Education and the CRS Integral Human Development Framework by Catholic Relief Services

Education and the CRS Integral Human Development Framework

Education and the CRS Integral Human

Development Framework

Inclusive Education in Vietnam

Adult Literacy in Guatemala

Vocational Training in Sudan

Building Assets and Transforming Structures & Systems

Around the World

Program Quality Support Department 1 Education Technical Unit

Education and the CRS Integral Human Development Framework

EDUCATION AND THE CRS INTEGRAL HUMAN

DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORK

Building Assets and Transforming Structures & Systems

Around the World

Prepared by CRS Education Technical Advisors, Program Quality and Support

Department

A CRS Internal Working Paper

January 2007

Education and the CRS Integral Human Development Framework

Introduction This paper looks at education and learning1 in the CRS Integral Human Development (IHD) conceptual framework. Its goal is to help CRS country programs and partner organizations use the IHD framework to assess, learn from and improve their programming in education and promotion of integral human development.2 The paper is divided into three sections. The first gives an overview of the IHD conceptual framework. The second describes an IHD-education assessment. And the third looks at how to analyze this information. The IHD How to use this document: conceptual framework supports CRS’ existing approaches to education o To design an education assessment programming. It complements the CRS o To analyze information on education gathered from Education Vision statement, and IHD assessment or other sources Structural Analysis, the Justice Lens o As a checklist, to identify programming gaps and and other existing principles and opportunities practices that we already use for good o To stimulate discussion and innovative thinking programming. among CRS staff, partners and communities At the same time, an IHD analysis gives When to conduct an IHD education analysis: CRS and our partners a new way to An IHD analysis can be conducted at any point in the gather, organize and analyze inforprogramming cycle, including: mation about communities, their o As part of an SPP process strengths and needs. This can happen in o Situation analysis and program design two important ways. First, it allows us to look at old problems in a new light. o On-going project monitoring and evaluation This can be the key to finding innovative approaches and strategies that will improve our programming. Second, it gives us a more holistic picture of the issues we are addressing. This can help us identify any gaps in our programming or potential linkages between education and other sectors for greater impact. In writing this paper, we imagine two framing questions to help guide country programs and partner organizations in using the IHD conceptual framework. They are: • How well does our project/program reflect the thinking of CRS’ Integral Human Development conceptual framework? • How could we improve the project/ program based on an IHD analysis? These are not, of course, the only questions that may be answered through this exercise. CRS country programs should feel free to adapt and expand the analysis as necessary. 1

This paper uses both the terms education and learning to refer to what is being analyzed in the IHD conceptual framework.

Under the name ‘education unit’ the education technical advisors in PQSD support a wide range of programs that span the human life cycle and goes beyond formal ‘education’ to encompass a variety of ‘learning’ opportunities, from early childhood development to vocational training and adult literacy. These programs are complemented by activities in civic engagement, such as PTA development, and child rights and protection, such as work with street children and combating child labor.

Education and the CRS Integral Human Development Framework

IHD and CRS The concept of Integral Human Development is central to Catholic Social Teaching. It is a vision of what we aim to achieve as we further the process of human development for the world’s poor and marginalized populations. CRS defines IHD as: development that promotes the good of every person and the whole person; it is cultural, economic, political, social, and spiritual. According to ProPack, the process of Integral Human Development “enables people to protect and expand the choices they have to improve their lives, meet their basic human needs, free themselves from oppression and realize their full human potential.” For society, the pursuit of IHD “morally obliges [us], including government and economic institutions, to seek justice, ensure equal opportunities for all, and put the dignity of the human person first”. 3 Programming in support of Integral Human Development requires a holistic understanding of people’s lives, their goals and the strategies that they use to reach their goals. The IHD conceptual framework, pictured below, is an attempt to visualize how the process of IHD takes place for individuals and their communities. The CRS Integral Human Development Conceptual Framework

O utcom es Shocks, C ycles & T rends

Strategies

A ssets Spiritual & H um an Social

P hysical

N atural

P olitical

F inancial

A ccess

Influ ence

Structures & System s (Institutions; value system s; policies; pow er structures; social, econom ic, religio us and political system s; beliefs)

F eedback = O pportunities or C onstraints

At first glance, this framework can seem confusing. To understand how this conceptual framework actually works, it is best to look first at its main components and then to analyze how they fit together. 3

CRS ProPack, p. 52.

Education and the CRS Integral Human Development Framework

THE FIVE COMPONENTS OF IHD There are five main components, or “boxes”, in the IHD framework. They are: Outcomes; Strategies; Assets; Structures & Systems; and Shocks, Cycles & Trends. Each of these is briefly defined here. OUTCOMES – In this paper, outcomes are considered from two perspectives: First are the actual outcomes that are being achieved by individuals, communities and schools in their lives and livelihoods. This includes information for households and communities on health (e.g. infant mortality rate), education (e.g. girls’ enrolment rate), water and sanitation (e.g. percentage of people with access to safe drinking water), et cetera. When it comes to measuring the actual outcomes that people achieve in education, the indicators and sources of data will be different for each context. The following are common indicators for education outcomes and should be disaggregated for gender or other disparities: • • • • •

Enrolment rates Literacy rates Dropout, promotion and repetition rates Average number of years of schooling; primary level completion rates Learning achievement (i.e., how much have students actually learned)

Second are the desired outcomes (goals, aspirations and objectives) that guide people in the decisions they make regarding their families, livelihoods and communities. These IHD outcomes may be defined by the people themselves, or they may be defined externally by a government or international organization, such as CRS. The following are examples out desired outcomes that community members might identify: •

Our children are able to read and write; earn a good living; and take care of their families

•

Our children have vocational skills to get jobs in the town

•

Our children are respected as educated members of the community

STRATEGIES – People employ a variety of strategies to realize their desired Outcomes. The IHD conceptual framework uses six categories of strategies: Asset Maximization; Asset Diversification; Empowerment; Asset Recovery; Coping and Survival Mechanisms; and Risk Reduction. An IHD analysis helps us identify and strengthen successful strategies while reducing reliance on strategies that might have short-term benefits but are unsustainable over the long term. It also helps us to broaden the range of available strategies that people can use. Successful IHD strategies sustain and increase assets over time, whereas unsuccessful ones lead to asset loss. ASSETS – Assets are the resources people draw upon to make their strategies work. The IHD conceptual framework identifies six asset categories: •

Human and Spiritual Assets: education, wisdom, health, religious faith

•

Social Assets: family, friends, and groups that form our support networks

•

Political Assets: the power people possess to advocate for change and claim rights

•

Physical Assets: homes, clothes, equipment, tools

•

Financial Assets: cash and income, or things like livestock that can be sold for cash 5

Education and the CRS Integral Human Development Framework

•

Natural Assets: resources like soil, water, plants, trees, animals and air

The strength of their assets is an important factor in how successful people’s IHD Strategies will be. The IHD conceptual framework describes an asset-based approach, where successful development strategies build on and take advantage of people’s existing assets, in addition to meeting their needs. STRUCTURES & SYSTEMS – For a Catholic organization concerned with social justice, this is one of the most important components of the IHD conceptual framework. Structures & Systems are forces that shape our behavior and influence what we can do and how we can do it. Legal, market, political and socio-cultural systems organize and regulate behavior. Structures, such as ministries of education, set laws and policies that do the same. In the end, it is Structures & Systems that determine things like: who can access services and assets; who gets important information and who does not; and who participates in decision making and who does not.4 It is often barriers that exist in Structures & Systems that keep people from realizing their desired IHD Outcomes. Identifying the relationships between Structures & Systems, Assets and vulnerability (see below) is a key to understanding issues of poverty, human dignity and social justice that are essential for good program design.5 SHOCKS, CYCLES & TRENDS – This section is also referred to as the vulnerability context. Shocks, Cycles & Trends are external risks and opportunities that influence the all other areas of the conceptual framework. They might be large-scale events, like a tsunami or earthquake, or changes that occur slowly over time, like changes in the price of an export commodity. They can be positive or negative, but either way it is important to understand what effect they have on people’s Strategies to achieve their IHD Outcomes. For CRS programming, it is also important to note that our work can lessen people’s vulnerability to these Shocks, Cycles and Trends in two main ways: 1) Changing underlying Structures & Systems that contribute to vulnerability; 2) Strengthening the resilience of individuals by supporting the development of Assets.6

BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER The IHD conceptual framework can look complicated and confusing, especially if you are looking at it for the first time. All of these boxes and arrows are easily brought together, however, by three simple questions:

“The CRS Integral Human Development Framework: A Brief Overview.” An informal PQSD Publication.

Authors: Gaye Burpee, Geoff Heinrich and Rosann Zemanek.

5 Ibid.

6 http://www.livelihoods.org/info/info_guidancesheets.html

Education and the CRS Integral Human Development Framework

WHAT ARE PEOPLE’S DESIRED AND ACTUAL OUTCOMES?

WHAT STRATEGIES ARE THEY USING TO REACH THESE OUTCOMES? HOW DO THEIR ASSETS; THE STRUCTURES & SYSTEMS

IN THEIR COMMUNITY; AND THE SHOCK, CYCLES &

TRENDS IN THEIR ENVIRONMENT HELP OR HINDER THE

STRATEGIES THEY ARE USING TO REACH THEIR GOALS?

When we conduct an IHD assessment, we are taking a picture of a household or community at a single moment. Over time, the information in the framework will change, as people move toward IHD. This is why the IHD conceptual framework includes a feedback loop from Outcomes to Assets and Structures & Systems. By using the IHD conceptual framework before, during and after a project, we can see how the work of CRS and its partners is promoting change in each of the five components of the IHD conceptual framework.

Assessment Education and learning – and the skills that people gain from them – play a central role in the IHD conceptual framework. They build human assets, and acquiring and using them are important parts of almost any IHD strategy. As employees of a large, professionalized humanitarian organization, think how education, training and learning have contributed to the development of our own careers. Yet not everyone is able to get an education or acquire the skills that they want. Accessing basic education is a problem for more than 100 million primary school-aged children in the world today. Children from poor families can’t afford to go to school; schools are located too far away for children in rural communities; education for girls isn’t valued; and children from ethnic or religious minorities are barred from attending. For those children who do attend school, they risk wasting their time in poor quality schools. These are schools where the conditions for teaching and learning are poor; where the teachers are poorly trained and supported; and where the lessons aren’t relevant to children’s lives.

Education and the CRS Integral Human Development Framework

CRS education and child-protection programs already confront many of these issues. Today, more than 1 million children in 25 countries attend schools that are supported in part by CRS. At CRS, our education programming is guided by our Education Vision.

CRS Education Vision CRS, working in partnership, promotes and supports access to quality basic education for all. We stand in solidarity with the most marginalized and work together to effect personal, structural and systemic changes for development. In doing so, we contribute to building a more peaceful and just society. CRS education programming is founded on continuous dialogue and reflection for improved performance. The priorities are: • Quality Education – Sound teaching practices, relevant pedagogy, childfriendly and safe learning environments and education for peace • Access and Equity – Basic education (literacy, numeracy and life skills) as defined in the local context • Community Participation – Strong local capacities to define, demand, support and sustain quality education CRS Education Unit – Baltimore 2001

An IHD education assessment complements this Vision by giving CRS and its partners a greater understanding of the context in which our education interventions are taking place. An IHD analysis lets us better understand: • Are Structures & Systems helping or limiting education for all? • Are the available education opportunities what community members need to achieve their desired Outcomes? • What Assets are available in the community to support education? • How do the Strategies that people use to manage Shocks, Cycles & Trends affect education? How does education affect the Strategies that people use to manage Shocks, Cycles & Trends? Understanding this context and adapting our activities accordingly will strengthen our education programming and better promote IHD in the communities where CRS and our partners work.

Education and the CRS Integral Human Development Framework

OUTCOMES As noted already, the starting point of an IHD analysis is an understanding of the desired outcomes of the community members themselves. What is the demand for education? What education or learning goals do they have for themselves and their children? This includes the formal education system as well as non-formal education, such as vocational training, and informal learning, such as religious and cultural education. This information should be collected and assessed alongside traditional education statistics, such as enrolment rates. Knowing a community’s ‘demand’ for education will help CRS and its partners more effectively improve the ‘supply’.

Types of Education and Learning Formal education is the hierarchically structured, chronologically graded, educational system running from primary through the tertiary institutions. Non formal education is organized educational activity outside the established formal system that is intended to serve an identifiable learning clientele with identifiable learning objectives. Informal education is the process whereby every individual acquires attitudes, values, skills and knowledge from daily experience such as from family, friends, peer groups, the media and other influences and factors in the person's environment. – UNESCO glossary (www.unesco.org)

In addition to considering the educational aspirations of the people we serve, we also need to consider the desired outcomes that others see for them. First, countries set laws and policies that may require every child to be enrolled in school or somehow limit who may attend. National ministries of education set standards for the education system and decide what is included in the national curriculum. Just as individuals have opinions about how they want to develop Convention on the Rights of the Child – Article 28 their own human capital, 1. States Parties recognize the right of the child to education and governments also have opinions with a view to achieving this right progressively and on the basis of about how they want to develop equal opportunity, they shall, in particular: the human capital of the nation. (a) Make primary education compulsory and available free to all;

Second, there are international standards and norms such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child7 (CRC) that also influence education systems and our own approach to programming. The right to education, contained in the CRC, has become a central part of the Millennium Development Goals and the Education for All movement. For CRS, our own approach to equality and social justice mean that we believe that every child should have an equal opportunity to a quality education.

(b) Encourage the development of different forms of secondary education, including general and vocational education…; (c) Make higher education accessible to all on the basis of capacity by every appropriate means; (d) Make educational and vocational information and guidance available and accessible to all children; (e) Take measures to encourage regular attendance at schools and the reduction of drop-out rates. 2. States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that school discipline is administered in a manner consistent with the child's human dignity and in conformity with the present Convention. 3. States Parties shall promote and encourage international cooperation in matters relating to education… In this regard, particular account shall be taken of the needs of developing countries.

http://www.ohchr.org/english/law/pdf/crc.pdf

Education and the CRS Integral Human Development Framework

Assessment Questions ■ What are the actual education outcomes that are being achieved? ■ What are the desired educational outcomes of the people we are serving? How do these differ among community members (age, gender, other status)?

■ What are the educational goals of the national government? ■ What are the relevant international standards for education and child rights?

STRUCTURES & SYSTEMS The education system (both formal and non-formal aspects) is composed of a great range of stakeholders. These include the state, which sets policy for the sector and has responsibility for the provision of formal education; the private sector, which may support the formal system or provide education services on its own; the children and families who are consumers of education services; and various formal and informal organizations, from international NGOs to school management committees, that have a role in education and learning. The education system also embodies the values of both the state and the local culture. For the state, education is one of the primary tools of nation building. The curriculum and teaching methodology reflect the priorities of the state and its desire for creating an intellectual, social and political culture in the country that may be inclusive or exclusive, uniform or pluralistic. For their part, community values and priorities are often seen in the available non-formal education opportunities, such as religious education, which are more responsive to the local ‘market’ for learning. However, community values are also seen in limitations to access, such as schooling for girls, that are based in local attitudes. Examples in education include the following: Systems: The national education system, including formal and non-formal opportunities for training and learning, such as: government schools; private schools; religious education; early childhood development centers; adult literacy classes; and others. Community systems of values and norms regarding education, particularly those values that influence the participation of girls, minorities or children with disabilities.

Structures: The national government education structure (usually the Ministry of Education) and its laws and policies that determine who learns what, when and how. Groups that participate formally or informally in the education process, including: Parent-teacher associations; School Boards; School Management Committees; councils of elders; women’s groups; nongovernmental organizations; and others.

Education and the CRS Integral Human Development Framework

Assessment Questions ■ What government laws, policies and programs exist to support education and child rights?

■ What formal and non-formal, public or private education and learning opportunities exist in the community?

■ What formal or informal community-school groups exist (e.g., PTA, school board)? What are their roles and responsibilities?

■ What religious or social groups, CBOs, and NGOs exist to support education, especially for poor or marginalized children?

■ What are community values regarding education? Are these different for different groups of children (boys, girls, minorities, others)?

ASSETS The role of education on Integral Human Development can be most easily seen in the area of human assets. Education builds skills, talents and abilities that enable a person to successfully pursue a livelihood. These benefits also transfer between generations – for example, mothers with some education are more likely to send their daughters to school.

The Power of Girls’ Education “Evidence on the returns to girls’ education falls into four broad categories: • Increased Income and Productivity. Education generally leads to increased income and productivity for individuals and for nations as a whole. • Smaller, Healthier, Better-Educated Families. Educating women is the single most effective way to encourage smaller, healthier and better-educated families. • HIV/AIDS. Education can be one of the best defenses against HIV/AIDS, both because of education’s impact on women’s earning capacity, empowerment and family wellbeing, and because school-based HIV education programs discourage risky behavior among young girls in particular. • Women’s Empowerment. Education helps empower women to stand up for themselves and their children and can bring benefits to the broader community and society, through more effective and representative government.”

Sometimes the link between education and a livelihood may be direct – for example, a carpenter who holds a diploma – What Works in Girls’ Education (Council on Foreign Relations, 2004) from a trade school. More often, however, the benefits of education on livelihoods are realized through indirect pathways. Numerous studies have demonstrated how the number of years of education a person has is positively correlated with their livelihood success. For example, farmers with more education are more productive, even if they didn’t study agriculture; women with more education better manage household resources. These skills may be acquired through formal or non-formal systems. Although formal education systems may be weak where we work, vocational training, apprenticeships, private language classes, and religious education all represent a rich marketplace of learning opportunities.

Education and the CRS Integral Human Development Framework

Education is also an ‘enabling asset’ – that is, it enables people to make better use of their other assets. For example, educated women better manage household financial assets. And literacy can be a lever for political assets – improving the ability of groups to exercise their political influence through communication and transmission of information. CRS education programming can also have Building Social and Political Assets direct links with social assets. Education The CRS Parent School Partnership program projects that connect parents, teachers and in the Balkans and Caucasus has been highly schools can build social capital through the successful in building social and political participation of community members in the capital by establishing – or transforming existing – Parent Councils into democratic, education system, for example in a parent participatory organizations. Parents were first teacher association (PTA) or school mobilized around the common goal of management committee (SMC). For this improving their local schools, but later tackled reason, Community Participation is one of the broader social issues, such as ethnic three main priorities in the Education Vision. reintegration and the needs of vulnerable community members. From these individual By coming together to support education, associations, national Parent Council networks social capital is built among community formed to change legislation and participate in members, between the community and the national education policy and reform debates. school and between the PTA/SMC and other civil society groups. In the Balkans, the CRS Parent School Partnership program has been an excellent example of such programming.

Community Assets Supporting Education An IHD education analysis should also look at the Assets that are present in the community and that can support education. Community members can donate money, labor and time to support the school. They can also participate in learning by serving as animators or teachers’ aides, or coming to class to talk to students, e.g. about their work or their experience of a historical event. Natural resources in the community can contribute to building the school or used as a school garden, and by using the natural environment around the school, teachers can make lessons more relevant to students’ lives. For schools in poor, rural communities, community assets of all kinds are essential.

Assessment Questions ■ What groups, such as PTAs or SMCs exist in the community? What are their roles and responsibilities?

■ What human and natural assets exist in the community to support education? ■ Are there examples in the community of how education is an enabling asset? What are the benefits that educated people in the community have?

Education and the CRS Integral Human Development Framework

SHOCKS, CYCLES AND TRENDS Shocks, Cycles and Trends are external factors that influence all other boxes within the IHD framework.8 Shocks include a wide range of forces, including natural disasters, man-made crises and the impact of HIV/AIDS. Disasters may completely stop education services or cause them to change almost overnight. The tsunami in Indonesia destroyed large portions of the education system – killing teachers and students and ruining buildings and supplies. The war in Bosnia, on the other hand, didn’t completely stop the education system, but forced it to go ‘underground’ into basements and cellars.

Inter-Agency Network on Education in Emergencies (INEE) INEE is a network of professionals who work in education in emergencies, chronic crises and early reconstruction. Their website contains a wide range of resources for education, including minimum standards for education. These standards as well as general resources on education programming in emergencies can be found on the INEE website: www.ineesite.org.

Although it may not seem like a priority response in the height of a disaster, education has a very valuable role soon after in restoring a sense of normalcy and hope to affected children and communities. Quickly restoring education after a shock also helps to protect human assets and can help build new social assets as community members come together to organize and administer temporary schooling. Education is also an important bridging activity in connecting relief and development activities. Cycles limit access to quality education for vulnerable populations. Agricultural seasons, the dry or ‘hungry’ season, nomadic migrations, and other cyclical migrations all effect access to education. During planting and harvest times, children may be called to help in the fields. Nomadic children may have to start school late, or leave early, to follow animals and pasture. And children whose parents migrate seasonally for other reasons may go with them or be left behind with additional household responsibilities that cause them to miss school. Trends produce changes that improve or reduce access to quality education over time. These trends may include: changes in household poverty levels in a community that allow more or fewer children to go to school; political changes that increase or decrease opportunities for marginalized communities; or changes in attitudes toward education occurring at the national level. Degrees of vulnerability will vary even within a population and CRS and its partners should take care to understand the situation of particularly vulnerable groups, such as girls, whose participation in education is more sensitive to changes in the economic situation of their families and for whom the education system is often very unsupportive.

Assessment Questions ■ Are there natural or man-made disasters that affect or threaten this community?

CRS ProPack, p. 54.

Education and the CRS Integral Human Development Framework

■ What are the seasonal cycles of agriculture and patterns of work and migration that affect access to school?

■ Are there national trends in politics, education policy or the economy that are affecting education?

STRATEGIES Every parent or caregiver has a strategy (or multiple strategies) to give to their child the learning that they believe will be necessary to be successful as an adult. These education strategies are part of their larger IHD strategies. In considering strategies in the context of the IHD conceptual framework, we need to be careful to understand how strategies for education and learning are linked to and influenced by other strategies. A household’s education strategies include the choices they make between formal education (e.g. a government school), non-formal education (e.g. a religious school or skills training), and/or some sort of informal education, like learning from a relative or neighbor how to cook or farm, or an apprenticeship to a local tradesperson. For poor families, their IHD and education strategies also reflect the particular challenges they face. For example, poor families use coping and asset maximization strategies, such as sending only boys to school (for economic or safety reasons); and removing children from school at certain times of the year (e.g. to work or during migrations).9 Additionally, some parents may be able to send their children to school but choose not to. This may be because they believe the education at school is not relevant or is poor quality; or, for girls, this may be due to local attitudes against girls’ education.

Assessment Questions ■ What are the learning options that parents choose for their children (formal school, private school, religious school, vocational or other skills education)? Why have different community members chosen these options?

■ Do some parents choose not to send their children to school? Or only send some children (older, younger, boys, girls) to school? Why?

■ Do some children drop out of school (leave school permanently) before the end of the primary or secondary cycle? Which ones? When?

■ Are some groups of children (e.g. nomads) regularly taken out of school during the year? Which ones? When?

Asset maximization and coping are only two of the six strategies identified in the IHD conceptual framework. All six strategies should be considered in assessing education strategies and their relationship to larger IHD strategies.

Education and the CRS Integral Human Development Framework

Analysis and Reflection This section presents a second set of questions to help in analyzing the information collected or discussed during an IHD education assessment. Remember that these questions can be considered formally, e.g. as part of an SPP process, or informally in the context of regular discussions between CRS, its partners and the communities they serve. And they are not, of course, the only questions that can be asked. The primary goal is to stimulate thought and discussion on CRS education programming in the context of Integral Human Development.

OUTCOMES An analysis of outcomes begins by looking at the gaps between desired and actual outcomes. Identifying gaps in achievement and between actual and desired outcomes provides a starting point for a more internal analysis of the local education system. For example: • Are children actually learning at the school (or other activity); • Is what they are learning relevant; and • Is the local education system helping to build the assets and reduce vulnerability of households and the community? The answers to these questions will help CRS and its partners understand if their activities are targeted in the right direction. NGO-Government-Community Partnership in India

In analyzing outcomes another key The Lodi Multipurpose Social Service Society, a CRS consideration is the differences that arise partner in India, spends a lot of time at the start of a child labor and girls’ education projects addressing the gaps in in desired outcomes among the different desired outcomes among the community, government groups of stakeholders – CRS, partner and NGOs. A recent report described the process: organizations, government institutions “Special efforts to talk about the need to educate girls and community members. For example, were also made in an intensive manner over a six-month parents may not want their children to period of time. A turning point came after several months have a formal education, but when the conversation turned from general issues to the international organizations think they topic of exploitation. This theme created an opening for must; or, parents may want their narrating stories about specific experiences where the exploitation could have been averted with some children to go to school, but the education.” government does not provide it for their - Mobilizing Support for Education, CRS community. Understanding that these gaps exist allows us to ask better questions about Assets, Structures & Systems, Strategies and Shocks, Cycles & Trends.

Analysis Questions ■ What are the gaps between desired outcomes and what is actually being achieved? ■ How do desired outcomes vary among groups – community, international organizations, and government?

Education and the CRS Integral Human Development Framework

■ What role might education play in helping communities achieve their larger IHD outcomes?

STRUCTURES & SYSTEMS Treating the Illness When we work at the school and community level, it is easy to see the many problems facing schools, such as low girls’ enrolment; too few classrooms with very poor supplies; high drop-out rates; and children who can’t read or write, even though they completed primary education. These problems, however, should be thought of as just the symptoms of a greater illness that also needs to be addressed. Underlying causes of problems include government policies that favor some children over others and community attitudes that prevent all children from attending school. If our programs only treat the symptoms, and never work to address the greater illnesses, then it is unlikely that our work will ever be sustainable.

For CRS education programs to be successful and their impact sustainable, they must address the underlying Structures & Systems that constrain or enable education and learning at the same time that they address the particular needs of education and learning at the school and community level. Examples of constraints in Structures & Systems include: • • • • • • • •

Low central budgetary allocations to education Policies favoring urban vs. rural students Curriculum that isn’t relevant to all learners (e.g. rural poor or minority children) Inflexible school schedules and policies that limit participation of some children, such as OVC and girls who become pregnant Prejudices against the participation of children with disabilities School fees that disproportionately impact children of poor families Cultural norms against girls’ education Corruption by those responsible for providing education

These constraints may exist at the national, regional and/or community levels. Wherever they exist, CRS education programming should assist both our beneficiaries and our partners to engage with the governing organizations, institutions and individuals to change policies, values and practices that are barriers to access to good quality education.

Inclusive Education for Children with Disabilities CRS/Vietnam has worked to improve disabled children’s access to schools since 1995. Initial activities were focused at the local level, working to increase community awareness of their needs, training educators to meet their needs in general education classrooms, and coordinating community assistance. As a result of this work, the Vietnamese Ministry of Education asked CRS to help them integrate our inclusive education program concepts into national education policy. Today CRS and its partners still work at the community level, but they are also directly involved in mainstreaming inclusive education throughout the Ministry of Education and teacher training colleges.

Addressing constraints in Structures & Systems is at the heart of our work as a Catholic organization dedicated to promoting social justice and peace. To help us in this work, CRS has developed a number of useful tools, including the Justice Lens and the Structural Analysis 16

Education and the CRS Integral Human Development Framework

Toolkit.10 These can be complemented by various rights based programming tools to give us a better understanding of the underlying causes of injustice and suggest ways to address them. For example, project activities that address Structures & Systems and provide indirect support to Asset development and reduce vulnerability might include: •

Advocacy campaigns that leverage local information and experience

•

Community organization and training (empowerment)

•

Engaging government officials in CRS programming

•

Training of school staff on child rights

•

Including PTAs and SMCs in school governance decision-making

•

Information and Education Communication (IEC) activities

Analysis Questions ■ How do Structures & Systems constrain or enable people to use their Strategies to achieve their desired education Outcomes?

■ Which of these are related to injustice? Are specific rights being violated? ■ What opportunities exist to influence Structures & Systems? How might existing Assets in the community be used in this regard?

■ What opportunities exist in Structures & Systems (e.g. favorable laws or policies) that CRS and its partners might take advantage of?

ASSETS The assessment section on Assets discussed the many ways that education/learning and education programming can contribute to the development of Assets. At the same time, however, merely attending school is no guarantee that a child is learning. And if learning does take place, it is equally important to analyze what is being learned.

The Challenge of Quality – Education Building Assets To take advantage of the benefits of education – and for education to contribute to the building of assets – a person must be able to access it and it must be of good quality. The quality of education matters in three important ways. First, the pedagogy must be of sufficient quality to actually transfer information to the learners. This means having teachers who are well-trained and supported, who use appropriate teaching techniques and high quality teaching/learning materials, and who are role models for children, instilling a lifelong love of learning. Attending school is no guarantee of learning; in many developing countries increasing access without attention to quality is like trying pouring water

http://inet.catholicrelief.org/sites/pqsd/Peacebuilding/Shared%20Documents/Structural%20Analysis%20Toolkit.pdf

Education and the CRS Integral Human Development Framework

into a bucket that has a large hole in the bottom. In Ghana and Peru, for example, more than half of the children who finish primary education are unable to read.11 Second, education should be relevant to the learners. Many education systems are designed by, and designed to produce, intellectuals in an urban environment. These education systems – their curricula, their methodologies and their materials – often have little relevance to children from rural or otherwise marginalized populations. By definition, an education system that is relevant is one that supports people to enact their livelihood Strategies and achieve their IHD Outcomes. Third, an important aspect of quality in an education system is what is being taught – both explicitly and implicitly. We often assume that education is always a force for good, but in situations from Rwanda to Kosovo and Chechnya education has played a role in encouraging ethnic conflict.12 In the classroom, the curriculum, teaching methodologies and policies often promote stereotypes and gender roles for girls and boys. When CRS works to support a local education system, it is important to understand what that system is teaching and advocate for changes if education is being used to promote social injustice. In one state in India, for example, local CRS partners have taken a leading role in challenging curriculum changes that the local ruling party has made and which favor one religious group over others.

Leveraging Community Assets for Education The Assets assessment section also asked what assets exist in the community to support education. These can be any type of Asset – human/spiritual, social, political, natural, financial or physical. Analyzing this information is as simple as asking: How well is the education system currently taking advantage of these Assets? What opportunities exist for these Assets to be used in support of education?

Analysis Questions ■ Are there any limits on access to education opportunities in the community? What are they? Do they vary among different groups (boys/girls, older/younger children, etc.)?

■ What is the quality of education? Do the curriculum and methodology promote healthy development and linkages with local livelihoods?

■ Do families have access to a school PTA or SMC? ■ What are the underlying causes of limits on access, quality and community participation? What are the linkages with Structures & Systems?

■ How well are Assets in the community being used to support the school?

SHOCKS, CYCLES & TRENDS An analysis of Shocks, Cycles & Trends should consider: 1) the ways that these forces affect the education system; 2) how inequities in Structures & Systems contribute to vulnerability; and 3) 11

Wils, A., et al. Educating the World’s Children: Patterns of Growth and Inequality. 2006. Education Policy and Data Center, Washington, DC. 12 See: http://www.unicef-icdc.org/publications/pdf/insight4.pdf

Education and the CRS Integral Human Development Framework

the ways in which the education system can reduce vulnerability to, or take advantage of, Shocks, Cycles & Trends. Once the relevant Shocks, Cycles & Trends have been identified, the analysis should look at all the ways that they are affecting the different parts of the education system in the context of the IHD framework. For example, how do agricultural cycles affect people’s Strategies that impact sending their children to school? This includes positive Shocks, Cycles & Trends that can support the work of CRS and its partners in education. This is particularly the case when considering international trends that impact local education systems. In general, the Education for All movement has been a trend that has supported greater access to education for marginalized populations by pushing governments to adopt specific plans for universal primary education. In addition to responding to the negative effects of Shocks, Cycles & Trends, program should also take advantage of these positive changes. The relationship between Shocks, Cycles & Trends is a two-way street; the education system is affected by these forces, but it can also help to reduce them. An analysis of Shocks, Cycles & Trends should consider the ways that the education system contributes to vulnerability and the changes to the education system that could help reduce vulnerability, particularly for the poor. Some simple examples include introducing HIV/AIDS, environmental conservation or disaster response studies into education curricula, which can reduce different forms of vulnerability. More difficult is addressing the underlying linkages between vulnerability and Structures & Systems. As noted above, vulnerability in a population is often the direct result of injustice in Structures & Systems. Addressing unjust Structures & Systems – increasing equality throughout the education system, for example – can be a powerful strategy to reduce vulnerability. If all people in a society – boys and girls; disabled non-disabled; urban and rural; ethnic and religious minorities and majorities – had equal opportunity to a quality education, overall vulnerability to negative Shocks, Cycles & Trends would be reduced.

Analysis Questions ■ How do Shocks, Cycles & Trends affect the local education system? ■ How do Cycles shape people’s IHD Strategies? ■ What positive or negative Trends are affecting education? ■ How do injustices in Structures & Systems contribute to vulnerability? ■ How can the education system help reduce vulnerability?

STRATEGIES In analyzing the strategies that people use the most important question is ‘why?’ For example: Why do families take their older boys out of school before the end of the school year? Why do they choose not to send their girls to school? This is also true for the choices that they make among various education options. For example: Why do parents prioritize religious education over formal education? Why do adolescents choose informal apprenticeships over non-formal vocational training courses? The answers to these questions will lie in the other boxes of the IHD conceptual framework. People’s Assets, the local Structures & Systems and the Shocks, 19

Education and the CRS Integral Human Development Framework

Cycles & Trends in their environment all influence the Strategies that they choose to meet their desired Outcomes. A second part of an analysis of Strategies looks at their impact over time. Not all strategies are alike. Many are unsuccessful and some are actually harmful. For example, in times of crisis people may sell off their productive assets, such as livestock. While this is a successful shortterm strategy, it will not be sustainable over time. Similarly, sniffing glue may fulfill a street child’s immediate desire to feel less hungry, but it is addictive and will ultimately cause permanent harm to that child. Positive Deviance An important part of the IHD programming approach is to help “In every community there are certain individuals (the ‘Positive people build on, and expand the Deviants’) whose special practices/ strategies/ behaviors enable them to find better solutions to prevalent community range of, their positive strategies problems than their neighbors who have access to the same while moving away from the negative resources.” ones. And although we may believe “Positive Deviance is a development approach that is based on that we have good ideas about what the premise that solutions to community problems already exist positive strategies people should within the community. The positive deviance approach thus adopt, a good place to look for differs from traditional “needs based” or problem-solving approaches in that it does not focus primarily on identification examples of successful strategies is of needs and the external inputs necessary to meet those often with the people themselves. For needs or solve problems. Instead, it seeks to identify and example, positive deviance theory optimize existing resources and solutions within the community to solve community problems.” looks at community members who are in similar situations but who (From the Positive Deviance Initiative webpage and Save the achieve very different Outcomes. Children’s PD Nutrition Field Guide) (See text box.) Understanding what Strategies successful community member are using and applying these Strategies across a target group can be a very effective programming approach. For example, Why is it that one family is able to send all their children to school whereas another family, who is equally poor, is not?

Finally, people’s education strategies do not exist all by themselves. They are directly linked to their larger Integral Human Development strategies. It is therefore important to understand how changes in education strategies would affect their other IHD strategies. For example: How might a family that relies on the oldest daughter to care for younger siblings (and not attend school) while they are at work have to adapt their existing strategies in order to send that girl to school? When we look at programming, therefore, we are looking to expand people range of strategy options, support successful strategies, and help people move away from harmful ones.

Analysis Questions ■ Why have people chosen their Strategies around education? How are they shaped by constraints in their Assets, Structures & Systems, or Shocks, Cycles & Trends?

■ What are the barriers limiting the success of these Strategies? ■ Are any of the IHD Strategies potentially harmful to children? (e.g. child labor or trafficking)

■ What are the successful Strategies that could be promoted or reinforced? 20

Education and the CRS Integral Human Development Framework

■ How could people’s Strategy options be expanded? ■ How are education Strategies linked to other IHD strategies?

Conclusion As has been noted throughout, the goal of this paper is to stimulate thinking about the education programming from an IHD perspective. Although all CRS programs do some work to promote IHD, it is important that we regularly examine the ways that we could be doing more. The IHD conceptual framework is an excellent tool for this, because it lets us examine education holistically, in the full context of the other key aspects of people’s lives. That said, the IHD conceptual framework can’t replace the education tools, frameworks and best practices that we are already using. An IHD education analysis will help identify gaps in an education project or program, but it may only give limited guidance on how to fill these gaps. For example, an IHD analysis might suggest the addition of an advocacy campaign (addressing Structures & Systems) or better use of existing community networks to prevent student dropout (building Social Assets), but it doesn’t advise us on how to actually do either of these things. Another limitation of this tool is its inability to tell us how well we are accomplishing our existing activities. It may provide some feedback from beneficiaries on significant changes that are happening because of the project. But it will not tell us the extent to which teachers are using their new skills, or whether or not students are better learning how to read and write. This analysis may complement, but is not meant to substitute for, rigorous monitoring and evaluation. As a final point, it is good to recall two sets of questions that were posed at the start of this document. The first set checks the extent to which we really understand the education context of the places we are working: • What are people’s desired and actual Outcomes? • What strategies are they using to reach these Outcomes? • How do their Assets; the Structures & Systems their community; and the Shocks, Cycles & Trends in their environment help or hinder the Strategies they are using to reach their goals? The second set checks how well we are applying this understanding to our programs: • How well does our project/program reflect the thinking of CRS’ Integral Human Development conceptual framework? • How could we improve the project/ program based on an IHD analysis? It is hoped that after conducting an IHD education assessment CRS and its partners will be better able to answer these questions and, as a result, design programs that better support people’s Integral Human Development.

209 West Fayette Street, Baltimore, MD 21201‐3443 410‐625‐2220 x 301‐813‐2220 x www.crs.org