Prelims
ISBN: 978-1-80117-505-0, eISBN: 978-1-80117-502-9
Publication date: 15 November 2021
Citation
Mason, M. and Galloway, D. (2021), "Prelims", Lessons in School Improvement from Sub-Saharan Africa: Developing Professional Learning Networks and School Communities (Emerald Professional Learning Networks Series), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. i-xxiv. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80117-502-920211008
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2022 Miriam Mason and David Galloway
Half Title Page
LESSONS IN SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT FROM SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA
Series Editors Page
EMERALD PROFESSIONAL LEARNING NETWORK SERIES
Series Editors: Chris Brown, Durham University, UK and Cindy Poortman, University of Twente, The Netherlands
In the current international policy environment, teachers are viewed as learning-oriented adaptive experts. Required to be able to teach increasingly diverse sets of learners, teachers must be competent in complex academic content, skilful in the craft of teaching and able to respond to fast changing economic and policy imperatives. The knowledge, skills and attitudes needed for this complex profession requires teachers to engage in collaborative and networked career-long learning. The types of learning networks emerging to meet this need comprise a variety of collaborative arrangements including inter-school engagement, as well as collaborations with learning partners, such as universities or policy-makers. More understanding is required, however, on how learning networks can deliver maximum benefit for both teachers and students.
Emerald Professional Learning Network Series aims to expand current understanding of professional learning networks and the impact of harnessing effective networked collaboration.
Published in this series:
Formalise, Prioritise and Mobilise: How School Leaders Secure the Benefits of Professional Learning Networks
Chris Brown and Jane Flood
School Improvement Networks and Collaborative Inquiry: Fostering Systemic Change in Challenging Contexts
Mauricio Pino Yancovic, Alvaro González Torres and Luis Ahumada Figueroa
Professional Learning Networks: Facilitating Transformation in Diverse Contexts with Equity-seeking Communities
Leyton Schnellert
Forthcoming:
Professional Learning Networks in Design-based Research Interventions
Mei Kuin Lai and Stuart McNaughton
Title Page
LESSONS IN SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT FROM SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA
Developing Professional Learning Networks and School Communities
BY
MIRIAM MASON
EducAid, Sierra Leone
and
DAVID GALLOWAY
Durham University, UK
United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China
Copyright Page
Emerald Publishing Limited
Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK
First edition 2022
Copyright © 2022 Miriam Mason and David Galloway.
Published under exclusive license by Emerald Publishing Limited.
Reprints and permissions service
Contact: permissions@emeraldinsight.com
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without either the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying issued in the UK by The Copyright Licensing Agency and in the USA by The Copyright Clearance Center. No responsibility is accepted for the accuracy of information contained in the text, illustrations or advertisements. The opinions expressed in these chapters are not necessarily those of the Author or the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-1-80117-505-0 (Print)
ISBN: 978-1-80117-502-9 (Online)
ISBN: 978-1-80117-504-3 (Epub)
Dedication Page
Dedicated to the teachers and children of EducAid, and to their ongoing commitment to the transformation of education in Sierra Leone and beyond: one teacher at a time, one child at a time.
“Since wars begin in the minds of men (and women), it is in the minds of men (and women) that the defences of peace must be constructed.” No defences are more secure than public attitudes grounded in tolerance, mutual respect and commitment to dialogue. These attitudes should be actively cultivated every day in every classroom across the world. Using schools to vehicle bigotry, chauvinism and disrespect for other people is not just a route to bad education but also a pathway to violence. (Bokova, 2011, p. iii.)
Contents
List of Figures and Tables | xiii | |
Abbreviations | xv | |
Author Biographies | xvii | |
Foreword by Dr David Moinina Sengeh | xix | |
Note on Practitioners’ Manual | xxi | |
Acknowledgements | xxiii | |
1. | Introduction and Background | 1 |
Introduction | 1 | |
The Colonial Legacy (Or the Challenge of History) | 4 | |
Education and School Improvement in Sierra Leone | 9 | |
Pedagogy and Professional Learning Networks | 12 | |
Priorities for School Improvement in Sierra Leone | 18 | |
EducAid | 27 | |
Conclusions | 36 | |
2. | Planning School Improvement and the Role of PLNs | 39 |
Introduction | 39 | |
Democratic Education | 39 | |
Implications for Planning CPDL | 43 | |
School Improvement and the Management of Change | 50 | |
Why CPDL? | 53 | |
Centrality of PLNs | 60 | |
Structure and Content | 63 | |
Conclusions | 71 | |
3. | Evaluation | 73 |
Introduction | 73 | |
Self-evaluation Or Independent Evaluation? | 74 | |
Impact Data: 1. Design for Assessing Impact | 77 | |
Impact Data: 2. Scope and Instruments | 78 | |
Process Data | 82 | |
Preparation of the EducAid Team for Data Collection | 90 | |
Ethical Questions Arising in Delivery of CPDL and the Evaluation | 95 | |
Conclusions | 99 | |
4. | Results: 1. Impact Evaluation | 101 |
Introduction | 101 | |
Attendance | 103 | |
Literacy | 105 | |
Conclusions | 112 | |
5. | Results: 2. Process Evaluation | 115 |
Introduction: Overview of Data | 115 | |
Shared Experience and Professional Learning: First Steps towards PLNs and PLCs | 119 | |
Relations with the SMC and Local Branch of the Ministry of Education | 125 | |
Attendance | 130 | |
Respectful Relationships and Behaviour | 133 | |
Curriculum and Pedagogy | 142 | |
The Sierra Leonean Training Team | 148 | |
Conclusions: Laying the Foundation for PLNs | 151 | |
6. | Conclusions | 153 |
Introduction: A Pragmatic Starting Point | 153 | |
Overview of Achievements and Limitations: 1. Design and Delivery of CPDL | 155 | |
Overview of Achievements and Limitations: 2. Results | 159 | |
Progress in Establishing PLNs and PLCs | 162 | |
Conclusions: Reasons for Optimism? | 166 | |
References | 171 | |
Subject Index | 191 | |
Name Index | 199 |
List of Figures and Tables
Figures
Fig. 1. | Learning Domains | 12 |
Fig. 2. | Cartoon Illustrating the Impossibility of Global Education Goals | 13 |
Fig. 3. | EducAid’s Values | 33 |
Fig. 4. | Mind-map Showing Mediating Factors in the Key Themes Emerging from the Data | 118 |
Fig. 5. | Participants’ Journey When Exposed to New Ideas and Practices | 120 |
Fig. 6. | Icon Checklist for the School Management Committee Training | 127 |
Fig. 7. | Mind-map Showing Key Themes Emerging from Comments About Improvement in Student Outcomes | 142 |
Fig. 8. | Mind-map Showing Objectives That Were Not Fully Achieved | 150 |
Tables
Table 1. | Comparisons of WASSCE Performance: Mean Pass Rates from National Data (2009–2011) and from EducAid and Two Local Schools (2011–2015) | 30 |
Table 2. | Part 1 of CPDL Programme | 64 |
Table 3. | Part 2 of CPDL Programme | 66 |
Table 4. | Process Data | 83 |
Table 5. | Attendance Rates for Intervention and Comparison Schools for 2016–2017 and 2017–2018 | 104 |
Table 6. | Mean Literacy Test Scores at Time 1 and Time 2 for Intervention and Control Schools | 107 |
Table 7. | Mean Literacy Scores at Times 1, 2 and 3, and Mean Difference between Times 1 and 2 and between Times 2 and 3 | 109 |
Table 8. | Lesson Planning and Pedagogy from the Lesson Observation Forms (% Marked Yes) | 147 |
Abbreviations
BECE | Basic Education Certificate Examination |
CPDL | Continuing Professional Development and Learning |
DfID | Department of International Development |
DSTI | Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation |
EFA | Education for All |
GPI | Gender Parity Index |
INGO | International Non-governmental Organisation |
MBSSE | Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education |
MEST | Ministry of Education, Science and Technology |
NGO | Non-governmental Organisation |
NPSE | National Primary School Examination |
PLC | Professional Learning Community |
PLN | Professional Learning Network(s) |
PTSD. | Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. |
RATL | Raising Achievement/Transforming Learning |
RCT | Randomised Controlled Trial |
SMC | School Management Committee |
STEM | Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (subjects) |
UNDP | United Nations Development Programme |
WAEC | West Africa Examinations Council |
WASSCE | West Africa Secondary School Certificate Examination |
Author biographies
Miriam Mason was educated in the UK and trained as a teacher before moving to Sierra Leone in 2000 to run EducAid. Her brother and a friend had started EducAid Sierra Leone as a sponsorship programme but finding the available quality of schooling insufficient to change children’s lives they decided to start their own school. The first EducAid school started with 20 children on the veranda of a rented house but was the forerunner to a network of schools which now runs at the heart of a school improvement programme working to support change across the education ecosystem in Sierra Leone.
David Galloway developed his lifelong interest in the effect of schools on their pupils’ behaviour and psychosocial development while working as an educational psychologist in Sheffield, UK. After appointments in Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand and Cardiff and Lancaster Universities, UK, he joined Durham University where he was Professor of Primary Education, and Head of the School of Education. Since retirement from his full time post, he has run workshops on school improvement in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Tanzania, Sri Lanka, Sierra Leone, China and Hong Kong.
Foreword
The delivery of free, quality education for all children and young people has been my priority as the Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education in Sierra Leone. Most recently, my team and I institutionalised an agenda for radical inclusion as part of the country’s vision for human capital development. In doing so, I outlined a promise to provide equitable learning opportunities to the most marginalised and excluded in society. This book provides an important and timely message on the need to build learning communities to fulfil this promise.
In this book, Mason and Galloway provide grounded and critical insights on the challenges that the education sector currently faces. In particular, the book disentangles the historic roots of systemic barriers to school improvement, elaborates the impact of successive national crises on teachers and unpacks the limited success of previous education interventions. This analysis sets up a platform for a research-based approach to address these issues.
Drawing on EducAid’s decades of experience of providing quality education to the most vulnerable in Sierra Leone, Mason and Galloway highlight the importance of using evidence to promote school improvement centred around pedagogy and teaching. The book draws attention to the critical role of professional learning networks in fostering a dialogic and respectful climate in which principals and teachers share and reflect on their experiences to ‘lever up’ learning. This close-up analysis shows the significant, positive impact of professional learning networks on the attendance and learning of students.
The accompanying practitioner’s manual provides a step-by-step guide for those looking to build the capacity of teachers and school leaders to lead school-level change. The guide can help education leaders to implement and adapt lessons from this research to deliver continuing professional development and learning to support children to succeed academically and socially.
These comprehensive resources present a pathway for promoting sustainable school improvement to enable the next generation of Sierra Leoneans — as well as subsequent generations — to live up to their potential. The core themes of community, equity and impact will continue to echo as we strive towards radical inclusion and free, quality education.
Dr David Moinina Sengeh
Honourable Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education and Chief Innovation Officer for the Directorate of Science, Technology and Innovation for the Government of Sierra Leone.
July 2021.
Note on Practitioners’ Manual
This book describes a structured approach to school improvement through continuing professional development and learning (CPDL) for teachers. The focus is on the context, (a low income country in Africa,) the reasons for selecting a structured and potentially replicable approach to CPDL, the methodology and the results. The book does not describe the programme itself in detail. To do so it would have been necessary to describe each of the literacy and numeracy activities that the CPDL team used with primary teachers in the course of ten days intensive work and follow-up over the subsequent year. That would have seriously interrupted the flow of the book. Yet knowing that a project is successful – or encountered problems – is of little or no practical use without knowing details of the project itself. For this reason, Emerald agreed to make the Practitioners Manual available online with purchase of the book, without further cost. This can be accessed on Emerald's Bookstore (books.emeraldinsight.com).
Acknowledgements
This project could not have been completed without the generous funding support of the Smarter Hospital and the Lion Heart Foundation and specifically without the dedicated attention of Dr Erdi Huizenga who regularly visited the schools despite her heavy schedule and commitments at the hospital. We also acknowledge the kind attention and support of the Ministry of Education officials who helped identify appropriate control schools and negotiate the schools’ participation in the data collection. While the identity of the participating schools and their teachers remain confidential, we acknowledge the vital role that they played. Without their commitment to school improvement, the research could not have taken place. We also recognise the generous and wise support of early years and literacy expert, Jean Weiss, who helped us develop the phonics programme in the literacy component of the project.
The EducAid team who delivered the CPDL and collected data for the evaluation deserve credit for their enthusiasm and relentless determination to improve their own practice. They were:
Abdul Wahid Sesay
Alice H Kamara
Amadu Kamara
Ezekiel Nonie
Joseph M Kai
Kabiru I Mansaray
Mohamed Alim Conteh
Juldeh Barrie
Sattia Kanu
Umu Kamara
We are also immensely grateful to staff at Emerald and the Editors of this series for their cogent and constructive criticisms of our early drafts. The copy editors and production team were also extremely helpful in improving the text. Whatever faults remain are ours. Our sincere thanks to all those, named and unnamed, who contributed to the success of the project.