Report #2

SECOND Meeting of the “QualiFLY” project

Malta, 13-15 February 2006

Download Resume of Malta meeting (Power Point file)

The 2nd meeting of the QualiFLY project was held from 13 to 15 February, 2006 in Malta. The focus of the meeting was on teacher training, curriculum development and exchange of best practice.

All partners – the foundation Ethnocultural Dialogue, Bulgaria; the National Adult Literacy Agency, Ireland; the Università Popolare di Roma, Italy; the Foundation for Educational Services, Malta; the Mother-Child Education Foundation (AÇEV), Turkey; the Institute for Teacher Training and School Development of the City-State of Hamburg, Germany, and the UNESCO Institute for Education – were represented by at least one staff member and most partners also by at least one tutor. About 20 participants attended the meeting, plus a number of tutors from the Maltese team. As a guest from England, Elizabeth Jarman attended the meeting to prepare her participation in the project in the second year. Elizabeth Jarman has been working for the Basic Skills Agency for many years (and is still a consultant to the BSA) and is now the Director of Akoya Ltd, an organisation developing a range of customised learning programmes, with particular expertise in supporting women returners, young people into work and also black and ethnic minority groups.

The partner from Malta, the Fondazzjoni Ghal Servizzi Edukattivi (Foundation for Educational Services/FES), hosted the meeting and organized study visits. The FES was established in 2001 as a mechanism that works hand-in-hand with the Education Division at the Ministry of Education in Malta to provide, among others, a range of innovative educational initiatives in the field of literacy support. Among its initiatives are primary prevention and secondary prevention family literacy programmes, capacity-building programmes for parents, writing workshops for children and adults, community lifelong learning centres, capacity-building of schools, training, research, international projects and publications.

As a bridge to the previous meeting in Istanbul, the meeting started with a presentation by the coordinator of the outcomes of the questionnaires each partner provided prior to the meeting. The purpose of these questionnaires was to gain an overview on the nature of the family literacy projects and contexts in each country (the country questionnaires will be placed on the website soon).
The questionnaires covered the following issues: Context of the country; aim of the project/concept of family literacy; target population/cultural and social content and languages; programme design, content and progression routes (incl. place of project provision, start, duration and perspective of project); teacher training; teacher background and qualification; focus (children, young people, adults); curriculum (yes or no, how is it developed?); methodological approach; monitoring and evaluation (which instruments are used, quantitative or qualitative?); how is the project financed?; partnerships; best practice example (something that works particularly well).

As far as the context is concerned, all partner countries have high illiteracy rates, at least among special groups (in Bulgaria the Roma population), Germany and Italy also have a high proportion of migrants. In terms of the aims of the projects, all of them support parents to assist their children. Moreover, the programmes in England, Ireland and Malta have a strong focus on adult education and the individual development of the adult learners. Especially in England and Ireland, family literacy has been developed from the perspective of adult education and not from the perspective of school education, like in many other contexts. That’s why the target group of the programmes in these countries are primarily the adult learners whereas in the other projects the parents are targeted mainly as educators of their children. With regard to the design of the different programmes, all are implemented as partnerships between different organizations, in all cases with the involvement of a governmental or local authority. Some of the programmes are very structured and “school-like” (especially Turkey), whereas others have very flexible time frames (Germany). The qualifications of the teachers working on the programmes vary from primary school teachers to adult education specialists. Some programmes provide initial training, others ongoing training or both. In some countries, the curriculum is developed together with the learners and/or teachers (Germany, Ireland), in others it is prepared by academicians (Turkey, Malta). All projects have some kind of in-built evaluation, using both quantitative and qualitative measures.

Juan Camilleri from the Maltese team presented the Pefal project, a Grundtvig 1 project supported by the European Union on Parents Empowerment for Family Literacy which was coordinated by the FES and run from 2001-2004. The Pefal project started from the assumption that the family literacy approach works in every country, as the interests of parents for their children are the same everywhere. At the heart of the Maltese family literacy programme is the “Bridging to Empowerment” Hilti Model with its core aim of empowering parents as co-educators, learners and parent leaders and at the same time helping children develop literacy skills. The project used the Hilti Model to put parent empowerment work and family literacy on the national agendas of the six partner countries and developed culturally differentiated basic skills training programmes for parents and children, Training-of-Tutors Programme and related resource packs. The resources developed during the programme – videos, books, teacher training curricula etc. in several languages – were made available to the group. Many resources can be downloaded from the Pefal website (www.pefalmalta.org.mt).

One of the central issues in Malta was teacher training. In a discussion on the experiences of all partners with regard to teacher training, the group reflected upon the following questions: Teacher’s qualifications, how to train teachers to become reflective practitioners, quality assurance of teacher training, the role and training of parent leaders, recruitment & retention of parents. It was stated that teacher qualifications differ widely. Most of the teachers working in family literacy programmes are specialized in teaching children and/or are school teachers. It was said that these teachers should be trained in adult education, as well. All participants stressed the importance of ongoing training and special training of the family literacy approach. Also, more evaluation of teaching practice is needed. In some contexts, experience with migrants is important, and the teachers should be trained accordingly.

In Malta, teachers are trained in a pre-service training consisting of several modules, internships, site visits and a reflective journal about their training process. There are two levels of teacher training, level one for tutors and level two for coordinators. A library of lesson plans and resources is at the disposal of the tutors. Tutors meet once a week to plan the sessions of the forthcoming week.

It was particularly impressive to see that in Malta the National Minimal Curriculum of the government encourages schools to set up programmes of parental education and school involvement. Sandro Spiteri from the FES presented a pre-service specialization training for parents’ education and parental involvement which is offered within the B.Ed.(Hons.) university course for primary school teachers. This training aims at fostering stronger links between the homes and the schools, parental involvement and lifelong learning. In this course teachers are trained to support the parents’ role in education, empower parents to become lifelong learning adults, learn how to organise and run family literacy programmes and parent-to-parent programmes, encourage parents to take a central role in the educational development of their children, the school and their community and become key resource and reference persons. The programme consists of two major strands: 1) Working with Parents and 2) Strengthening Basic Skills in the Family. It is provided in eight units over three years.

In the context of teacher training, another central point in the discussions was the involvement of parents and the concept of parent leaders. In Malta the Id f’Id (“Hand in hand”) programme has been developed for parents who want to get more involved in the family literacy programmes and work on their own education. The Id f’Id programme trains these parents to motivate and “recruit” other parents for family literacy programmes. This idea can be found in adult literacy programmes worldwide in the concept of the “literacy ambassadors”. The parents work in Malta is based on the idea of parents as partners. The concept of parent leaders is known in the other partner countries as well, but does not have such a clear profile as in Malta, apart from England where the “peachers” (parent teachers) are also highly involved in family literacy programmes. In Turkey for example, parent leaders have the role of supporting orphan children. There, the involvement of parents leaders could be developed further, as in Germany.

Another Maltese characteristic with regard to teachers are the “activity teachers” working in the family literacy programmes. These are teachers representing “active” and “creative” disciplines, such as sports, arts, music and drama. Football is used to attract fathers in the Klabb Hilti Sports programmes. In the first half an hour of the sessions, the tutor and the fathers discuss how childrens’ learning can be better supported at home. After that, the tutor plays football with the fathers and children.

Another focus of the meeting was on best practice. On two occasions, the participants split up in smaller groups to exchange experiences and materials. The Maltese partner had organized a meeting with local family literacy tutors and parent leaders. The tutors had put together a collection of lesson plans which was handed out to all participants. The German partners distributed a documentary of best practice.

The working group on programme design and curriculum development showed the variety of how the programmes are provided. Elizabeth Jarman reported from England where the governmental programme “Skills for Life” includes considerable funding (25 million pounds) for family literacy and numeracy and family learning programmes that are a well-established element of adult education in the country. The funding is distributed through the National Skills Council to 150 Local Education Centres (LEAs). In every centre, there is a family learning coordinator who gives out money to small programmes. In England, family literacy programmes are provided by a team consisting of a primary school teacher and an adult education teacher. Creche facilities for smaller children are provided. In England the emphasis of family literacy programmes is on the outcomes for the adults.

This is also the case in Ireland where family literacy programmes have been started by the National Adult Literacy Agency with a focus on adult literacy. To start family literacy programmes, the Agency establishes partnerships with schools or links up with community centres, family resource centres and Early Start Centres. There is also a home-school liaison service. In the discussion, the group agreed that family literacy programmes should build on the needs of the community.

The case of Turkey is unique in terms of outreach. The programmes have been developed by ACEV (the Mother Child Education Foundation) and disseminated throughout the country. The Mother Child Education Program has been given to the National Ministry of Education and went on scale. Although this brings about a loss of quality, the group recognized that it is positive that the government mainstreams a programme developed by an NGO. The Maltese partner decided to limit the number of sites to maintain the quality.
The German project has the character of a demonstration project that has some impact on research trends and policies at least in the City-State of Hamburg, but it is not in the hands of the project coordinators to decide whether it should go on scale. The coordinators prefer to keep the size of the project limited while trying out new formats and stressing new aspects to maintain the demonstration character of the project.

With regard to curriculum development, in Turkey the curriculum of the programme is developed by academicians and experts.This is similar in Malta. In the Hamburg project, there was no curriculum when the project started. It is developed in an ongoing process, together with the teachers who carry out the programme, in a monthly meeting. The curriculum is based on four modules: Reading, writing, listening and communicating and phonological awareness. In England, there is a national curriculum for children from birth to three and a curriculum for adults.

Another issue raised in the working group on programme design and curriculum development was the crucial role of the principals and the teachers in the schools where family literacy programmes are being carried out. Their support is crucial for the success of the programme. In Hamburg, the schools which participated in the programme could be selected by the coordinators, which allows to work in a motivated and committed environment. This was also in case in Malta in the beginning, but in the meantime the Ministry imposes the programme on schools which do not necessarily support it.

NWAR programme

Another element of the meeting were the study visits: The group visited two family literacy programmes in Malta: NWAR and Hilti. NWAR is a programme for 8-13 year-old children who are behind in their literacy skills. The courses run twice a week after school. One tutor works with two children (and their mother/father) on their literacy skills. Before and after the course children are assessed. There is a long waiting list for these courses as the relation one tutor-two children permits to develop an individual learning programme for each child. Evaluations of the progamme have shown that it recuperates 30-40% of the children who had already been given up.

The Hilti Clubs are afterschool family literacy clubs held in state primary schools targeting children in the early primary years and their parents. An integral part of the fun activities are in-built literacy and/or numeracy components. The session consists of separated children’s and parents’ sessions, followed by a joint children/parents’ session. The one and a half hour session is concluded by a separate meeting with the parents alone to evaluate the session and discuss matters of interest that should be dealt with in the future.

 

HILTI programme

The meeting concluded with a discussion of the most important points participants take home from the meeting. All expressed that they had highly benefited from the meeting with regard to the role of parent leaders and the professionalization of teacher training. The two partners who don’t carry out a family literacy programme yet explained their perspective of how such a programme could be implemented in their country. In Bulgaria a family literacy programme would have to have a vocational, adult education perspective to attract participants and funding. In the case of the Bulgarian partner, the foundation “Etnoculturen Dialogue”, there is great interest in setting up a family literacy programme as it would be an ideal approach for addressing the Roma population. Like in Turkey where the Mother Child Education Program targets mothers of children who do not receive any preschool education, many children of the Roma receive no early childhood education. Those children and their mothers could be reached through a family literacy programme. The Italian partner – the Università Popolare di Roma, is strongly interested to learn more about family literacy in order to submit a proposal for such a programme to the City Council in Rome. In both countries, the family literacy approach is almost unknown, so that the implementation of such a project would be a first and important step to disseminating the approach in Bulgaria and Italy.
The next meeting will be held in Dublin from 8-10 May. It will focus on parents – recruitment, motivation and involvement of parents in family literacy programmes and materials related to parents’ work – again teacher training (as Ireland has a professional qualification system for literacy tutors including family literacy) and best practice.

Participants of the project meeting in Malta

Presentation giving an overview of the family literacy projects of all QualiFLY partners:

OverviewProjects

Presentation of the Pefal Grundtvig 1 project: PresentationPefal