Struggling for quality in education in war-ridden Liberia : a review of the educational activities of the Salvation Army in Liberia

The aim of the evaluation was to describe the present situation at two Norad financed schools; the William Booth and the New Len Millar, both combined elementary/high schools, as well as the latest developments in the project of building a teachers training college (TTC) in Monrovia. All three projects are run by the Salvation Army in Liberia (SA/L). Further the evaluation aimed at assessing the effects and impacts of the two school projects and the teacher training project. Finally, the aim was to recommend further actions and changes in the project in order to strengthen the positive effects of the projects on the target group and on education in general, both regionally and nationally. The activity at the two schools in question was “impressively normal” in an economic, political and infrastructural situation which has been far from normal during the last few years. The schools run by SA/L and other private school owners/operators, contribute to maintaining a minimum level of education in a country where public education in more or less non-existent. However there are several great challenges confronting SA/L as well as other actors and stakeholders in the educational sector in offering good, affordable education and still be able to pay a decent salary to skilled teachers. In the present situation, the two schools have virtually no pedagical aids or equipment to actualise the content, except for the blackboard, and there is almost a complete lack of textbooks both for the teachers, the pupils and in school libraries. What the SA/L schools can count on, is very dedicated and well qualified teachers. However, the danger is real that even this resource can be gradually lost if the school sector in a near future fails to improve teacher salaries to a level where they can feed a family. Due to the difficult situation in the country, the building of the teacher’s training college has been delayed, but in October 2005 it was still scheduled to be completed in 2006. However, the marked situation for teacher training colleges has been radically altered the last few years. Despite a great need for qualified teachers around the country, there has been a severe decrease in applicants to existing TTC’s the last few years, probably due to low income prospects. The advise is therefore that NORAD and SA look into alternative ways of supporting the education sector in the country and an alternative use of the TTC building that is under construction. Since the evaluation was completed, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf won the elections. In her presidential program, she has emphasized the importance of education for all as a means of getting Liberia up and going again. Hopefully, this means a substantial increase in the budget for education in the nearest future. EU and the World Bank have signalised that they may be willing to contribute heavily, in the event of political and social stability in the country. This may lead to new opportunities and challenges for the Salvation Army as a respected and important actor in the educational sector

Review of research literature on: "Parenting styles and childrearing practices among Poles : historical and contemporary perspectives" : report prepared in the framework of the Polish-Norwegian research project PARMigration Navigator

This report summarizes the findings of a literature review of existing research on issues pertaining to parenting styles and child rearing practices among Polish migrant families living abroad in different immigration contexts and under changing socio-economic conditions in Poland. The review was conducted in the scope of the international research project entitled ‘Socio-cultural and Psychological Predictors of Work-Life Balance and Gender Equality - Cross-Cultural Comparison of Polish and Norwegian Families’ (October 2013 to April 2017). The project, known under its short name PAR Migration Navigator, is jointly run by the University of Gdansk (Project Promoter), the Institute of Psychology of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IP PAN), the International Research Institute of Stavanger (IRIS), the University of Stavanger (UiS) and the Centre for Intercultural Communication (SIK) in Norway. The topic of parenting styles and childrearing practices among Polish migrant families in Europe has received relatively little attention in the research on families and parenting among immigrants. Polish migrant families throughout Western Europe, we argue, may in fact be regarded as culturally ‘more similar’ to host country’s native population. Nevertheless, with about 2 million Polish citizens residing in other EU/EEA countries, most of whom have migrated and settled there only after 2004, the issue of parenting and acculturation among Polish migrant families deserves to be studied in more details.Le 70 S

Language, education and development : a review of Norad’s support to the Centre for Advanced Studies of African Society (CASAS)

In June/July 2006, Norad commissioned a review of its support to the Centre for Advanced Studies of African Society (CASAS), which is a non-profit making trust established in 1997 in Cape Town South Africa. CASAS sets out to promote the use of indigenous African languages as the mother tongue or familiar language in education, cultural empowerment and scientific and technological development in Africa. The purpose of the review was, among other tings, to assess the relevance and impact of CASAS’ work and look into the role CASAS is playing in the field of language of instruction on the African continent. The general impression of the review is a very positive one. In terms of output, impact and relevance, the review team has concluded that CASAS’ activities, in particular its production of scientific and academic materials, have so far been very impressive and indeed significant on the promotion of the use of African languages in education, science and technological development in the continent. Significantly, CASAS has developed a scientific methodology of the harmonization of indigenous African languages; a methodology which is currently being used to produce harmonized orthographies for the cluster of languages and dialects which share a high degree of mutual intelligibility. To date, CASAS has published harmonized orthographies for 9 languages in Africa. Moreover, the harmonization approach employed by CASAS was also observed to be effective in preserving smaller and lesser-used languages from extinction. Furthermore, through its networks of linguists and language specialists CASAS has also stimulated and encouraged academic work in terms of research in African languages. In brief, CASAS activities have laid a foundation whose impact and relevance in Africa is both multidimensional and long term. It represents an indispensable necessary first step towards the implementation of the ADEA and AU policies for the improvement of the quality of education in Africa through the use of African languages. Last, but not least, the technical expertise developed by CASAS will also be useful and needed by ACALAN in its agenda to pursue the promotion of cross border languages in Africa. The main area of concern from the review was the dissemination of the harmonized orthographies and other materials produced by CASAS. In this regard, the report calls on CASAS to develop an effective strategy to reach out to the end users; mainly to identify and work in collaboration with all organisations – public and private, secular and religious, as well as organisations at the local, national and regional/continental level, that have been involved in the promotion of African languages

Plan- og praksisutvikling i KRL-faget : rapport fra et samarbeidsprosjekt mellom Universitetet i Stavanger og kommuner i Nord-Rogaland

Dette er sluttrapporten for et følgeforskningsprosjekt i tilknytning til læreplanprosjektet KRL-fag med ny vri som ble gjennomført i kommuner i Nord-Rogaland i 2006 og 2007. Midlene til prosjektet ble bevilget av Utdanningsdirektoratet gjennom KRL-nett og hovedformålet var å sørge for at erfaringene fra arbeidet med læreplanprosjektet ble analysert og videreført i de samarbeidende miljøer. Man ønsket å sikre dokumentasjon på og analyse av et løfterikt samarbeid mellom KRL-miljøet ved Universitetet og lærere, skoler og skoleeiere i den nordlige del av Rogaland. I KRL-fag med ny vri var intensjonen å få til kompetanseheving blant lærere i KRL i samarbeid med Universitetet samtidig som man arbeider med utvikling av lokale læreplaner for faget. Modellen som ble valgt innebar at en avgrenset gruppe lærere (ca 30) skulle arbeide sammen om lokale læreplaner og i prosessen få hevet både sin fagkompetanse innen KRL-relaterte emner og sin kompetanse i lokalt læreplanarbeid. Samtidig var det en målsetting i prosjektet å dyktiggjøre lærerne til å fungere som ressurspersoner/innovatører i sine kommuner/skoler. Rapporten konkluderer med høy måloppnåelse på hovedmålene ”hevet kompetanse i KRL –faget hos en ekspertgruppe av lærere” og ”utvikling av lokale læreplaner for KRL fra 1 til 10 klasse med målformuleringer og kompetansemål for hvert årstrinn”. Måloppnåelsen er noe mer usikker for hovedmålet ”overføring av ny kunnskap om undervisningsmetoder og former i KRL til lærerne i regionen”, men i og med den høye måloppnåelsen for de to første hovemålene, antas mulighetene for god spredningseffekt på noe lengre sikt å være gode. Rapporten konkluderer med en noe lavere måloppnåelse på hovedmål 4 som var økt bevissthet om kulturelt mangfold og økt interkulturell kompetanse blant de deltagende lærerne. Det tillegges stor betydning for resultatet at det fantes et eget FoU-initiativ og egne prioriteringer i praksisfeltet som samsvarer med prosjektets tema og at skoleadministrasjonene viser en positiv holdning til ekstern fagkompetanse. Videre har en lang tidshorisont og satsing på en avgrenset, nærmere definert målgruppe vært avgjørende for de oppnådde resultatene. Betydningen av høy bevissthet om og tilrettelegging av en god samarbeidsrelasjon mellom praksisfeltet og universitetet må ikke undervurderes og endelig vektlegger rapporten viktigheten av at det ble holdt fast ved at de deltagende lærerne skulle være ansvarlige forfattere av planene. Dette bidro til å sikre økt planarbeidskompetanse hos deltagerne og å styrke deres eierforhold til planproduktet. Hovedkonklusjonen er at et målrettet arbeid siktet inn mot etablering av en gruppe ”KRL-eksperter” som opplever seg som deltagere i et fagmiljø samt investering i et langvarig samarbeid mellom skolen og universitetet, på sikt vil vise seg å ha vært de viktigste komponentene i dette prosjektet

Med mål og mening : kultur- og samfunnsforståelse gjennom konseptoversettelse : en prosjektrapport

This report reviews the experiences and results gained from the project ”Med mål og mening – Cultural and Social Awareness through Concept Translation” which has been carried out throughout 2005 at the Sandnes Adult Education Centre in cooperation with Consultants from Centre for Intercultural Communication and Hero Mottak & Kompetanse. The project focuses on the challenges involved when trying to translate core concepts from one socio-cultural context to second-language students who have got most of their experiences from an entirely different socio-cultural context. The Concept Translation Method, originally developed to improve the quality of government issued information to newly arrived refugees as immigrants to Norway, makes use of the multi-cultural experience of immigrants now well integrated into both Norwegian social life and work life but who still maintain good contacts with their society of origin. Working together in workshops, these citizens, translates terms referring to typical and often quite exclusive Norwegian phenomena, such as some public institutions, into terms, expressions but most often small texts in their native language which refer to phenomena they can think of in the socio-cultural contexts they grew up in and that are equivalent or at least as close they can get in meaning and function to the Norwegian concept. The goal of this project has been to adapt the methodology to a teaching situation where the resource people involved in the translation process have been the teachers, mother-tongue teachers, interpreters and not least – the second-language learners themselves. The basic pedagogical ideas involved in the project have been dialogue- and learner oriented pedagogy focusing on the experience and resource of the participants. The results are very promising, both in terms of the joy, positive interest and active participation of the participants but also in terms of faster concept learning and improved communicative skills

Bilingual and multilingual education and the use of local languages : an overview of documents, main themes and core concepts within the international development discourse on education in multilingual communities

The Centre for Intercultural Communication (SIK) was commissioned by the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research (KD) to present an overview of the field relevant to bilingual/ multilingual education and the use of local languages, upon request by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad). The first part of this report discusses the key terms and expressions in use and suggests a division in three main categories to facilitate the reading. The three categories are terms and expressions describing the complex reality of language as a social and individual phenomenon, terms/expressions describing the use and function of languages in societies, and terms/expressions describing the use and function of languages in education. The following chapters present an overview of publications by governmental and non- governmental organizations concerning education and language in developing countries, and of related work focusing on politics and political initiatives and gives an outline of the main themes in the discourse on language of instruction in multilingual communities of cooperation. Finally the document presents an overview of resources, knowledge and scientific environments relevant to education and language, as well as networks and conferences relevant to this discussion in Norway and internationally with a special focus on Sub-Saharan Africa

Kompetanseløft for åpne barnehager (KOMÅP)

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Evaluering av Strømmestiftelsens Act Now program

Act Now is a one year program for youths consisting of a six weeks preparation phase, seven months stationed abroad and a four weeks debriefing course. During the seven months abroad they work with one of the many partners of the Strømme Foundation in Asia, Africa or South-America. The goals for the program is described by the three Norwegian words; Tilføre, tilføres, tilbakeføre. This means that during the year as Act Now delegates, the participants should contribute (tilføre) in the work the partner is engaged in, they should learn (tilføres) about development, poverty and how to adapt to a new culture. In addition, the new knowledge and insights should be returned (tilbakeføres) to Norway to be shared with people there as a tool to better understand other cultures, poverty and how development assistance is carried out and what results it gives. In the evaluation former participants are interviewed. We have also collected information from family, friends and colleges. The results show that the participants are very satisfied with their stay. They have learned a lot and brought relevant knowledge back to the Norwegian society. Many of the participants feel, however, that they did not contribute very much during their stay abroad

Context rules! Top-level education policies for newly arrived migrant students across six european countries

Migration across Europe is an increasing reality over the last number of decades, affecting countries with long histories of immigration as well as countries newer to the phenomenon. Although education remains a key factor in receiving and integrating migrants, policies and practices differ among countries. How contextual factors shape these differences is under-represented. This article reviews the top-level education policies on receiving Newly Arrived Migrant Students (NAMS) in six European countries – Belgium, Ireland, Malta, Norway, Portugal and Romania – in an attempt to fill this gap. Employing the European Commission four-dimensional framework of educational support for migrants, we examine how the context of each country shapes these policies. Findings are somewhat paradoxical, indicating both the contextual nature of top-level policies, and a trend towards policy homogenisation at a European level, despite very different national contexts.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio