Facilitating the Participation of Children with Disabilities in Early Childhood Development Centres in Malawi: Developing a Sustainable Staff Training Programme

Resource type
Journal Article
Authors/contributors
Title
Facilitating the Participation of Children with Disabilities in Early Childhood Development Centres in Malawi: Developing a Sustainable Staff Training Programme
Abstract
This article explores the development of a sustainable training programme supporting the inclusion of children with disabilities in early childhood, education and care (ECEC) centres in Malawi. This programme is based on a review of literature of curriculum, pedagogy and teaching approaches in ECEC in sub-Saharan Africa, alongside a review of national policy documents. The training was designed to enable staff to value the inclusion of children with disabilities in ECEC centres, as well as suggesting practical ways to do so. We set out our response to the gap in training of ECEC staff through the development of a supplementary integrated training programme, which, whilst respectful of the curriculum, policy and practice of Malawi, challenged staff to consider ways of including children with disabilities (CWD) and their families. We suggest this is a pragmatic and sustainable model that could be applied to training in other ECEC settings across the region in sub-Saharan Africa. It concludes with guiding principles for training those working in ECEC with young children with disabilities in low-income countries.
Publication
Sustainability
Volume
12
Issue
5
Pages
2104
Date
2020-03-09
Journal Abbr
Sustainability
Language
en
ISSN
2071-1050
Short Title
Facilitating the Participation of Children with Disabilities in Early Childhood Development Centres in Malawi
Accessed
17/08/2022, 14:52
Library Catalogue
DOI.org (Crossref)
Citation
Soni, A., Lynch, P., McLinden, M., Mbukwa-Ngwira, J., Mankhwazi, M., Jolley, E., Virendrakumar, B., Bedford, J., & Gercama, I. (2020). Facilitating the Participation of Children with Disabilities in Early Childhood Development Centres in Malawi: Developing a Sustainable Staff Training Programme. Sustainability, 12(5), 2104. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12052104