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 Haitian Studies Program

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EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT NEEDS ASSESSMENT FRAMEWORK
 

Summary

There is a great deal of interest in directly linking education and development in Haiti, particularly in the provinces and rural areas. The local parishes of Thomonde and Thomassique operate a number of cooperative farms and have little to a significant amount of land in the region. The area produces a great deal of cassava, mangoes, papaya and beans. Both parishes operate secondary and elementary schools as well as several rural schools. Preliminary discussions with local priests and community leaders have resulted in a letter of interest from the parish priest of Thomonde, expressing his willingness to commit the parish as pilot for an education and development project. Representatives from both Thomassique and Thomonde have expressed the need for teacher-training and seek the assistance of the Haitian Studies Association/the Haitian Studies Project at the University of Massachusetts Boston to develop a teacher-training project.

HSA applied and received a grant from FOKAL to undertake a pilot education and development project in the town of Thomonde and nearby communities. The project entails:

  1. the realization of needs assessment for teacher training
  2. the formulation of a teacher training curriculum to reflect the needs assessment
  3. conducting a series of teacher training workshops
 

The lessons learned from this pilot project will form the basis for larger models for teacher training and education and development. This, however, is a conceptual framework for the needs assessment component of the project

Rationale

Haiti's educational system is centralized and, as such, curriculum planning and implementation decision making processes are centralized. In general, centralized systems follow a "top-down" decision making process where decisions are made at the top or center without meaningful involvement of people at the bottom or the periphery. Advocates of the "top-down" strategy believe that people in general resists change and require direction and structure so as to work efficiently and effectively. It follows that it is management's responsibility to plan, and design a curriculum that it deems appropriate and implement it thoroughly by directives from the top.

The problem with this top-down approach can be analyzed at two levels: The planning and implementation level, because of the system's inadequate "bottom-up" information flow, it does not have sufficient database about the needs of the learners, teachers' opinions about certain aspects of the curriculum and the needs and expectations of the local communities and the Haitian society at large. In other words, the inputs from the local communities and students, and teachers are not well articulated for effective teacher planning and teacher training take place. At the implementation level, information on curriculum development and implementation is usually diluted and distorted by the time it reaches the user system (schools) because of bureaucratic red-tape, and the hierarchical structure of the system. As a result, schools particularly outside of Port-au-Prince do not have sufficient assistance/information to effectively implement the curriculum. The lack of a well articulated bottom up approach to curriculum planning and implementation also means that teachers feel alienated by the system because they are not involved from the initial stages of the curriculum process. It has been argued that when teachers are involved in planning and designing the curriculum, they are committed to the success of the program. Finally the lack of a bottom up approach to curriculum decision making process deprives the system of evaluative feedback from the parents, teachers and students about the strengths and weaknesses of the curriculum.

Purpose

The purpose of this needs assessment is three-fold:

  1. it will assess current curriculum planning and implementation decision-making process in the town of Thomonde in order to see if the schools in the town fit into the general typology of centralized systems
  2. it will assess the ability of teachers to provide a level of instruction commensurate to the grades and subjects that they are teaching; and
  3. if the results confirm that the schools in Thomonde fit into the centralized typology or that teachers lack the necessary training, a curriculum for teacher training will be developed and strategies will be devised through which the schools while maintaining a centralized structure -- can involve teachers and parents and the community at large in curriculum planning and implementation decision making process. But if the results of the needs assessment show a unique blending of top-down and bottom-up strategies, therefore, making the assumptions made in the rationale not applicable to Thomonde, the project will then articulate the strategies to develop a teacher-training that will involve teachers, parent and curriculum decision making.
 

Objectives

The objectives which will guide the needs assessment are as follows:

 

Needs Assessment Design

The local parishes in Thomonde and Thomassique operate a number of cooperative farms and have title to a significant amount of land in the region. The parish in Thomonde operates a secondary school and an elementary school as well as several rural schools. The priest has stated that he is willing to place the facilities at the disposition of HSA/HSP.

The needs assessment team (research team) includes HSA's education Task Force members, two faculty from Quisqueya University, and two to four student assistants from Quisqueya. Data for the needs assessment will be collected through focus groups, interviews, and archival records. The focus groups and interviews will target teachers, students, school administrators, and residents of the parish of Thomonde. Data on the background and level of education of the teachers will be collected from archival records and interviews of school administrators. Additionally, resources available in the parish of Thomonde will be surveyed to identify the assets which exist in the community.

The research team is responsible for developing questionnaires for the focus groups and interviews. The questionnaires will reflect the goals of the assessment. Additionally, the research team will participate in a three hour training session on focus groups and interviewing techniques and methods in order to insure consistency and standardization.

Four weeks will be spent in the field work phase of the project. This phase will be conducted in Thomonde. More than thirty persons in thomonde representing local, regional and national interests will be interviewed by members of the research team. The interviews will be focused around four major questions, but the team will also try to keep the discussions as open and flexible as possible so to encourage spontaneity. The general format of the discussions is shown in (Appendix A). The research team will be familiar with the local situation before conducting the field work.

The needs assessment will consist of four interrelated parts.

  1. An introduction which will provide the context of the region, the schools, and their characteristics.
  2. A theoretical discussions of what works in terms of teacher training and participatory approaches to educational planning and development.
  3. A presentation of the major findings of the assessment including an analysis of any physical conditions that may impede learning.
  4. A general conclusion and recommendations to address the findings of the assessment.
 

Project Schedule
Draft conceptual framework  May 21, 1997  Complete 
Selection of research team  June 9, 1997 
Final conceptual framework  June 16, 1997 
Draft questionnaires  June 16, 1997 
Final questionnaires  June 30, 1997 
Research team training  July 
Field work  July--August 
Draft Report> September 15, 1997
Final report  October 1, 1997 
 

APPENDIX A
 

Interview Structure

Identification/ Purpose

 

Attitudes/ Staff Development

 

Problems

 
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