is soon going to Kenya to upgrade his skills to do wiring on large vehicles like trailers.
Concepts on Ableism and Disablism were explained
Ableism can be referred to as discrimination in favor of able-bodied people. It involves making assumptions about what people with disabilities can and can do, particularly, assuming that everyone ca for example climb up stairs of a building.
Disableism is discriminatory, oppressive, abusive behaviour arising from the belief that disabled people are inferior to others.
Intersectionality
This is where different aspects of your life come together to affect you . All the participants were tasked to draw on a piece of paper their name and draw lines towards the name with the different aspects of their life that includes being a man/woman, sex, education etc and few individuals were tasked to present to the other participants how intersectionality affects them.
A participant said she is fat, disabled and talkative. She said that the hardest part is society stigmatising her because of her disability.
A participant said he is a man and he is single which is a disadvantage, He is also talkative which is also a disadvantage. He wants to be his own employer.
Differentiated instruction and assessment
When explaining about differentiated instruction and assessment, we asked participants to create an inclusive lesson plan based on the principles of the universal design for learning and differentiation. One of the participants came and illustrate how the lesson plan would look like as the other members participated in making the lesson plan though they did not come out with what was asked.
Individualized support plan: It's looking at what can be done to help an individual understand and learn better. That includes asking questions and getting feedback from the learner and the people close to them for purposes of understanding the specific learning needs.
Inclusive assessment : Assessing learners based on examinations. Use of only practical as an examination for DIT for the learners who struggle with theoretical work, use of oral examinations as a form of assessing learners who are struggling with writing and reading or specific visual problems.
Another explanation was done on different learning difficulties and disabilities where all the groups were to discuss how easy, moderate or difficult it is for them to identify and hang it on a rope labelled with hard, moderate and easy, which participants actively participated.
Easy to understand included physical impairment, Dyslexia, communication disorders, visual impairment, hearing impairment, disruptive behavior disorders, motor and coordination disorders, ADHD (Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder).
Moderate to understand included Autism spectrum disorder ( struggling with communications and emotions) and Anxiety depressive disorders .
Hard to understand included cognitive impairment (affects intellectual functioning ) and Dyscalculia .
One of the participants asked for the differences between impairment, disorder and disability and was explained. An impairment is a condition that someone suffers from and disorder is something you have experienced for a longer period of time and is unusual and disability is the inability to perform and we added that you can suspect someone with a disorder but diagnosis is done from the hospital.
Addressing bullying and discrimination in places of learning.
Forbidden words
These are words that are used by parents, teachers and friends that insult, discriminate or describe people in a negative way. Every one is the room was give a chance to write a forbidden word on a a piece of paper, some of the words that were said included stupid, dumb, good good for nothing, disabled boy, big head, skinny or fat girl, that slow one , incompetent, orphan child, you refugees and many others.
After mentioning and writing these words, they participants were asked to crumple that paper on which the words were written and throw it in a trash bin. This signified that theses particular words were never going to be used again because they do not add anything to the learners or another person but rather are discriminatory and make people feel bad about themselves. The instructors were to try and get names of the learners to avoid use of such words.
How to address bullying.
Participants were asked to discuss the ways how bulling an be addressed, the following ways were suggested:
Share the knowledge obtained from the workshop to colleagues and learners that did not attend.
Sensitize learners about the effects of bullying to understand why it should not be done to the fellow students, persons with disabilities in particular.
Introduce counselling session to help deal with the cases of bulling. Some learners may have been hurt by bullies but have no one to talk to, counselling may be of some help.
Instructors to be ambassadors of inclusivity in their different schools that they teach in.
Policies against bullying and discrimination in schools that come with heavy penalties for those who fail to adhere.
Promoting accessible workplace experiences for TVET students
The participants were asked to form three groups and each group was assigned a question to deal with;
Group 1 to design the least accessible classroom/workplace for a group of students that includes female refugee students with disabilities.
Group 2 to design the least accessible training/teaching materials for a group of students that includes male refugee students with disabilities (Textbook, Audio/Video, computer ,black and white board that are all not disability friendly).
Group 3 to design the least accessible teaching methods & approaches/conceptualization for a group of students that includes both male and female refugee students with disabilities (No asking questions, Teachers doing the talking)
To design the least accessible classroom/workplace for a group of students that includes female refugee students with disabilities.
Participants designed a school building surrounded by a bar, potholes, stones, trees all over the school compound, market place and latrine very that is far and the road by the school is busy with no posters at all. The classrooms have stair cases only with no rumps
Group to design the least accessible training/teaching materials for a group of students that includes male refugee students with disabilities (Textbook, Audio/Video, computer ,black and white board that are all not disability friendly).
Participants working on the least accessible training teaching materials. They do not cater for persons with disabilities in any way.
Participants working on the least accessible training teaching materials. They do not cater for persons with disabilities in any way.
Group 3 to design the least accessible teaching methods & approaches/conceptualization for a group of students that includes both male and female refugee students with disabilities (No asking questions, Teachers doing the talking)
The teacher is using lecture method to teach and presenting to the class. He is not writing on the blackboard even when it is there. Most of the learners are bored and are sleeping, others are playing, standing up and doing all sorts of things.
Next steps/actions following activity
Share a copy of the findings of the report with the participants.
Depending on any further training, to handle specific learning disabilities since an overview of different learning difficulties and disabilities was done.
Work on the sample of an inclusive lesson plan. The tutor/ instructors to work on and always use an inclusive lesson plan for all their lessons.
About the plenary brainstorm about a professional learning community, the WhatsApp group used
Other comments
Most schools and institutions do not understand inclusion fully.
It is hard to know certain types of impairments in children because of class sizes which makes it hard for teachers to observe for example visual impairment.
Stigmatisation of disabled persons by the society as they are discriminated against and not thought of as worthy to have a family of their own and be loved
Need to have different means of engagement to include texts, audios for learners and be conscious of the type of interaction that involves everyone, not just an individual.
Learnt to be patient towards people with disabilities
Awareness to parents on how to handle persons with disabilities.
Self acceptance of persons with disabilities.
Sensitising learners about negative effects of discrimination and bullying.
Raising awareness in our spaces of influence.
To try and implement what has been learnt in the workshop
Updating school rules to deal with cases of discrimination and bullying.
Teachers should incorporate the knowledge acquired in daily teaching and being mindful of the classroom environment in terms of disabilities and difficulties.
Learned to recognize the ability in the disability. Persons with disabilities are able todo some things for themselves and are not completely helpless.
Learn to first ask if we can help people with difficulties and disabilities and not just rush in.
Train the learners to handle certain things on their own because good people will always be there.
Learn to respect everyone regardless of where they are or who they are and try to show love.
Lessons learned:
What are the lessons learned and knowledge gained?
A Lot of need for meaningful engagement for POCS.
Group work coupled with role plays work better for understanding concepts like Exclusion, Segregation, integration and inclusion.
Most schools and institutions do not fully understand the full meanings of inclusion.
It is very helpful to always hear from persons with disabilities they themselves share their experience.
TVET needs to put more effort on guiding their instructors on how to design a lesson plan and more so inclusive.
The knowledge about the different impairments and disorders was very helpful to the participants as it helped them to differentiate between what they thought was a disability and the reality. For example when one of the participants asked whether kissing someone without their consent was ADHD.
We shared these resources for them to use in their own practice.
Slides for Teacher Educators in Uganda.pptxOpen Education Resource for Ugandan teacher educators.docxNB: This event was reported on by ne of the media personalities that was present during the course of the training. The link to the document https://www.radiopacis.org/en/news/-130
Copy of SCHEME OF WORK AND LESSON PLAN SAMPLE.docxSummaries Learning Difficulties - children.docxPage updated
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