A new era of collaboration in inclusive education has been initiated with the inception of a project that brought together GPE Knowledge and Innovation Exchange (KIX), scaling Early Inclusive Learning with Deaf Children Alignment Workshop organized by eKitabu. This workshop marked the project's inception phase and served as a platform to initiate the research.
Held over four days, from September 9 -12, The hybrid workshop brought together consortium members from Royal Kentalis/Kentalis International Foundation (K-IF), Open Development Education (ODE), and Busara Center for Behavioral Economics, who participated virtually.
Roles and Responsibilities of Consortium Members
The workshop attracted 15 participants, with 10 coming from eKitabu, and the rest from the project partners: Royal Kentalis participating with one senior researcher in Deaf education and the lead of the international knowledge exchange department, with 2 coming from ODE and 1 from Busara.
“We are pleased with the progress made so far, which shows the seriousness with which the stakeholders consider this project,” said Umutoni Marie Francoise, Senior Manager MEL, eKitabu.
During the inclusive workshop, the expertise of Georgine Auma and the team at Studio KSL in their work with teachers on DST and sign-language-rich environment creations informed the participants on the research opportunities and challenges ahead in the KIX project. The input by the Kentalis researcher, based on longstanding experience in deaf education academic research, helped the team to finetune the common research approach and agree on the assessment instruments as well as the parameters to be used.
Specific roles and responsibilities of each consortium member involved in the project were defined to ensure effective collaboration and accountability. The multi-annual project research work plan was refined based on school-year variations in our three project countries, with key performance indicators established to measure progress. Appropriate research tools and a Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) framework were identified to guide data collection and analysis.
Additionally, clear coordination and communication processes were outlined to ensure smooth collaboration, including regular updates and feedback mechanisms among consortium members.
Detailed Work Plan
Several action points were identified by participants. It was agreed that a detailed work plan be completed to ensure all tasks, timelines, and responsibilities were clearly outlined for the project’s implementation. Moreover, action will be taken to design and finalise the Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) framework, incorporating key indicators to track and measure project progress and outcomes.
“The alignment workshop highlighted the importance of collaboration in improving education for deaf and hard-of-hearing children. Working with eKitabu and Kentalis, we shared insights and tackled key challenges. While the project is complex, the meeting left me energized and confident that we’ll achieve more together.” Christopher Klune, Analyst, Open Development and Education, Ltd.
The team agreed on the development, and preparation of the Research Sign Language Assessment Tool (R-SLA) by Kentalis, to be trained to the eKitabu implementation team. Concrete plans were made on the Parents Awareness Workshop (PAW) module to align with the project’s objectives of parental involvement and action research for that matter.
Design-Based Implementation Research (DBIR) questions to guide the research process and support effective data collection will be finalised, in addition to the completion of the development of an evidence library to serve as a comprehensive resource for the project; this will consolidate key information, studies, and findings.
Workshop Outcomes and Achievements
There were three core result areas. In terms of knowledge generation, the workshop developed a repository of desk review documents to inform the research design. With knowledge mobilisation, this is still at the inception stage hence it is yet to be actualised. However, with capacity strengthening, consortium members gained a deeper understanding of project models, work activities, and milestones. There is also ongoing learning about scaling approaches.
“We welcome the opportunity to contribute to international research on sign language-rich environment creation in schools, as that is the key to any further literacy development in young children who are deaf and/or depend on visual language input for their communication with others as well as their inner-speech development. We are glad to share the research experience from Royal Kentalis in the Netherlands and cooperate with the eKitabu teams from Kenya, Rwanda, and Malawi.” Inclusive education for the deaf is extremely important in our day so that nobody is left behind in our fast-changing society and especially in matters of technology,” said Dr Maria Brons, Royal Kentalis.
As part of the workshop activities, the team had the opportunity to visit Machakos School for the Deaf, where they observed classroom interactions and watched learners engage with Digital Story Time, gaining valuable insights into the educational environment in Kenya.