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For more details about any of these projects please contact CIE
cie@educ.umass.edu
[Revised
January
2001] Development
Projects Internationalizing
U.S. Education Custom
Training Programs LSI and Even
Start
Azerbaijan Training in Participatory Monitoring & Evaluation
In the summer of 2000, the Center
for International Education conducted 
training
in participatory monitoring and evaluation (PM&E) for
project officers in a community mobilization program in
Azerbaijan. Funded by USAID through Save the
Children/Azerbaijan, this program is intended to facilitate
the empowerment of communities of people displaced from
their homes within Azerbaijan because of the war with
Armenia. 
These
internally-displaced persons (IDPs) live in desperate
conditions, aggravated by the waning prospects of peace.
Save the Children's initiative focuses on building capacity
and leadership within the communities to foster their health
and economic well-being. CIE was contracted to train staff
(project managers and officers) in participatory evaluation
methods.
Implemented over two and one half weeks, the training began with a needs assessment. The master trainers interviewed all staff to ascertain their vision for strong communities, their understanding of monitoring and evaluation processes, and their current evaluation practices. From this group, we selected four officers to become co-facilitators of the full training. By preparing Azeri co-facilitators, we created a translation support base that was important for introducing new or unfamiliar concepts to the full group. This TOT training engaged participants in a short version of the full training design and focused on specific training activities to encourage participation.
The design of the full training was
participatory. The master trainers had an overall design of
processes and topics, but the specific issues came from the
participants. The purpose was to have participants
experience a participatory process that they could then use
with communities. The major goal of the first three days
wa
s
to create a monitoring and evaluation chart, envisioned as a
living document that would be modified as the project
unfolded. The elements of the chart included: objectives,
indicators, data sources, baseline measures, and benchmarks
of progress.
The master trainers designed activities to elicit from project staff objectives for the community mobilization project. Through small group work, project staff identified six. Many of these were from the contract proposal: development of community leadership; capacity to work with outside agencies for support; ability to involve all community members. Others, however, were new and creative. When these objectives were identified, the trainers facilitated the group's identification of indicators for these objectives.
As we developed important
objectives for the project, the master trainers 
underscored
how these objectives needed to respond to Save the
Children's organizational goals and strategic objectives of
USAID. They also, however, needed to incorporate the
communities' views for their own futures. On the second day,
we took field trips in groups of three to IDP communities to
learn about their desires, dreams, hopes, and concerns.
These ideas were then incorporated as additional
objectives–ones coming directly from the
communities–into the monitoring and evaluation chart.
Going directly to the communities
to elicit their perspectives was crucial for project staff
to fully understand what "participatory" means. In the past,
staff had elicited substantial evaluation information from
communities but this was more instrumental, serving
organizational purposes. Incorporating community members'
views directly into a formal instrument validated the
importance of the communities to the entire process and was,
in many cases, a profoundly moving experience for project
staff. For example, communities articulated the importance
of education for their children; project staff had not
previously
considered this an objective of healthy communities. Many
staff came away from the community visits with renewed
respect for the communities: their courage, resources,
strengths, commitments, and political savvy. Staff also
learned the importance of involving beneficiaries in
evaluating their efforts. As one community member said,
We are the best ones to evaluate what we are doing; we
know it better than anyone else.
Support for Ugandan Primary Education Reform project (SUPER)
CIE
is a major sub-contractor in a consortium
responsible for implementing project SUPER during a
seven year period from 1993 to 2000. The major
project activity is the development of an
integrated teacher support system called Teacher
Development and Management System (TDMS), which
reforms the entire structure of training and
support for primary school teachers in Uganda. The
new TDMS approach has now been implemented
nation-wide. The structure involves a national set
of catchment areas, each with a core Primary
Teachers College linked to a clusters of primary
schools. Renuka Pillay, a doctoral
candidate in CIE, has been a full-time staff member
of SUPER in Uganda for the past three years. She is
currently the project coordinator with
responsibility for completing the process of
transferring all responsibility for SUPER to the
government of Uganda. The reforms in teacher
education have now been implemented throughout all
of Uganda.
Ugandan
Teachers in a training workshop
The
reform has been unusually successful and has become
a model for other countries. The project is now
consolidating the reforms and integrating them into
the regular Ministry of Education structures. There
are many exciting innovations in TDMS which have
helped to transform the way teachers are recruited,
trained and supported in Uganda's primary
schools.
Funded by USAID,
Strengthening the Education of Girls in
India was a participatory development project
involving teachers, government officials, and
parents and community members in the design of a
training module for teachers to improve the
education of girls in villages in India. The goal
of the project was to increase girls' enrollment,
attendance, promotion, and completion of primary
school through new pedagogical practices in
schools. The project was implemented in the state
of Uttar Pradesh in northern India, the largest and
one of the most poor states in the
country. Through action research, a
core group of teacher-researchers designed and
pilot tested a teacher training module that
contains four major sections: gender sensitization,
pedagogy, transacting the curriculum, and community
mobilization. Pilot testing of the module was
conducted with 150 teachers in Maharajganj block of
Rae Bareilly, resulting in substantial changes in
classroom structures and pedagogical practices that
are more responsive to the needs of girl children
in the area. Community involvement in
the design and implementation of the project
resulted in several jathas -- community
events that raise awareness and build commitment
for girls' education. Activities associated with
the jathas include holding parades through
villages, painting placards and signs depicting
girls in a variety of roles, forming mothers'
groups, and inviting village elders and leaders to
commit to girls' education. Where implemented, the
project had considerable impact on the attitudes
and practices of primary school teachers. This
success was due, in large part, to the commitment
of Teachers' Union officials from the state,
district, and block; their endorsement and support
of the project were crucial. Because of her
commitment to the education of Indian children
living in villages, through this project and
several others, the Project Director, Dr. Urvashi
Sahni, has been awarded the prestigious
International Haas Award from the University of
California at Berkeley.
Strengthening
the Education of Girls in India
(1996-1999)
Dr. Sahni
and Dr. Rossman
Guatemala: Comunidades
Mayas Alfabetizadas (COMAL)
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COMAL is a USAID-funded collaboration between Save the Children, USA, the Center for International Education (CIE) and The Associacion de Desarrollo Juvenil Comunitario (ADEJUC). The COMAL Project is a bilingual literacy project that targets indigenous women and youth in five departments of the ZonaPaz of Guatemala: Quiche, Quetzaltenango, Totonicapan, Suchitepequez and Solola. |
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The COMAL Project is promoting bilingual literacy in the K'iche and Spanish languages through the methodology of Integrated Community Literacy (ICL). Integrated Community Literacy (ICL) refers to an approach of literacy learning programs that intentionally integrates community development topics and community issues into the literacy learning content, materials and activities. ICL seeks to build on the activities that community members are already engaged in or want to engage in by adding writing, reading and numeracy skills to their current activities. |
 Guatemalan teacher using ICL methodology |
During the year 2000, COMAL is working with fifteen partner NGO's in the five departments who have been implementing projects such as micro-credit, women's communal banking, health education, small enterprise development and women's leadership training. Partner organizations receive on-going training in innovative literacy teaching methods, support and supervision from the Technical Unit and participate in workshops that help them create literacy learning materials appropriate for ICL. |
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CIE has oversight of the
entire technical component of the project. The
Technical Unit of COMAL includes Rosa Zapeta who is
our Community Literacy Specialist, and Tony Savdie
who is our Materials Development Advisor. Joanie
Cohen-Mitchell, doctoral candidate in CIE works as
the Training and Research Coordinator and divides
her time between Guatemala and Amherst. |
 CIE doctoral candidate, Joanie Cohen-Mitchell (2nd from right), with COMAL staff members |
Global
Horizons
Global
Horizon's primary mission is to
promote a greater awareness of the world community in
Massachusetts' schools K-12 by providing global and
multicultural education curriculum resources and training to
educators throughout the Western Massachusetts region. The
project has a resource center located at the Center for
International Education at Hills South/University of
Massachusetts. The program sponsors field trips to such
places as Ellis Island/UNICEF, summer institutes, workshops,
graduate courses, and an internet web site. In addition,
Global Horizons is now an Associated Schools Project under
UNESCO vis ASPnet/USA. The Global Horizons project is funded
by the Massachusetts' Global Education Consortium under the
Massachusetts' Department of Education.
CIRCLE
- Center for
Immigrant and Refugee Community
Leadership and Empowerment
CIRCLE
is an innovative statewide partnership between newcomer
communities, the University of Massachusetts and the Office
of Refugees and Immigrants. The center in Amherst offers a
wide range of community development programs as well as
training and support services for leadership development.
The overall aim is to promote collective initiatives
benefitting the larger community while engendering an
increased sense of responsibility, pride and cultural
identity. The approaches are based on participatory action
research and participatory evaluation outcomes from working
with Cambodian, Vietnamese, Tibetan and Russian communities
for more than five years. An integrated program has been
evolved to include and link established community leaders,
newcomer youth and undergraduate/graduate students at
UMass.
Muskie
Graduate Fellows at CIE
Each year CIE welcomes a small group of fellows from the newly-independent states of the former Soviet Union. They enter a two-year masters' program which combines elements of higher education, educational administration and international education. The fellows are supported by the Muskie/Freedom Support Act Graduate Fellows program of the Bureau of Cultural and Educational Affairs of the US Department of State. The program is administered through The Open Society Institute of New York. On campus, the program is coordinated by Professor Gretchen Rossman and administered by Barbara Gravin-Wilbur. The Fellows are assigned peer advisors who facilitate their integration into the CIE and UMass communities.
We currently have six Fellows
studying with us. Tamar Mikadze and Irina Sahakyan arrived
from the
Republics of Georgia and Armenia, respectively, in the fall
of 1999. They will complete their studies this May. Tamar is
focusing her studies on Leadership in Higher Education and
Teaching and Learning in Colleges and Universities. She
augments her studies with tutoring responsibilities. Irina
is concentrating in Educational Organizations and Management
and in Languages and Cultures. Her primary focus is on
higher education management. Pictured in the middle is Dr.
Rossman the program coordinator for CIE.
This fall brought us four new
Fellows. Baktygul Ismailova comes from the Republic of
Kyrgyzstan. Bakty's focus is on 
higher
education management. Silva Kurtisa, from the Republic of
Latvia, is concentrating on international education. Azat
Muradov comes from the Republic of Turkmenistan; he is
studying Curriculum Development and Instructional Design.
Finally, Zinaida Rumleanscaia comes from the Republic of
Moldova; she, too, is concentrating on higher education
management.
We are delighted to have with us
these dedicated educators from newly-independent states.
They bring fresh, important perspectives to all their
classes and brighten up Center meetings on Tuesday mornings.
We look forward to continuing to host Fellows through the
Muskie program.
Azerbaijan
Community Mobilization and Leadership Development
Training
The Center for
International Education (CIE), in collaboration
with the Department of Continuing At the end of the Phase
II, the participants produced training designs
based on the needs assessment The first part
familiarized participants with different leadership
philosophies that have emerged in The second part consisted
in a participatory workshop which provided the
opportunity to participants to familiarize
themselves with a variety of topics such as adult
learning methodologies, participatory research,
conflict resolution, strategic planning, proposal
writing etc. In addition, they were asked to
prepare action plans of how they would convey the
learning acquired during Part II to community
leaders in the field. [Updated
Oct 2000]
Education
of Tuskegee University, Alabama conducted a
Community Mobilization and Leadership Development
training program in the Republic of Azerbaijan.
Funded by USAID and administrated by the Academy
for Educational Development office in Baku, this
project seeks to prepare training personnel for
strengthening community leaders in their work
within refugee and IDP (internally-displaced)
communities, as well as Meskhetian Turk and other
minority communities in predominantly rural areas.
NGOs working in Azerbaijan seek to support these
communities by providing relief on the one hand,
and by encouraging community-based initiatives for
socio-economic advancement on the other.
The
project was implemented in three phases. In the
first phase, staff from CIE and Tuskegee University
conducted a two-week needs assessment in Azerbaijzn
to determine the components of the curriculum of a
three-week leadership and community
mobilization-training program to be held in the
United States (Phase II). In Phase III, selected
participants conducted community leadership
training programs for Azerbaijan participants under
the supervision of CIE and Tuskegee training
personnel. 
that
was carried out in Phase I. Phase III also provided
the opportunity to revise their training curriculum
with the help of the training consultants.The
training conducted in Azeribaijan in August, 2000
had three components: (1) a thorough needs
assessment about the leadership structures as well
as economic and social issues faced by refugee/IDP
communities; (2) the leadership training and (3) a
practice session where the trainees were expected
to prepare their own training sessions to be
delivered to the communities. 
different
cultural contexts (Freire, Ghandi, Nyere, Booker T.
Washington and Margaret Wheatley). In order to
carry out a needs assessment in different refugee
and IDP communities, participants developed
research strategies based on the newly introduced
concept of "triangulation". They also engaged in an
analysis of their own community mobilization
experiences, prior to determining learning needs to
be addressed in upcoming training
events.
The
third part provided an opportunity for the trainees
to facilitate training sessions for a group of
participants composed of newly invited
professionals and colleagues who also worked for
NGOs in Azerbaijan. It was a test whether trainees
were capable of presenting relevant community
mobilization topics in an andragogically
appropriate manner.
The Literacy Support
Initiative (LSI) has been working in collaboration
with the federally funded Amherst Even Start Family
Literacy Program since 1999. This family literacy
program has four components that focus on literacy
and language learning skills: Adult education (GED
and ESOL), Early-Childhood education, Parenting
education and Parent-and-Children Together (PACT)
time. LSI staffs the PACT component. PACT time is the heart of
the Amherst family literacy program. PACT time
creates opportunities for parents and children to
learn new skills and also learn from each other. We
create opportunities for our families and our staff
to learn various new and fun educational activities
in a way that supports multiple literacies. These
activities incorporate reading, writing and other
skills like music and art that we can use in our
daily lives. We encourage family members to share
knowledge, skills and experiences from their lives
in our activities so that we can learn from one
other and we can validate our participants’
varied experiences. During PACT times, all staff
members as well as the adults take part in and
model simple parent-children activities that can be
adapted at home. This helps reinforce the notion
that parents can spend time engaging in fun,
educational activities with their children at
home. We hold 15 minute in-class
PACT times on every Thursday and a one-and-a half
hour PACT on Wednesday afternoons once a month in
the Jones Library in Amherst, usually featuring a
community member teaching the Even Start families a
fun learning activity. The afternoon time allows
families with school-aged children to participate
in fun, informal learning activities, thus creating
a true intergenerational learning program.
The
Literacy Support Initiative (LSI)
The Literacy Support
Initiative (LSI) at CIE was established in 1986 by a group
of graduate students who wanted to focus on issues related
to adult literacy teaching and learning. Through the years,
LSI has developed expertise implementing projects in the
areas of nonformal adult literacy, family literacy,
alternative supervision, research, evaluation and staff
development for adult educators. For over a decade, LSI has
been offering a "Summer Institute for Literacy
Professionals" in Massachusetts (1988-1993 and 2000) and
with sponsoring institutions in other countries (Thailand,
1994; Nepal, 1995; and 1998; El Salvador, 1994; and Namibia,
1995).
Past projects include: the development of tutor training
materials for the Massachusetts Coalition for Literacy;
staff development for adult educators with SABES (The
Massachusetts System for Adult Basic Education Support);
partnership in the Amherst public schools family literacy
program facilitating parent and children's literacy
activities with Cambodian families; a five-year USAID funded
Literacy Linkage Project with Tribhuvan University in Nepal
to strengthen literacy staff development; a participatory
research project with a disabled women's leadership and
literacy program in El Salvador; staff development and
training in Mali and staff development, literacy materials
development and research in rural Guatemala.
Building on its experiences, LSI has published a series of
manuals for grassroots community development workers
focusing on literacy teaching and learning.
Currently, LSI along with Save the Children and ADEJUC are
implementing the COMAL project, a four-year bilingual
literacy program in five departments of Guatemala and is
working locally in Amherst on a family literacy program.
Even
Start
CIE member, Chizu
Sato (center), leading PACT time
From an organizational point of view, PACT times
helps to strengthen Even Start families’ sense
of community by building non-classroom
relationships within our families and with other
resources in the community.
|
Click here to link to the Kinsey Dialogue Series page.
|
The
David Kinsey Dialogue Series was established in
memory of our beloved colleague, David Chapin
Kinsey. David touched countless lives in the course
of his 40 years as a dedicated, brilliant and
outstanding educator, helping people everywhere to
inquire, explore and discover the world and
themselves. Since 1975, David Kinsey served as a
faculty member of the School of Education in the
Center for International Education at the
University of Massachusetts at Amherst. It is our
hope that the Kinsey Dialogue Series will uphold
his legacy, keeping alive his passionate vision for
a better world.