Improving curriculum and teaching methods to influence policy and increase the quality of ECDE provision for children with disabilities in Malawi.

伯明翰大学（UoB）和国际视力保护组织邀请了来自马拉维、英国和美国的儿童早期发展和教育（ECDE）、特殊教育需求和残疾（SEND）、教育心理学、应用人类学和流行病学等领域的领先机构的研究人员和学者，共同设计并开展了一项为期三年的创新研究。这项研究将使ESRC、英国国际发展部、马拉维政府及其教育合作伙伴更好地了解复杂的动态，这些动态可以促进或抑制对CWDs的高质量ECDE。马拉维政府已将幼儿教育作为其增长与发展战略II（2012- 2016）的一部分，将其列为优先事项，以增加获得幼儿教育服务的公平性，提高幼儿教育服务的质量。目前，仅有三分之一以上的3至5岁儿童获得了幼儿教育服务。这个研究项目旨在解决马拉维对公平和高质量ECDE服务的广泛需求，它将在大华银行（一个专门研究残疾儿童教育的研究机构）和Sightsavers（一个支持撒哈拉以南非洲和南亚残疾儿童教育的英国慈善机构）之间建立先进的合作关系。他们将与马拉维大学（Chancellor College）、亚利桑那州立大学和一个专门研究全球健康研究中的应用人类学的英国研究机构（Anthrologica）合作。非学术利益攸关方将包括马拉维性别、儿童和社会福利部（MoGCSW）、教育、科学和技术部（MoEST）、救助儿童会（Save the Children）和马拉维幼儿发展协会（AECDM），该协会是负责向马拉维所有照料者提供幼儿教育培训的主要机构。研究问题和混合方法研究设计是在与合作伙伴协商后制定的，并将在研究开始时的初始研讨会期间进一步完善。将成立一个研究小组，由包括残疾人在内的广泛的政府、学术和非政府利益攸关方的代表组成，他们将指导和监督这些活动的实施。这项研究将受到伯明翰大学和马拉维大学的伦理批准，并将坚持获得所有参与者知情同意的最佳实践。这项研究将基于一种社会文化模式，将学习置于一种文化背景下，在这种文化背景下，家庭、同伴和学校教育被视为应对农村环境中早期发育迟缓和残疾儿童的关键。我们会以患有慢性精神病的家庭的日常生活为重点，探讨如何了解整个家庭生态，以及家庭生态与社区和机构的关系。此外，我们将探讨社区托儿中心（cbcc）如何提供“机构”支持，以帮助实现支持他们孩子的家庭目标，并试图减少这些家庭中经常很高的压力水平，特别是对主要照顾者。我们将设计和实施一个社区参与框架，为儿童中心的照顾者提供所需的技能和知识，以适应他们自己的教学实践，以可持续的方式帮助发展儿童的技能（例如语言和沟通、自助、认知、精细运动、大运动、社交和情感）。该小组将通过地方和国际一级的现有网络和伙伴关系传播研究成果，并在这项工作的基础上调查扩大和深化这些联系的机会。

The University of Birmingham (UoB) and Sightsavers International have invited researchers and academics from leading institutions working in the areas of early childhood development and education (ECDE) and special educational needs and disability (SEND), educational psychology, applied anthropology, and epidemiology in Malawi, the UK and the USA to co-design and conduct an innovative three-year study. This study will provide the ESRC, DfID, the Malawi Government and its partners in education with a better understanding of the complex dynamics that can enable or inhibit quality ECDE for CWDs. The Malawi Government has prioritised ECDE as part of its Growth and Development Strategy II (2012-16) to increase equity of access and improve the quality of early childhood services which are currently reaching just over one third of children aged three to five years. This research programme, which aims to address the widespread need for equitable and quality ECDE services in Malawi, will establish advanced level collaboration between UoB - a research institution specialising in the education of children with disabilities (CWDs) - and Sightsavers, a UK-based charity that supports the educational inclusion of CWDs in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. They will collaborate with the University of Malawi (Chancellor College), Arizona State University, and a UK-based research organisation specialising in applied anthropology in global health research (Anthrologica). Non-academic stakeholders will include the Malawi Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Welfare (MoGCSW) and the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST), Save the Children, and the Association of Early Childhood Development in Malawi (AECDM), the main agency responsible for the delivery of ECDE training to all caregivers in Malawi. The research questions and mixed method study design were developed in consultation with the partners, and will be further refined at the study outset during an inception workshop. A study group will be formed of representatives from a wide range of governmental, academic and non-governmental stakeholders, including people with disabilities, who will guide and oversee the implementation of the activities. The study will be subject to ethical approval at the Universities of Birmingham and Malawi, and will adhere to best practice in acquiring informed consent from all participants. The research will be based on a socio-cultural model that situates learning within a cultural context in which family, peers and schooling are regarded as key in responding to children with early developmental delays and disabilities in rural settings. We will focus on daily family routines of families with CWDs to identify ways of understanding the whole family ecology and how it intersects with the community and its institutions. Further, we will explore how community-based childcare centres (CBCCs) can provide 'institutional' support to help meet family goals that support their children, and try to reduce stress levels which are often high in these families, particularly for the main carer. We will design and implement a community participation framework which will provide CBCC caregivers with the required skills and knowledge to adapt their own teaching practices to help develop children's skills (e.g. language and communication; self-help; cognitive; fine motor; gross motor; social; and emotional) in sustainable ways. The team will disseminate study outputs through existing networks and partnerships at local and international levels, and investigate opportunities to extend and deepen those connections on the basis of this work.