TECIP Teacher Educators in Higher Education As Catalysts for Inclusive Practices in Technical and Vocational Education

Programme’s Outcome statement: Improved research and teaching capacity as well as access to good quality services in HEIs in the countries participating in the programme

At the beginning of the TECIP-project there were no curricula or training modules on inclusive practices with appropriate materials for future TVET teachers in Federal TVET Institute (FTI) or no teachers specialized on inclusive education/special needs education.

The University of Addis Ababa had a Special Needs Education department and teacher training on inclusive education, but they did not have expertise on technical and vocational education and training (TVET-sector) and they did not collaborate with TVET teacher education in any ways. Teachers at TVET Colleges had minimal knowledge and skills on special needs and the collaboration with different stakeholders and parties was weak.

On the other hand, FTI was willing to extend its pedagogy to inclusive education, the administrators were positive towards inclusive education and they recognized the needs to develop curricula and learning material and to increase capacity of its staff.

The national TVET administration (Federal TVET Agency) was willing to join forces and develop inclusive education in TVET colleges by increasing awareness and training TVET administrators in the regional and local levels around the country.
Also the renewed national educational guidelines, Roadmap to Education 2018-2030 set requirements to teacher training institutes on inclusive education (Draft: https://planipolis.iiep.unesco.org/sites/planipolis/files/ressources/ethiopia_education_development_roadmap_2018-2030.pdf).
This was in line with the TECIP-project`s goals.

As indicators for progress on the impact we can state that the TECIP-project has been able to equip FTI with new approaches and methods to develop and implement inclusive education in TVET teacher education to address the needs of SEND students. Similarly, it has increased capacity to act in administrative and educational networks to develop inclusive education in TVET.
The overall awareness on inclusive education at FTI is good, including administration.

FTI has a support structure for students with SEND consisting of 15 trained staff members in different departments, learning material and module on inclusive education accepted by the Senate of FTI, a training model on inclusive education to be used for FTI graduates and in in-service training for TVET sector (managers, administrators, deans, Assessment Centers and TVET teachers) consisting of training schedule, structure and learning material. Before all 15 trained staff members have adopted skills and knowledge on inclusive pedagogy, in other words deepened understanding on inclusive education: it is not only about access to education but it is about increasing participation in education.

The TECIP-project succeeded in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and TVET minister and with Federal TVET Agency which all are the key actors in developing inclusive practices in Ethiopia.

Outputs: New teaching methods, curricula, study programmes, modules and quality assurance mechanisms.
New collaboration initiatives, (joint) publications or dissemination events (number/%)

Improved quality of higher education and research environment:

According to the baseline, there were no teachers specialized on inclusive education and special needs in TVET teacher education and there were no curricula or training modules on inclusive practices with appropriate materials for future TVET teachers in Federal TVET Institute (FTI) or no training model which roots the learnt matters to the regions and local colleges.
In the TECIP-project the Federal TVET Institute (FTI) plays a major role in enhancing inclusive approach into TVET colleges. FTI main campus as well as its 11 satellite campuses around the country are responsible for pre-service TVET teacher education and in-service training for TVET managers and TVET College heads and TVET teachers. That is why it was important to start with the awareness raising of the whole staff in FTI. After that 15 teacher trainers representing different fields and departments were selected for a specialization training on inclusive education.

The focus of the training was not only in theoretical matters but before all giving opportunity to experience inclusive pedagogy and participating methodology. Ethiopian pedagogical culture is traditional, teacher-centered. Offering the possibility for another kind of pedagogy was eyes-opening (pls watch the video clip). We succeeded to reach 3 female teacher trainers of 15. The project also used Ethiopian trainers and people with disabilities from Disability organizations and NGOs.

However, in addition to awareness and specialization training the 15 coordinators were prepared with Personal Learning Plans in order to encourage for further studies in inclusive education and pedagogy. Unfortunately the Addis Ababa University accepts PhD candidates mainly from its own satellite campuses. Two coordinators of FTI were selected to the University of Jyväskylä for the preparation of PhD research plans in 2019 and they both submitted their research plans on inclusive education.

The role of the 15 coordinators in the project was to pilot the training model which they implemented in 2019, October. They conducted autonomously (without input of JAMK) a training for all FTI graduates that year (N=367). They benefitted the inclusive pedagogy (participatory methodology) they had adopted and also the learning material produced in the project. The training was monitored by the project manager/JAMK and it was one of the highlights of the whole project. The 15 coordinators have been nominated to work as teachers on inclusive education at FTI and conduct the training annually to the graduates and also in in-service trainings in the future.

Strengthened role and relevance of HE in development of society:

Output indicator 4.1 New forms of cooperation enhancing participation in local, regional or national level
Output indicator 4.2 New modalities of cooperation enhancing the role of HE at international level

Federal TVET Institute is a federal-level higher education institute being responsible with its 11 satellite campuses for TVET teacher education and this way impacting the whole society. The TECIP-project progressed hand in hand with the federal and regional TVET administration. That is why the TECIP-project organized together with the Federal TVET Agency (FTA) five regional workshops around the country and delivered knowledge on inclusion for 150 TVET administrators, deans and college heads at the beginning of the project (end of 2017). The administrators were required to prepare Action Plans for their region, bureau or TVET college. Similarly, they were required to select teachers from their TVET colleges for the ToT-training with a gender sensitive approach and with balanced approach to female and male dominated vocations. 100 TVET teachers were selected for the training for two rounds, having 6 months time between for the preparation of Action Plans the participants had to write.

The Training of Trainers programme was carried out on inclusion. The first round consisted of Inclusive pedagogy, teachers from JAMK as trainers and where the focus was to give experiences on participating methodology. The second round was conducted for the same participants. The program consisted of presentations of the Action Plans prepared by the participants but in order to ensure the Ethiopian context, Ethiopian disability experts worked as trainers (persons with disabilities). The main idea was that the participants have to share their knowledge to their colleagues and this way promote inclusive practices all around the country.

According to the project plan this model was supposed to form an in-service training model for FTI´s further use. However, the Project Board amended the plan and a change request was sent to EDU.fi. After the ToT-trainings several monitoring rounds were conducted to TVET colleges by FTA and Addis Ababa University. This way the progress on inclusive practices was monitored in an effective way.