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November 1, 2006

Christopher Wheeler

Professor

Michigan State University, USA Not for Citation without Permission of the Author

Integrating School Reform with Community Development:

What Project Components Are and How They Fit Together*

Abstract

This paper describes the major components of the project, “Integrating School Reform with Community Development in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam.” It describes the origin of the project, the process used to initiate teacher change within schools, and how this process is connected with summer activities that address local community development needs. It reports some of the outcomes of the project in promoting teacher change, improvements in student learning and improved household income. The purpose of the paper is to provide a context for the three companion papers in this panel.

Project Background

The purpose of the project is to reduce poverty (including child malnutrition) in economically poor villages in rural sites in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam using resource management practices that promote environmentally sustainable development. The strategy is to support households in a variety of ways to diversify sources of family income. Schools are integrated into this process through school-based community development projects that demonstrate innovative practices that are then diffused into communities in a variety of ways.

In 2001, the Shell Foundation for Sustainable Community Development awarded a three-year grant to CanthoUniversity for a collaborative project with MichiganStateUniversity. Funding for the first phase concluded in January 2004. A subsequent grant from the Shell Foundation and new grants from the McKnight Foundation, the U.S. Ambassador’s Fund and the Unocal Foundation have made possible the start of Phase 1. When Chevron purchased Unocal, it became the source of principal support for Phase 2.

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Paper for presentation at the 10th UNESCO APEID International Conference on Education: Learning Together for Tomorrow: Education for Sustainable Development. December 6-8, 2006. Imperial Queen’s Park Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand

The project is being implemented in three villages in Hoa An (a remote rural site about 40 kilometers south of CanthoCity in HauGiangProvince).*There are approximately 7,500 households (approximately 30,000 inhabitants) in these villages. Hau Giang is the poorest province in the Mekong Delta and Hoa An is the poorest site in this province. Natural resource problems such as acid sulfate soil, overuse of fertilizer and pesticides and poor surface water quality affect rice production and the ability to generate additional forms of household income. These problems affect 85% of the villages in the Mekong Delta, so results can have a broad impact.

The project currently works in six schools in these sites (three primary and three lower secondary schools). 53 teachers and six principals participate. All subject areas are included.

Project Strategiesand Outcomes

  1. Community Development

1. Training and Technical Support

The current staff of 8 full-time specialists provides training and technical support for household efforts to improve income through a variety of projects:

  • Aquaculture (fish raising)
  • Animal husbandry (raising pigs, goats and other animals for market)
  • Organic and naturally growing vegetable gardens to reduce the need to purchase vegetables from the market
  • Integrated Pest Management (IPM) for growing rice, which uses the natural cycle of pests to reduce the need for chemical pesticides
  • Composting for use in growing vegetables
  • Biogas which uses the waste from pigs is used to produce methane gas for household fuel consumption
  • Integrated farming systems models that combine several components (e.g., rice-fish and pig-biogas-fish raising)

They are also responsible for providing technical support and training for the following projects.

*From September 2001-May 2004 the project also worked in a semi-rural site, An Binh on the outskirts of CanthoCity. The project moved all activities to Hoa An site in May 2004 for reasons discussed in the paper: Issues, Dilemmas, Challenges and Lessons Learned in Linking Schools to Community Development

  1. Working Farm Models

During Phase 1, five “working farm” models were developed as sites for farmers to visit to see innovative practices in effect. These projects consisted of integrated farming systems models that included:

  • animal husbandry (pig, chicken, ducks and goat raising)-biogas-and fish raising
  • rice-fish production including Integrated Pest Management (IPM) for the growing of rice
  • rice seed production to sell improved local varieties of more productive seeds to other farmers. This was integrated with to fish raising and IPM.

This “working farm” strategy proved successful in promoting interest among farmers. Coupled with training sessions and on-going support a number of projects using specific components of these activities were started.

  1. Demonstration Projects

Midway through Phase 1, a second strategy was developed to reach more farmers and to expand the imitation effect (where villagers who do not receive financial support from the project use their own funds to start similar projects). Three “demonstration” projects were initiated in two other villages. They consisted of smaller versions of the “working farm” models in that at most only two components were integrated.

  1. Community Expansion Projects

In October 2004, a third strategy was begun, microcredit. Working through local community organizations (Women’s Unions, Farmer’s Unions and Veterans’ Unions), 100 households were identified across the three villages. With technical support each family developed a plan to initiate a new project with the help of a loan of approximately $65 (1 million Vietnamese Dong). These “Community Expansion Projects” were strategically chosen to maximize visibility to other villagers to increase the imitation effect.

These loans were to be repaid after one year. In some cases a renewal loan is possible. In other cases, recipients “graduate” and continue with projects using profits from the first round. Finally others receive information about government loans and are assisted in making contact with local branches and securing such support. Where recipients “graduate” or move to government loans, funds are then rotated to new families. These initial projects proved so successful that with the infusion of additional support for the overall project another 100 such projects were started in March 2006.

When visiting households, these technical staff also provide advice and assistance to other villagers who are imitating what project households are doing.

This has also led to an expansion of formal training sessions for villagers in these projects with opportunities for those using the imitation effect to participate.

Key to the successful operation of these activities has been the expanded relationship with community organizations. They play a key role in identifying families who might participate, in monitoring progress and contacting technicians when site visits are needed beyond regularly scheduled visits and in providing feedback on current activities and suggestions for new initiatives.

  1. Initiating a project for the very poor

During the summer of 2005 after several meetings with the Women’s Union and local village leaders, consensus was reached that a pilot project be carried out in the poorest area of Hoa An village for the poorest farmers. Local leaders worked with project staff to identify 12 families for loans that ranged from $65 (1 million VND) to $163 (2.5 million VND).

In addition to project support to develop specific plans, regular technical support is provided on how to raise pigs and fish.

  1. Support for School-initiated projects

Technical staff also play a major role in supporting households to implement new or improved agricultural practices demonstrated by schools, teachers and students during various summer projects. These include: organic gardens, IPM rice projects, composting projects and efforts to reduce the incidents of dengue fever.

A household survey conducted near the end of Phase 1 showed that household income improved 27.7% compared with the baseline survey.

  1. School Improvement
  1. Background

Within Vietnam’s Ministry of Education and Training, efforts are underway to promote more active learning in Vietnamese classrooms. The task is substantial given the centralized nature of the educational system, a packed curriculum that encourages a focus on content coverage and factual recall, a high-stakes testing system at each level of schooling, parental concern that students do well on such tests, a lack of experience and understanding by teachers of more active learning methods, and a supervisory system that emphasizes correction rather than support. In terms of school-community relations, it can be said that, in general, there is a substantial gap separating schools from their surrounding communities. Parental participation is restricted to meetings organized by school officials where information is communicated and contributions of various kinds are solicited. Parents and teachers alike see education as something communicated from teachers to students, who prepare at home and in class take notes carefully on what the teacher says.

  1. Active Learning

There are a number of ways to think about “active learning.” This project uses an approach called “KUA” for Knowledge-Understanding-Application. Those in the field of active learning will easily recognize its key components. Traditionally most teachers focus almost exclusively on imparting knowledge (K), generally factual in nature. In KUA, teachers first examine each lesson for the “big ideas” that underlie the lesson. Then they decide what factual content students will need to understand these ideas. The focus shifts to how students can talk and work together to understand (U) or make sense of these concepts. This involves a combination of pedagogical practices: questioning strategies that focus on “why,” group work where students share ideas and respond to the findings of other groups, pair work where students share ideas with each other and then the class, etc. Throughout the lesson there is a focus on application (A). This can take a variety of forms: posing a new problem partway through the lesson to see if students, often working in groups, have understood a concept or can infer a new one; posing a problem for students to solve at home that requires observing phenomena in the real world; or posing a problem that requires gathering information from adults. Throughout, assessment is a key part of the process, as teachers use a variety of continuous assessment strategies and summative assessments that go beyond recall.

Teaching aids are a key part of the KUA process. Instead of expensive commercial materials, teachers learn how to develop and use local materials (physical and human) to help students learn concepts and see ways to connect what is being learned to the real world.

While this approach to KUA is used in classrooms, KUA in this project also includes using the school grounds for learning. For example, in five of the seven schools, organic gardens are used for a variety of learning activities in different subjects, all connected to the curriculum. In all schools, moreover, students can be seen outside classrooms solving problems that involve math and science or interviewing local villagers who live nearby.

Finally, this approach to active learning also includes outdoor learning activities. Through careful preparation, teachers plan site visits to initiatives that are part of the community development component of the project (e.g. model farms that integrate the raising of pigs with biogas and fish raising). These visits are problem based, focused on academics and connected to the curriculum.

  1. Project Outcomes in Education

As a result of these active learning strategies, outcome studies show:

  • Students do better in KUA classes than students in non-KUA classes. Outcomes for end-of-semester tests are statistically significant at the .05 to .01 levels, as reported at the end of Phase 1. A cohort of lower secondary students who had only KUA classes grades 7-9 did significantly better on the 9th grade exam than students in non-KUA classes.
  • Students develop critical thinking skills and the ability to speak and present arguments in front of adults
  • Students like KUA classes more than classes that do not use this method.
  • Teachers like the KUA approach better than traditional teaching. In the process of using KUA, they have begun to change their views on where knowledge comes from. Their sense of professionalism has increased as a result of this project.
  • Parental support for KUA classes is very strong.

In terms of teacher change, results showed that project strategies led to an increase of 52% in the use of active learning strategies and a decrease of 23% in more traditional forms of teaching by participants in the project.

  1. Integration of Schools with Community Development: The Triple “D” Process and Studies of Local Problems

While active learning methods help students to see the relevance of what they are studying and illustrate how schools can use the community as a resource to improve student learning, the major objective of this project is to improve household income in very poor rural areas. As a result, this project also involves schools in community development. This is accomplished in two ways: the “triple D” process (Demonstration, Direct contact, and Diffusion) and studies of local problems that are reported back to villagers.

  1. The “Triple D” Process

Schools demonstrate innovative practices during the summer and school year (organic gardens, integrated pest management projects for growing rice, and composting practices, among others). Parents learn about student accomplishments through visits, presentations and competitions where students show what they have learned about plants, the cycle of rice growing and pest management, and ways of using locally available organic matter combined with new bacteria discovered at CanthoUniversity to create rich compost in a short time. Household members are then directly recruited to participate in the community development component

Project studies show, for example, that parents are more willing to consider new practices once they see and learn from their children about the economic and health benefits of such small-scale activities. When project community development workers then visit such households to answer specific technical questions and to explain the kinds of incentives the project is prepared to provide, parents (and neighbors) are more willing to change their agricultural practices.

Demonstration effects also lead to diffusion to households through community organizations participating in the project. In Hoa An, for example, after a student presentation on what they accomplished and the lessons they had learned, the Women's Union decided to make organic gardens a requirement of members if they wanted to borrow funds from their credit union. With support from the community development side of the project, over 5, 500 household organic gardens are now in evidence in this site (out of 7,000 households).

Given that historically efforts to involve schools in community development have generally not been successful anywhere in the world, the “triple D” process represents a potential breakthrough into this very complex issue. It recognizes the limited, but important, role that schools can play in community development. It structures that role so it effectively supports on-going initiatives in the community component of the project. It organizes activities so they also contribute to student learning.

  1. Studies of Local Problems

During the summer, teachers and students work together on a variety of projects to study local problems in different hamlets. The focus to date has been on water sanitation issues, ways to control mosquitoes that carry dengue fever and composting activities that can be used on household gardens. After collecting data, students present findings to villagers and then community development workers in the project work with villagers to develop programs to address the problems. After students presented findings from a 2005 summer project on composting, for example, the Women’s Union asked the project to support infusion of this initiative into the three project villages. This is currently underway and is described in a companion paper for this panel.

Conclusion

A. There is No Substitute for Technical Support

On the community development side, technical support for villagers as they implement activities sponsored by the project represents a critical component for eventual success. So too for villagers who imitate various activities that are supported by this project. Competent training represents only the starting point for implementation. Once underway, when problems arise that go beyond the technical capability of a farmer to solve, quick expert advice is needed to avoid a potential disaster with a particular project. On-going monitoring also provides a morale boost for farmers as they go through the difficult process of adjusting to new or improve farming practices.

On the education side, technical support is also critical. The project uses the following system;