ITEP Graduate Students from the School of Education, Teaching, and Health consult for a School Improvement Project sponsored by UNICEF in Bosnia-Herzegovina

by Regina Schuman

While the rest of American University was taking their final exams this past May, a team of International Training and Education Program (ITEP) graduate students and faculty from the School of Education, Teaching, and Health were completing a very different type of assignment. From April 28 to May 11, 2007, twelve ITEP students and two faculty members went to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) to conduct a formative evaluation of a school improvement project supported by UNICEF. The trip was led Charles Tesconi, Director, ITEP and Lynn Cohen, Associate Director. Cohen was a long-term consultant with UNICEF in Bosnia-Herzegovina during and immediately after the Bosnian war. According to Professor Tesconi, “A significant feature of this project is that our students were involved from the beginning. They were instrumetnal in planning for it, in handling many of the logistics for it, and in developing the research and evaluation tools necessary to respond to UNICEF's charge. They have received guidance from faculty, but can proudly say it is their own.”

Bosnia and Herzegovina is a country in transition, confronting various and simultaneous education reforms. At the heart of the national School Improvement Initiative is the “Child Friendly Schools” project, sponsored by UNICEF in conjunction with their implementing partner, the Step by Step Centre for Educational Initiatives, an organization created to introduce and foster child-centered and democratic education in primary and secondary schools in BiH.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the “Child Friendly Schools” project was piloted in 2006 in 16 primary schools throughout the country. Major components of the program include training school improvement trainers to then train teachers and education administrators, developing a teacher manual, expanding community involvement in schools, and promoting child participation. The overall goal of the project is the “improvement of the educational process in primary schools in Bosnia and Herzegovina by creating the conditions for continuous professional development of teachers and building their capacities to include marginalized and disadvantaged children into the learning process and by using quality standards to increase students, parents, and teachers’ participation in the activities of the school and community” (p. 4-5, Centre…).

Each of the 16 schools involved in the pilot program are responsible for partnering with two new schools to expand the network of schools included in this initiative. The ITEP team was responsible for conducting a formative evaluation to help monitor the expansion of the project to these 32 additional schools throughout the country. The ITEP formative evaluation focused on the method of choosing the new schools, the action plans for working with these new schools, and the nature of the communication and feedback loops as well as the decision-making process in the network of schools.

Regarding this exciting opportunity, Lynn says, “ITEP values applied learning and seeks to give students opportunities to apply what they have learned in the classroom to real life settings. It is fundamental to our philosophy of education. ITEP is geared towards developing leaders in international education, and in order for students to develop solid knowledge and skill sets, they have to be able to apply what they have learned in the classroom.”The Bosnia and Herzegovina trip was a perfect opportunity to do this.

To prepare for this endeavor, students met to watch a documentary film on post-war educational reconstruction in BiH, produced by the Office of the High Representative and by a team of international educators including Lynn Cohen. Their reading lists were extensive and included introductory material on post-conflict education reconstruction as well as basic Bosnia and Herzegovina history. They also learned to cook some basic Bosnian foods such as burek, zeljanica, and cevapcici and started learning Bosnian vocabulary. They also began the process of developing the assessment instrument they used abroad. Says ITEP student Erin Nester, “Throughout my ITEP experience our professors always tried to bring in the real world context to their classrooms; experiential and practical learning requires it. But in BiH, we actually had the chance to use everything we'd learned about education sector analysis, program evaluation and action research in a real situation with real consequences and outcomes. We got to put ourselves to the test, and learn from walking through the process with the guidance of our experienced faculty.”

Students not only had the opportunity to practice the evaluation and assessment skills they have learned in the classroom, but also completed a consultancy project from start to finish. One of the students’ final products was to report their findings presented to UNICEF before departure as both a final presentation and as a formal written report. Another product still in its final stage includes a published monograph detailing a personal narrative of each participant that will be useful for future students in understanding consultancy work in country as well as both the pre- and post- preparations involved.

Because of the success of this trip to BiH, ITEP intends to conduct similar consultancy trips annually. Says Professor Tesconi, “It was a great experience to watch our MA candidates in action, to see them put into practice what they have learned in ITEP. Their good work moved UNICEF to let us know that they want us back. We can look forward to developing more contacts and to institutionalizing this kind of experience for students enrolled in ITEP. This is the beginning of what could be an enduring feature of our program, adding a dimension to it that will enhance the stature of the program and broaden professional opportunities for our graduates.” ITEP once again proved itself as a program committed to its practitioner focus in the field of international education.

Centre for Educational Initiatives Step by Step. (March, 2007). “Child Friendly Schools”.