Assessing Educational Change - Essay Example

ASSESSING EDUCATIONAL CHANGE Locate a current event, summarized in print or electronic media, in which an educational change (ideally pertaining to student instruction) was enacted. Bilingual Education Project in Mozambique Introduction The government of Mozambique introduced bilingual education in 2004, seeking to increase the lingual knowledge of students within the country. The project was introduced in public schools within rural and urban areas within the country. Within the country language has been a factor which has been utilised in discrimination of individuals. The government sought to change these effects through introduction of bilingual education to enhance the people’s understanding of the Portuguese language. Many people within the country considered knowledge of Portuguese to be an empowering element in life(Nhalevilo, 2013). In seeking to empower the people, the government began offering bilingual education to enhance the capacity for individuals to understand Portuguese. The government considered such educational changes as essential in enhancing the perceptions of individuals regarding acquisition of education. Initiation The planning phase for the project was undertaken with numerous conferences and meetings within different location across the country. This sensitisation process was aimed at ensuring majority of the stakeholders became aware of the project being undertaken across the country. The project was aimed at ensuring creation of people networks across the country through language. The nationwide conferences were undertaken to inform the general public about the process of implementing the project and the purposes of the entire project. During the project initiation process, the project proposals were presented to various stakeholders who would provide essential resources for implementation of the project. These included financiers and facilitators across the country. These stakeholders accepted the proposal and the project commenced. While the project management team performed numerous essential preplanning activities to ensure the successful implementation of the project, many processes were overlooked during the planning phase. The project management team focused on only two stakeholders, while ignoring, majority of the fundamental stakeholders. Universities were given a priority over schools during the initiation phase. The project management team should consult all stakeholders and seek their opinion regarding the process. They would however classify the stakeholders in terms of their influence on the project. The public schools and their teachers were ignored during the planning phase. Consultations with these stakeholders would have sought to identify the requirements in implementing the project, consequently enhancing the implementation process. The capacity for teachers to undertake the bilingual education programme could become assessed ensuring the teachers become equipped with essential skills and equipment to implement the project. As the recipients of the services, learners would also form an essential part of stakeholders. Their capabilities should have been analysed during the planning phase of the project. Such analysis would ensure that the utilised processes meet the requirements of learners in achieving desirable outcomes from the project. Implementation Collaborative work This was performed through the various conferences which were organised by the project management team. They sought to bring various stakeholders together and enhance the collaboration among the stakeholders. The roles of each stakeholder would become effectively understood by other stakeholders within the project. Working relationships become created during this stage. Much of the collaborative work within the project was not undertaken effectively as students were not actively involved; only the policy makers were involved(Green, 2012). Though the change was aimed at enhancing the learner capabilities, the impact of the learners would have been fundamental in ensuring positive acceptance from the learners. Stakeholder support The support for the project by different stakeholders remains essential in successful implementation of the project. The proposal for this project was presented to the stakeholders for approval and analysis before commencing the implementation process. While the stakeholders accepted the proposal, their continued support remains essential in the success of the project. Within the process of implementing the bilingual education project in Mozambique, the initial funding provided for project could not suffice the project requirements. The projects stalled mid-way and the management team began seeking optional funding from other sources. Stakeholder withdrawal remains a fundamental source of project failure during advanced stages of the project. Progress evaluation The progress of the project must be continuously monitored for corrective action to be undertaken on a timely manner. This evaluation remains essential in ensuring continuity and eliminating possibility of project failure. As the owner of the project, the government was supposed to undertake a continuous evaluation of the progress throughout the implementation process. Having plans for assessing the progress remains essential in ensuring continued monitoring of the process. The project lacked sufficient evaluation, which could have identified as funds began to diminish and effectively initiate corrective actions. Failure to continuously monitor the progress could have contributed towards the stalling of the project. Evaluation Following the completion of the project an evaluation of the project would be undertaken to establish the effectiveness of the project. Changes which have been achieved through the implementation of the project can become analysed to establish the achievements gained from the project. This evaluation also becomes essential in establishing the overall success of the project based on the developed goals at the beginning of the project. The valuation process should be undertaken continuously through the project to ensure identification of discrepancies and deviations from the initial project plan(Kenny, 2002). An evaluation should be based on the objectives developed at the initiation stage of the project; these become the performance indicators for the project. The evaluation process for the project in Mozambique was ineffective as many of the stakeholders involved had minimal influence upon the project. Evaluation of the skills possessed by teachers was not undertaken as many teachers lacked the capability to perform their roles in implementing the project. Many of the teachers remained illiterate regarding the activities being undertaken. An evaluation process would have enabled the management team to identify these challenges from the beginning stages of the project. Upon identification of such weakness, actions could have been adopted towards enhancing the skills of teachers in performing their roles within the project. Essential teacher capabilities remain fundamental in ensuring successful implementation and sustainability of the entire project. The evaluation process remains essential in ensuring the various stakeholders have the capacity to implement the desired change, and achieve the project objectives. Challenges resulting in stakeholder withdrawal become effectively addressed through making evaluations. The evaluation process would present the management team with essential understanding of stakeholder capabilities in undertaking the responsibilities involved within the project. The prospects of successful implementation result in efficiency of the evaluation process. The support received from various involved stakeholders must also be evaluated in order to ensure continuity of such support throughout the project process. Capacity building among the stakeholders was not effectively developed hence the performance of various activities remained relatively poor among many stakeholders. Conclusion The various planning processes utilised within the project overlooked a number of factors, which would have been essential in ensuring successful implementation. The evaluation of stakeholders was undertaken upon some of the stakeholders while others became ignored. The capacity for these stakeholders to perform the various tasks allocated to them was not effectively analysed before commencing with the project initiation process. Many teachers, who were expected to undertake the project, lacked essential skills and would have required to undergo intensive training to gain the essential skills. The project management team failed to analyse the capabilities of teachers to perform various responsibilities. The project stalled midway through as stakeholders lacked the capability to provide continued resources for the project. While the project might have had an impressive development agenda, lack of proper assessment and ignorance of certain details contributed to the ultimate failure. A combination of various factors contributed towards the ultimate failure of the project to achieve the project objectives and goals. References Green, R. L. (2012). Practicing the Art of Leadership: A Problem-Based Approach to Implementing the ISLLC Standards (4th ed., p. 294). New York: Pearson Education Ltd. Kenny, J. (2002). Managing innovation in educational institutions. Australian Journal of Educational Technology,, 18(3), 359–376. Nhalevilo, E. A. (2013). Bilingual Education Project in Mozambique (p. 15). Sydney. Read More