The International Child Development Programme (ICDP) in Shianda (Part 2)

In my previous post I had promised to keep you updated on the rest four sensitization principles in my sessions with teachers. So, I keep my word and in this post I am revealing them to you.

The first principle goes in line with John Dewey’s approach “learning-by-doing” and it involves self-initiated practical activities. Caregivers were asked at the end of each session to carry out a series of exercises/home tasks in the form of reflections, observations, self-evaluations and testing out new ways of interacting with children. In that way they took their time to look into their caring practice carefully, becoming conscious of their actions and the consequences these have. Therefore, a positive change in their caring skills is more possible when it comes “from within” rather than by just trying to put the theory in practice.

The next principle has been one of my favorite and it’s about sharing thoughts and experiences in groups. I really enjoyed “stepping aside” and letting the participants speak out freely. My role was limited in guiding the discussion mostly by reflection provoking questions. It was super interesting to listen to teachers’ sincere realizations and see their “naked exposure” in front of their colleagues. 

I appreciated very much their honesty both when they reported back about home exercises and also during discussion of topics that popped up during the sessions. Many times I used examples from other teachers’ groups –obviously anonymously- to raise awareness. The purpose behind this was the special effect it had on them, as I could clearly see that they felt a kind of relief every time they heard that other participants have similar experiences as themselves.

I should also underline that their comments and insights were significant for me for two reasons. The first was the fact that I took them in consideration while I was preparing my next session with the specific group. So, according to what had been said, I tried to make the structure of my next session including their thoughts and “building upon them”. The second was that they helped me filling easily the logbook I wrote after each meeting. The logbook briefly is the facilitator’s “companion” and it contains information about each session’s flow based on observation and reflection.

But it was not only the caregivers who “shared their souls out”, but also me as teacher and as person. How would it be possible to encourage an empathic attitude towards children and talk about a living, human topic such as care if I kept “professional distance”? From the very beginning of the ICDP sessions I wanted to transmit to the teachers (indirectly with my behavior) that general explanations and cold, alien communication was not my style. Instead, I tried to replace that expected, usual pattern by a more equal relationship characterized by sharing of personal experiences.

More specifically, I used two communication methods while applying this third sensitization principle with the caregivers. The first was to give explanations through my personal examples, stories and demonstrations. Sharing my experiences with them through photos, videos, role-play, stories about my students, nephew in different settings etc. helped me to pass a concrete and strong message. It is worth mentioning that of course I used stories and images from other contexts and even though caregivers found them interesting, they were much more attracted by getting to know my personal repertoire of practical examples.

The second method was about indicating what the child experiences and how he/she feels in certain situations and reactivating teachers’ empathy by letting them think what they would experience in the same situation. Therefore, caregivers were encouraged to see the child as a person with feelings and intentions. In many contexts, this is something that people take for granted, but unfortunately this is not the case everywhere. So, reflection provoking questions like “how would you feel if…” and explanations such as “when you do this, the child feels…” constitute the interpretive ways of speaking trying to describe children’s experiences and emotions. 

The last sensitization principle includes the use of the eight ICDP themes for positive interactions as a basis for consciousness-raising, self-awareness and exemplification. It is recommended that the facilitator provides the caregivers with booklets where the eight themes are illustrated. However, due to lack of resources and number of participants, I decided to offer to the teachers an alternative option. 

In the last session I gave to each one of them and also left to each school a flipchart (which I created myself) in which the most important topics of our sessions were summarized. I suggested teachers to put it either in their class or at home, wherever they feel it will accompany them better reminding them our sessions. This is a way of both activation of personal exploration and self-monitoring.

In this ICDP circle there have been successfully certified 45 teachers from 4 primary schools in Mumias East area. The influence of the sessions in the interactions between caregivers-children seems to be really positive as it is seen through the anonymous feedback they filled during our last session. This feedback was my initiative and it contained three questions regarding to the sessions: their influence, possible difficulties and recommendations for change or/and improvement. It is surprising that no teacher mentioned other thing than positive impact on their interactions.

Some of their statements are the following: “My attitude towards caregiving has been totally changed, I feel more free and closer to children”, “I can now appreciate the importance of being empathetic and human”, “I can value the needs and emotions of the child”, “I’ ve been converted from a violent and non-sensitive person to a loving and understanding one”, “I changed my way of interacting with children from authoritarian to authoritative”,  “I’ve become a better teacher and a better person, my interactions both in school and in society have been improved”, “I am able to set limits on a positive way without the need of corporal punishment”.

I should also reveal that the main requests for change were: 1) increased number of sessions (6 with each teachers' group were not enough!), time extension and 2) implementation of the ICDP on a country level covering a broad spectrum of the society including parents, guardians etc. I wish I could do miracles! But as Theodore Roosevelt had said “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are!”

However, I didn’t want to leave anyone disappointed. I created an ICDP trained teachers WhatsApp group which includes the majority of them (and me!) so that they continue to share their insights, experiences and questions. I have also started a conversation through email with the rest with the same aim.

Last but not least, as my deployment soon comes to an end, I am planning to come in contact with the next education volunteer providing him/her with some questions in a form of a rating scale to distribute to the teachers. This can be used as an observation form and as a way of monitoring. 

I am happy and proud of this first ICDP experience coming successfully to an end. I feel grateful for everything I have experienced and learned through the sessions. It has been a way full of challenges and excitement at the same time. I am looking forward to my next ICDP adventure!

I leave you with this nice quote I saw somewhere recently: “Knowledge is like a garden; if it is not cultivated, it cannot be harvested” African proverb.

Love and light :)

The International Child Development Programme (ICDP) in Shianda (part 1)

It was almost a year ago, when I first read the description of the education volunteer’s position in Shianda. Among the tasks there was included training on different teaching methods imparting skills and knowledge to teachers of schools in the surrounding area.

After I got selected and was participating in the preparatory training held by MONDO in Esthonia, I read the reports of the previous education volunteer, where it was mentioned that even though teachers have knowledge about various teaching methods, they struggle in putting them in practice. My coordinator confirmed that, assuring me that educators seem to welcome the volunteers attending their trainings, nodding their heads but what lacks is real implementation and that monitoring is important.

Then I started reflecting on the causes that hinder the successful application of the methods suggested, as well as what alternatives could be considered for experimentation. And I thought about ICDP… I remembered that back when I was studying my Master’s in Oslo, Norway we were trained as class and attained a certificate as ICDP facilitators. It was the initiative of the professor Berit H. Johnsen to train us and I knew it was a programme which had been implemented in various contexts of Africa, South America, South-East Asia and Europe.  However, I hadn’t taken it for granted that I could make use of it in Shianda, as I decided to first reach, do the needs assessment and discuss with stakeholders.

During the first month of my deployment I visited most of the schools we cooperate with and having in mind Johnsen’s Curriculum Relation Model, I tried to observe as many of the interrelated curriculum areas as possible:  students, educational intentions, content, assessment, methods and organization, communication and care (in teachers-students interactions). Care is both a main concept of the EU Aid Volunteers initiative, as its motto is “We Care, We Act” and the core of the ICDP Programme. 

As an educator myself, I am a fan of Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of cognitive development. This roughly says that all complex mental functions, like speaking, understanding, reflecting etc. come after quality social interactions. So, psychosocial care as a principal ingredient of healthy social interactions is the basis for all intellectual functions. But what happens when this basis is unstable? What happens when teachers are unaware of their caring skills? How can my work be sustainable if they don’t realize their real potential as humans? How can students learn effectively in settings which lack positive relations?

Having observed here but also experienced myself as a student the authoritarian way of interacting and having been asked questions like: “If not by beating, then how can I handle wrong-doers?” it was evident that the time has arrived for a psychosocial care programme to get started in Shianda. I discussed my idea with my director and I was happily surprised when she told me she had attended in the past a similar programme in Nairobi and she reassured me she finds it to be highly relevant in our context: “This is the right place to do it”. So, did I!

The role of the ICDP facilitator is similar to the one Socrates –the Greek philosopher- had, using the “maieutic method” or “Socratic dialectic” with his students. That means that the facilitator doesn’t have the intention to convey new truth to the caregivers, but to assist them to find the truth in themselves. His/her goal is to support and empower them so that they feel trust and confidence for their capacities and existing experience. This so-called “resource-based approach” gives caregivers the opportunity to personally explore their interactions, reactivating their caring competence and becoming conscious of it in their everyday encounters with children (and not only). ICDP is a programme of human care in general that covers all levels of our interpersonal relations.

A crucial term for ICDP is sensitization. Without sensitivity, care cannot exist. Thus, it’s important to increase caregivers’ sensitivity so that they can use their empathic ability and their own practical experience to relate and communicate better with the students. There is no set of recipes that one can use for correct caring actions in any given situation. Nevertheless, teachers can be provided guidance to improve their contacts with children. And this guidance is imparted through seven sensitization principles.
 

First and foremost, it’s fundamental that a close and trusting relationship is established between facilitator and caregivers with mutual respect and willingness to listen. This is something that is built gradually. So, after getting to know them during the observation period, I planned to have weekly meetings with teachers’ groups for six weeks on a specific day and time that fits each school. We also created a contract agreement, where this commitment is “formally” depicted. Furthermore, I intentionally spend personal time with them mostly before and after the sessions by sharing worries and thoughts.

Another sensitization principle is to promote a positive conception of the children, so that caregivers are encouraged to see that their negative aspects can be understood in a different way. But how can teachers perceive students positively when they are not able to perceive themselves on the same way?

And here comes the third principle, which is about pointing out positive features in caregivers’ existing practice. For that, every time I entered to a class for observation (or observed the less structured break time), I took notes of the caregivers’ strengths in the teaching-learning situation/communication with the intention to let them know in a later stage.  Once teachers realize their strengths and feel enabled, they can rely on them and head one step further.

I promise to keep you updated on the rest four sensitization principles as they’re taking place in our ICDP sessions. Stay tuned! Till then take care and “mulembe” (“peace” in local language-Luhya)!

First month in Shianda

There has been almost a month now since I arrived to Shianda. It hasn’t passed neither quickly nor slowly. I have been enjoying every moment and I am very grateful for living this new experience. I think it would be wise to “touch” in this post the issue that concerned me the most and gave me food for thought from the beginning:  local community’s conception of a white person.
 

It was not difficult to notice that “wazungu” (white people) are seen and treated as different in every context, from WEFOCO’s (our hosting organization) office till the streets. Let’s give some examples:

Whenever I go to the office, the staff provides me with a chair, even though I am already seated on the bench.

During the orientation meeting, our director mentioned that “Here you will face cultural differences, for example in Europe they don’t greet each other. Here we even shout from a distance to another person”.

When I washed some clothes for first time, my landlord’s wife exclaimed “Oh, you wash your clothes alone!”. The second time I did it (in bigger quantity), she asked me “Do you know how to wash clothes?”. After a while my landlord came and told me: “That’s a lot of work for you, next time we call the cleaning lady.”

Every time I take a walk in the surrounding Shianda area, there are always willing drivers who stop asking to give me a lift.

People really want to interact with me, from a simple handshake till a small talk. However, I have the impression that they feel afraid and shy, hesitating that their way of approaching may be offensive for an American (since all “wazungu” must be Americans!).  I’ve heard questions like “Did you come out from a computer?” as well as compliments like “You are smart”, once I greeted a child in Swahili. 

It took me some time on reflecting about the causes that led to that kind of behavior and are strongly related to historical, socio-economic and political reasons. Furthermore, I am in a small rural area so I have to bear in mind the stimuli that people receive here. Most of them rarely see "wazungu" in person, or probably have seen them from a TV or book image and there are others who may not have experienced again the surprise of seeing people with different skin color in any means.

As I am myself from a small village of a Greek island, I can’t say that people’s mentality is unfamiliar to me.  Interacting with them comes out naturally so I started coming closer to them exchanging information.  

Whenever I am offered a chair in the office, I tell them I feel comfortable also sitting on the bench.

I underline to the director that Europeans vary greatly among them according to their place, customs and traditions. In addition to that, if one visits some European countries, he/she cannot have a general image about Europe, the same as if you are in Kenya (which is SO MUCH diverse anyway between ethnic groups and clans) and generalize about Africa. In fact, in many European rural settings, greeting each other on the street and shouting by distance is common.

Every time I hear a kid or adult calling me “mzungu”, I go towards him/her and we introduce ourselves so that next time it would be much better that he/she calls me with my name. And believe me, it works! And they are proud of themselves assuring me: "You see, I remember your name!".

When they offer me a motorbike lift, I kindly refuse pointing out that walking is a way of exercise for me and I like it. I have explained to my landlord and his wife that hand washing is common not only in Africa. I enjoy doing it and I know how to do it, as I had my mother’s example from a young age.

I love walking and hiking, so my walks around Shianda are frequent. That way, I get to meet and interact with a lot of people.  It is an opportunity to share with them things and take them one step further from ignorance. I have met people who were surprised when I told them that in Europe there also exist rural areas with dirt roads and villages, people who couldn’t think that in the majority of the countries English is not an official language, people who believe that everybody with white skin is rich.

And then I start telling them about economic crisis, refugees, immigration, governments’ corruption and unemployment.  I tell them that there are more continents than Africa and America in the world, that people live together in them having different backgrounds, color and culture and among them you can find “wazungu”, who speak other mother tongues than English (!) in every place you go. I tell them that wealth in the world lies in the hands of very few and that at the end in feels much better having less. I tell them that we should all focus on the things that we already have e.g. family than those that we don’t have e.g. money.  And lastly, I tell them that we are all humans and we have to cover the same needs to be happy, we have to emphasize on the things that unite us, rather than those that separate us.

It turns out that every time I give this kind of “speeches”, there is a crowd gathered around me nodding their heads, identifying themselves with what I share with them and finally recognizing me as "sister". Many of them ask for my contact for more information exchange and I forward them to WEFOCO. It’s a great opportunity to promote my hosting organization and its actions.  Empowerment, enabling and confidence boost for everybody. To be continued…