Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Step 3 Material Development
Partners appreciate how the Aflatoun curriculum can be adapted.
To date, Aflatoun has curriculum in over 30 languages
and the list is still growing.
It is flexible and can be changed based on your needs.
Your country and region are distinct
and there are specific things and topics that are special,
different or important to you.
Adding these elements, so that the curriculum fits your needs,
is called contextualization.
Listen how our partners have contextuali- zed the curriculum for their programmes.
Well, we brought on board book developers
because we believe they needed to look at the book, the contents,
and then, we also brought on board
teachers who are teaching in the teacher training colleges.
They passed the knowledge and the skills to the teachers,
and since we believe we're using teach- ers who are already in the classroom
we want them to understand the processes
so that... with time, in the future,
we can integrate it
into the Ghanaian curriculum in the schools.
We had a meeting to decide on what we want to do
and eventually decided...
... on the book, to contextualize the web-book
because we feel the training manual is just perfect for us
but, looking at the resources that we have available
we can conveniently and confidently work with the eight books
so that was what we have been able to do.
We had a discussion on developing audio visual materials
because we felt that it would be a better way
to bring the message to the children,
but the challenges of resources held us back.
So, for now the books are available, we are using them,
but we are still accessing the possi- bility of having audiovisual materials.
And that would also involve getting the equipment
that would be used by the schools
who would eventually go in for the audiovisual materials.
The process that we went through with contextualizing the Aflatoun programme
was actually much easier than what other programmes have had to go through
because we could easily rely on the standard books in Arabic
and you could easily rely on the Egyptian books.
Initially, a number of us, within the foun- dation, did a quick review of the material
to get a sense of what the content was actually talking about.
Then we had an orientation programme with teachers from Jordanian schools
that allowed us also to introduce them to the content at hand,
to review the exercises
and what kind of topics were being introduced to the children,
and so we could also get a sense from the teachers
of what are the necessary things that we should be addressing
within the actual Jordanian context.
Following that process, we were able to more readily contextualize,
and "Jordanize" the programme to meet our needs as a country.
So after we had received feedback from the teachers
we did a process of deeper contextualization
where we went through actually the eight workbooks.
We distributed them internally, amongst a team within the foundation
and we started working on it.
So,
the process of contextualization does take a lot of previous study, planning.
You should get to know your Ministry officials very well.
You should get to know basically the procedures and the protocols
that are within each public organization
you need to go through, in order to gain approval.
That would be one of my best recommendations
for an incoming or new coming partner into the network.
Another really important recommendation
would be to really understand your context
and to really look at what problems the children and youth face
in the country you're working in.
We've consulted with professionals
that had been working children and youth within the country,
but also consult with the teachers
to understand what their feedback was on the actual programme.
And that's how we were able to adapt already existing standard Arabic books
into what is now the Jordanian version.
Hopefully, that'll meet the needs
of Jordanian children across the kingdom.
In adapting and designing a curriculum there are some pretty important steps.
One is making sure
the curriculum reflects the most recent data or publications.
Whether that's health education or financial literacy,
you want to make sure it's up to date and accurate.
And then two is making sure
that the curriculum integrates feedback from partners,
from teachers and from youth themselves.
Because it's very easy to design something that looks great on paper,
it's a whole other thing to design something that's fun, that's engaging
and that really works to teach kids what they need to know.
So the biggest thing for me,
is actually taking the curriculum into the field, and try it out with kids...
And it can be quite scary
for a professional in curriculum development or a teacher
to actually try something they are not 100 percent confident in.
It can be quite scary to have 25, 50 children looking at you
and saying 'This isn't going right!'.
But I think it's an absolute necessity.
The manuals came in English
and they've been adapted from the Indian model
for use in East Africa.
The context is amazingly different between East and West Africa.
And, for instance, the way people look is very different.
So we had to change the materials so that these would be meaningful
to children in both rural and urban settings
in West Africa.
And particularly in Mali.
And the main one...
is that in East Africa,
little girls very often have their heads more or less shaven.
Whereas in West Africa,
that would immediately mean that the child has some kind of skin problem,
she has had to have a special treatment, to be singled out.
And it simply wouldn't look normal.
So we had immediately to put hair on all the little girls
and we had to lengthen their skirts very considerably down to the ground.
As for the language, we had to translate it all into French,
and although many of the schools don't operate in French,
they use a local language...
In the case of the capital, it's a language called Bambara.
And because there are 12 languages
that are recognized by the Ministry of Education in Mali,
we didn't have the means to set about translating into all of these languages,
so we did it into the official language, which is French.
There is something I would recommend to other countries,
when they are translating into other languages.
They should have people who are good linguists
and who really know the language they are working into.
If possible, you should have somebody who is good in the original language,
so you don't rely solely on the translator.
And then you need to include teachers and parents.
Obviously it would be ideal if you could involve children as well,
and I hope that in the future, it will be possible to do that.
The percentage of children
who after 2 years at school
cannot read one single word
is extremely high.
It's 94 percent in French
and it's 88 percent in Bambara.
So clearly, we have to look at other ways
of transmitting the message about Aflatoun.
And we need to be more involved in...
... mass illustrations, posters,
big posters
that can be put on fabric
and taken from one classroom to another, from one school to another.
We need to be looking at those.
A partner in Senegal is already doing this and we are intending to start.
At the initial stages,
we had some interaction with children of clubs
that we already worked with as an organization
and these children are from schools, the formal educational systems.
We've showed them the 8 workbooks
and told them just to go through it, without telling them of our intention.
'Go through it and tell us what you feel about it".
There was the issue of shillings, the food...
They weren't clear to them, so they questioned them.
It was then that we told them
"Ok, it's possible to change those shillings into cedis,"
"and the foods into food you are used to".
So that was the help... or the feedback we had with children
and when we were contextualizing the book,
we were cautious of changing everything that is not Ghanaian
into the Ghanaian context
so that they can identify with them.
We had several other requests...
They wanted to see children in Ghanaian school uniforms,
the flags of the country...
They requested us to change the flags of the country in the book.
And we were conscious of changing all those things.
Look, I can't explain in words when the children saw the books.
The pictorials alone, were so exciting
for each and every child to ask or request for one.