Beeline Reader
Executive Summary
Project Host:
Fellows:
Annelise Buzaid, Team Lead, Research Fellow
Katherine McAuliffe, Research Fellow
Laura Marsiaj Ribeiro, Social Entrepreneur Fellow
Patricia Lockwood, Research Fellow
Introduction
Dignitas partners with schools across Kenya to provide evidence-based training and coaching that strengthens school leadership and improves instruction. The LEAP Project aimed to provide key resources to underpin Dignitas’ current work focused on inclusion of marginalised, neurodiverse children in Kenya’s schools. Evidence-based resources included a literature review, learning briefs and a competency framework. Together we hope these resources support Dignitas in their mission to transform opportunities for the next generation.
Organization’s role & strength
Dignitas is a leading education organisation whose mission is to equip and empower school leaders and teachers who will transform opportunities for the next generation. Dignitas partners with schools to strengthen leadership and improve instructional quality, in order to create an environment where all children can fulfill their potential.
Dignitas is founded on the belief that School Leaders and Teachers are everyday superheroes with the power to transform children's futures when supported with the right training, support, and community. The following values guide us:
● We are passionately purpose driven
● We co-create solutions with schools, communities, and system actors
● We find joy in our work, our team, and our communities
● We found partnerships in trust and transformative impact
● We are always listening and learning
Summary solution
Need summary
As Dignitas seeks to support schools to advance inclusion of neurodiverse learners, the organisation identified four key questions for the fellow team to address through four key deliverables. The questions focused on:
● the current status of neurodiverse children in underresourced settings in Kenya;
● effective instructional strategies for the inclusion and support of all learners;
● the mindsets, competencies, and practises school leaders and teachers need to embrace learning variability; and
● how teachers, school leaders, and school leader supervisors can better collaborate to promote integration of neurodivergent children.
The fellows sought to answer these questions through a literature review, learning briefs, and a competency framework, each designed to provide actionable information to the Dignitas team and school leaders working with marginalised neurodiverse children in under-resourced settings in Kenya.
Solution summary & next steps
Across a 12 week sprint the fellow team, in close collaboration with Dignitas, developed four key deliverables. The first was an extensive literature review that covered the four key outstanding questions highlighted by Dignitas at the beginning. This literature review was supplemented by two concise, actionable Learning Briefs. The first Learning Brief focused on how teachers, school leaders, and school leader supervisors could better collaborate to promote integration of neurodivergent children. The second Learning Brief covered the effective instructional strategies for the inclusion and support of all learners, and specifically neurodivergent children, in under-resourced settings. Finally we developed a single slide competency framework to provide a clear set of four key competencies for teachers and school leaders to enact inclusive educational practices. Together, these deliverables will augment Dignitas’s existing evidence-base and provide clear and up-to-date evidence that can support the organisation as they provide training and coaching to schools focused on inclusion of neurodiverse learners. Dignitas also plans to share some of these deliverables more widely to become a public good for the field at-large.