This week kicks off CIES 2024: The Power of Protest. An annual gathering of the world’s largest and oldest comparative and international education societies, the Comparative & International Education Society’s annual meeting expands the parameters of knowledge production and educational practice. STS is excited to join these experts and our colleagues for the conference’s online and in-person components, adding 14 presentations to the agenda’s rich schedule.
Our staff will be discussing various topics as panelists, discussants, and chairs. Among CIES’s highlighted presentations include:
- Evaluating a Tool for School-based Identification of Children with Functional Difficulties: This panel brings together three of the first evaluations of the Washington Group of Disability Statistics and UNICEF’s Child Functioning Module–Teacher Version (CFM-TV). STS’s Senior Technical Advisor Aimee Reeves and Deputy Director of Programs Eileen Dombrowski present on the tool’s use in Nepal and, with others, provide an opportunity to synthesize learnings and generate discussion around future research priorities. Monday, March 11, 6:30 to 8:00 p.m.
- Strengthening Teacher Education across Malawi: Collaboration, Training, and Development: This panel of STS’s STEP Activity staff, MoE officials, and representatives of consortium partners consists of four presentations. The presentations will discuss the education system in Malawi from the government’s perspective; the role of the STEP Activity in supporting the MoE to coordinate multilateral donor contributions, design a diploma program, and roll out a Continuous Professional Development program for in-service teachers; and empirical data from pre-, mid- and post-test results of the Foundational Literacy Course assessment. Wednesday, March 13, 8:00 to 9:30 a.m.
- Emergent Roles of Deaf Professionals in Assessment, Teaching, and Learning Materials Production: Based on ongoing work with USAID-funded projects in the Philippines, STS’s Senior Organizational Strategy Manager Melyssa Sibal reflects on the role of Deaf professionals in education projects. Through key informant interviews, focus group discussions, assessments, and a qualitative learner participatory activity, engagement and contributions from Deaf education professionals were found to be a critical factor in the success of teacher training and development of resources utilized by teachers, parents, caregivers, and students. This presentation will provide further insight into evaluation findings and how future programming could continue to benefit from expanded recruitment of Deaf professionals. Monday, March 11, 4:45 to 6:15 p.m.
- Liberating Students Through Locally Led Efforts to Improve Early Grade Reading: STS’s Principal Researcher Jarret Guajardo joins a panel to examine progress towards changing Nigeria’s narratives and implementing a nationwide mother-tongue reading framework, challenges and opportunities toward better practice, and the role of systemic assessment in understanding progress. The panel will investigate the empowering elements of structure, process and implementation of the policies, practice, assessment and accountability systems of a national reading program. Tuesday, March 12, 9:30 to 11:00 a.m.
If you’re also attending, we’d love to connect with you in person or online! Attend our sessions, engage us with your questions, or join us on social media @sts_intl.
