Exploring the historical and cultural contexts of early childhood education for children with disabilities in Malawi

Building on multi-disciplinary partners in education, health and social welfare this research will determine how and why early childhood education works in early childhood development centres, primary and special schools for children with disabilities in Malawi.

This project will focus on the inclusion and participation of children with disabilities in early years education in a rural district in Southern Malawi. Drawing on a bio-ecological framework we will explore how cultural and cultural contexts have shaped the way early childhood education is organised for children with disabilities. Planned outputs include a compendium of case studies of children with disabilities and families, for service providers, a set of guidelines on how to support the inclusion and participation within ECE centres, mainstream and special school for policy makers and practitioners as well as a short film showing children participating and being included in the different educational settings.

Aims of the project

  • To enhance our understanding of how, and why, educational and health interventions/enablers support the participation and inclusion of children with disabilities at community-based child centres, primary special and mainstream schools at district level. 
  • Through the use of a bio-ecological systems model gain a critical knowledge base of the historical and cultural contexts where children with disabilities learn in order to inform key decision makers in education, social welfare, disability and health.
  • To understand the different influences on education, health, gender, human rights and social welfare when making decisions about children’s education opportunities.
  • To provide examples of successful cases of early childhood education practice that have supported the access, transition and retention of children with disabilities into CBCC and primary education which can be scaled up at national level.
  • To provide policy-makers, stakeholders and communities with evidence of positive experiences of participation and inclusion of children with disabilities in ECE settings aligned with national andinternational strategic policy agreements on ECE and disability in Malawi.

Meet the team

United Kingdom

  • Dr Paul Lynch, Senior Lecturer in Inclusive Education, Disability, Inclusion and Special Needs Department, School of Education, University of Birmingham (Principal investigator)
  • Dr Anita Soni, University of Birmingham, Educational Psychologist,  Disability, Inclusion and Special Needs Department, School of Education, University of Birmingham (Co-investigator)
  • Professor Mike McLinden, Co-director of the Vision Impairment Centre for Teaching and Research, University of Birmingham (Co-investigator)

Malawi

  • Jenipher Ngwira-Mbukwa, Head of Special Needs Department, The Catholic University of Malawi (Co-investigator)
  • Dr Emmie Mbale, Lecturer in paediatrics, College of Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Malawi (Co-investigator)
  • Dr Khama Chibwana, Lecturer in Early Childhood Development and Human Ecology,Chancellor College, University of Malawi (Co-investigator)

Dissemination

We will share our findings and recommendations to high-level policy makers as well as stakeholders supporting the development and delivery of early childhood development and education at district and community level.

Policy-makers

UK and Malawi teams will plan events at the three main ministries (Education, Gender and Health) to ensure dissemination of the key findings. We will produce three policy reports based on:

  1. barriers and facilitators to ECE services for children with disabilities,
  2. a summary of what works and what does not work for children with disabilities in different learning contexts,
  3. how ECE services can be better organised to support the inclusion and participation of children with disabilities.

District and community level

We will produce digestible reports of the findings in the national language (Chichewa) to disseminate to participants in the communities where the study took place. 

Social Media

We will disseminate the project to online networks using social media and engaging the project stakeholders to reflect and respond to key messages arising from the study. This approach will enhance the international scope and significance of the project through the development of relationships with research users, giving them the opportunity to provide feedback on the findings of the research. This in turn will provide a space for the ongoing exchange of ideas and information to advance the work of existing networks working to implement new ECD policy in Malawi.

Seminars and International Conference

We will organise and present seminars to students and staff members on findings from the project at Chancellor College and the College of Medicine, University of Malawi.

A small delegation of researchers will present at the AfriNEAD Conference in Cape Town in November 2020.

We will also present the main findings and showcase the outputs (a compendium of case studies of children with disabilities for service providers and policy makers, a set of guidelines on how to support the inclusion and participation of these children in ECD centres, primary and special schools and a short film to accompany the guidelines.)

Research outputs

  • A report on the literature review and the results from the mapping of ECE service which will form the basis for the next stages of the study and the development of the inclusion and participation framework.
  • A compendium of case studies of children with disabilities and families for service providers and policy makers. The compendium will include individual narratives of children with a range of disabilities at CBBC, primary and special school settings.
  • A double-sided, colour document will be produced portraying five in-depth case studies of children who have had positive experiences of participation and inclusion within ECE at CBCC, mainstream primary school and special school for policy makers, service providers and practitioners. The document will be available in English and Chichewa.
  • A set of guidelines on how to support the inclusion and participation of children with disabilities in different educational settings for policy makers, district level officers, an ECE training programme at Chancellor College and Child Health programme at the College of Medicine, Blantyre.
  • A short film showing children participating and being included in Chichewa. The video will complement the set of guidelines, providing stakeholders at national level examples of how children with disabilities are having positive experiences of inclusion and participation at their education setting. 
  • Highly visual posters translated into community languages for community members will be created e.g. village elders and child protection officers.
  • A final research report for policy makers and funders with recommendations will be published which will include ways to align with the SDGs and other ECE frameworks.

Funder

The British Academy logo

Project Partners

  • University of Birmingham 
  • The Catholic University 
  • Chancellor College, University of  Malawi 
  • The College of Medicine, University of Malawi 

Additional partners

  • ActionAid International (Roger Federer Foundation)
  • FEDOMA