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The African Storybook Initiative (ASb) recently supported the attendance of Dr Adelheid Marie Bwire from Kenyatta University, one of ASb’s partner institutions, at the International Literacy Association Conference and Exhibits in Boston. In this article Dr Bwire provides detail as to the conference objectives and shares lessons learned. By way of introduction, Dorcas Wephukulu, our Kenya Country Co-ordinator, elaborates on ASb’s strategy to identify and nurture partnerships with other organisations working on literacy issues.
Among Saide's African Storybook's key partners are teacher education institutions in pilot countries. In Kenya, Kenyatta University (KU) is our teacher education partner, with whom we have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to guide our collaboration. Kenyatta University trains both pre and in-service teachers, and also does research, both of which are crucial elements of ASb. The university contributes to the success of the African Storybook when student-teachers do story development and translation, use the ASb stories on teaching practice – or in the classroom by in-service teachers, quality assure story levels and suitability for early reading and language editing/checking (particularly for local language stories). Dr Bwire has been instrumental in getting the above done through the story development workshops that she organises at the university and through her consultancy work of training primary school teachers participating in the Reading Kenya Project (RKP) in Kajiado. The RKP is a project of the National Book Development Council of Kenya which is a literacy partner that ASb is collaborating with. Dr Bwire has the opportunity of participating in story development with student-teachers from her university and in training teachers involved in the Reading Kenya Project on how to use these stories and contribute more to the collection of local language stories for early literacy development. It is hoped that this process will stimulate teacher educator research.
Dr Bwire reports:
I attended and presented a poster session at the International Literacy Association 2016 Conference & Exhibits with the theme “Transforming Lives Through Literacy 2.0” which took place in Boston, Massachusetts in July this year. The conference strands focused on preparing pre-school through adult learners to become capable, confident readers and writers. Thousands of educators representing 50 countries participated.
The conference objectives were spread over select sessions from three tracks namely:
21st-Century Literacies:
This track took a deep dive into skills and competencies necessary for today’s students to succeed both in and out of the classroom, including information literacy, technology literacy and flexibility, among others. I learnt a lot from presentations on Multi-modal literacy, Digital literacy and Apps for promoting early literacy for all. These sessions provided me with insights into what ASb can do regarding promotion of the use of multi-lingual stories using a variety of technologies.
Literacy Leadership: This strand focused on the question of the fact that reading leadership begins in the classroom… but how do teachers cultivate that leadership in the school, district, or community at large? It offered sessions designed to help increase student literacy gains across the school. I strengthened my understanding of the role of Education Officers and school principal’s role as literacy leaders; how to develop and enrich Professional Literacy Circles and building leadership teams to ensure equitable literacy instruction.
Literacy Research: Research provides the backbone to effective literacy instruction. This strand featured sessions covering research on literacy, language and culture: implications for practice; strategies for effective literacy professional development; teaching and learning literacy: research, policy and everyday classroom practice. This strand helped me as an educator who wants to stay on top of today’s cutting-edge research. It increased my understanding of classroom behaviour during literacy classes. Generally speaking, the ASb is now ripe for moving into use and research in the classroom to gauge the implications the use of the stories has for practice in the classroom and its impact on learning outcomes. In some countries such as Kenya for instance, the usage of mother-tongue stories needs to be activated and strengthened for classroom use. Most of the presentations had deep insights into classroom practice and I could compare what happens in Kenyan early grade literacy classes and in other countries.
The title of the poster presentation, co-prepared with Ruth K. Odondi and George M. Andima was: Reading Kenya Kajiado Making a Difference: Influence of Storybooks Provision on Classroom Literacy Practice. It was developed from the on-going Reading Kenya Project, which is funded by Global Affairs Canada (GAC) through the Canadian Organisation for Development through Education (CODE). It is implemented in Kenya by the National Book Development Council of Kenya (a partner of the African Storybook Project) in conjunction with CODE. Highlights of the presentation are available through this link.
Sharing with ASb Lessons Learnt from the ILA conference
- It is important to carry out action research with teachers who are using ASb developed stories in early grades to determine what works and inherent challenges.
- Involve the primary school teacher and teacher trainer in developing and using ASb stories in their classes and teacher training.
- Strengthen networks with participating countries’ Curriculum Development bodies (such as the Kenya Institute for Curriculum Development (KICD) in Kenya, from where innovations and change in literacy practices can be mainstreamed.
- It is possible for teachers to create, develop and translate reading materials for children in their familiar language - this is essential in the literacy promotion crusade.
- Children need engaging, relevant, and varied reading materials that will help them develop the habit of reading and grow their language capacity and knowledge of the world even as they inspire their imagination and curiosity. To achieve this there is a need for more accessible and engaging books that are created by local writers and illustrators in large numbers - books that allow children to recognize themselves and their surroundings and feel at home with the practice of reading.
- Teachers’ guides should be written to help teachers on how to use the African languages story books in the classroom. This can be a way of enhancing their effectiveness in the classroom and as a vehicle for spreading good practices for teaching literacy more broadly.
- Stories written in the Maa language for example, the ASb Maa stories can go a long way to support reading and learning with confidence and competence.
In conclusion, teacher parent partnering is essential in the literacy crusade. |
