Miske Witt & Associates International

05/17/2019

MWAI and World Savvy meet in San Francisco!

MWAI’s partnership with World Savvy started in 2017, providing program evaluation on several of World Savvy’s global competency programming for classrooms. Now in our second year of evaluation, our partnership has deepened and evolved, resulting in utilization focused and principles focused evaluations.

MWAI colleagues, Dr. Shirley Miske, Dr. Nancy Pellowski Wiger, and Bethany Leech, had the wonderful opportunity to meet with our World Savvy partners at their offices in San Francisco, while attending the CIES conference in April.

MWAI sat down with World Savvy’s Executive Director, Eliza, Senior Data Quality and Operations Associate, Cecilia, Professional Learning Facilitator, Brooke, and Youth Engagement Fellow, Nik. Together, we learned a little bit more about our respected organizations, shared our excitement and passion about World Savvy’s programming, and discussed how MWAI can best continue to support World Savvy in their evaluation needs.

http://www.worldsavvy.org/

04/12/2019

MWAI at CIES

April 14-18 in San Francisco

MWAI is excited to be attending and participating in the CIES conference this year in San Francisco, California. The theme of the conference this year is Education for Sustainability.

Please join MWAI colleagues as they share some of the exciting work we have been doing.

MWAI presentations to attend include:

Tuesday, April 16:

1:30-3:00 pm Highlighted session:
Unlearning gendered lessons: examining curriculum, teaching, measurement, and girls’ and boys’ narratives on schooling.
Emily Morris and Nancy Pellowski Wiger presenting respectively, session chaired by Shirley Miske

5:00-6:30 pm Roundtable session:
Gender-responsive teaching and learning: building inclusive and equitable quality education.
Jan Westrick and Shirley Miske presenting, session chaired by Jan Westrick

Wednesday, April 17:

1:30-3:00 pm panel session:
Promising approaches in School-Related Gender-Based Violence prevention and response.
Kara Janigan presenting

5:00-6:30 pm panel session:
Girls’ education interventions and system change: from global commitments to gender equality results.
Shirley Miske presenting

See you in San Francisco!

CIES invites proposals that respond to the conference theme and build on the expansion of the parameters of knowledge production and educational practice within the field of comparative and international education. The full Call for Contributions and guidelines for proposal submissions has been publ...

04/05/2019

MWAI in Dubai

March 2019

Teachers and other changemakers for the future were featured at the 7th Global Education and Skills Forum (GESF) at the Atlantis Palm Hotel in Dubai from March 22-24, 2019. MWAI’s Dr. Shirley Miske and Margaret Meagher joined the 2200 forum participants at the conference sponsored by the Varkey Foundation, Dubai Cares and others. MWAI has implemented and evaluated programs in partnership with Dubai Cares in several countries, including Senegal. Alongside Dubai Cares’ Sinda Ouertani and Annina Mattsson, MWAI met at GESF 2019 with Senegal’s Minister of Education H.E. Serigne Mbaye Thiam and Dubai Cares CEO H.E. Tariq al Gurg to discuss bilingual education and results of a recent Dubai Cares project evaluation led by MWAI.

[words and photos by Margaret Meagher]

03/29/2019

Malawi – February 2019

To what extent are primary schools and classrooms in Malawi safe, gender-responsive, and supportive environments for girls and boys, including those with special needs, to learn to read Chichewa (local language) and English?

Seeking to answer this question, the MWAI team is working collaboratively with its partners, RTI and Infonex through the USAID Malawi Early Grade Reading Improvement Activity (MERIT) to conduct the second National Assessment of School Inclusion and Safety (NASIS) study in 86 schools nationwide. In February 2019, MWAI Senior Technical Advisor, Dr. Kara Janigan, and MWAI Safe Spaces and Gender Specialist, Ms Florie Chagwira-Betha collaborated with Infonex to training data collectors for the NASIS study. These data collectors were trained on how to conduct school and classroom observations as well as interviews with female and male students in Standard 4 (grade 4), teachers, and Head Teachers to learn about students’ experiences of schooling, in relation to their opportunities to learn in safe supportive classrooms and schools as they learn to read in Chichewa (local language in Malawi) and English.

(Words and photo credit to Dr. Kara Janigan)

03/22/2019

Visit MWAI at our new website!

MWAI associates spent 2018 strengthening our mission, vision, and values, and strategically defined our areas of expertise. To showcase MWAI’s 20 plus years of groundbreaking work and our enhanced expertise, we have launched a new website!

Visit us today!

Improving educational quality and equity internationally

03/05/2019

MWAI launches a new evaluation with the Echidna Global Scholars Program

February 2019. MWAI is excited to commence a five-month evaluation with the Echidna Global Scholars Program using innovative methods for tracking scholars’ experiences, their leadership and advocacy roles in the field of girls’ education, and their social impact networks.

“The Echidna Global Scholars Program is a visiting fellowship hosted by the Center for Universal Education (CUE) at the Brookings Institution. The program aims to build the research and analytical skills of NGO leaders and academics who have substantial experience and ties to developing countries. Echidna Scholars spend four to six months at Brookings pursuing research on global education issues, with a specific focus on improving learning opportunities and outcomes for girls in the developing world. Upon completion of their fellowship, CUE supports the scholars in implementing an action plan that applies their new skills and expertise in the developing country where they have demonstrated substantial ties…This program is made possible by the generous contribution of The Echidna Giving Fund.”

This evaluation aligns with MWAI’s core values and objectives and we are excited to learn more about the global impact of this program!

The Echidna Global Scholars Program is a visiting fellowship hosted by the Center for Universal Education (CUE) at the Brookings Institution. The program aims to build the research and analytical s…

12/28/2018

Gender Integration and Mapping with USAID Tusome Pamoja, Tanzania

October 2018. MWAI Senior Technical Advisors, Emily Morris and Kristeen Chachage, worked with the USAID Tusome Pamoja project in Tanzania to examine gender issues in early grade reading and numeracy. They developed a Gender Integration Toolkit for the project that walks the team through evidence-based steps on how to: examine existing data for gender, collect targeted gender data going forward, and use data to inform the project’s activities and outcomes.

One area that was examined was the project’s development of non-fiction readers for use in Standard 3 and 4 classrooms. Research shows that reading preferences—especially in reading fiction or non-fiction texts—can vary by gender; boys have been found to prefer non-fiction texts and girls to prefer both fiction and non-fiction texts (Coles & Hall, 2001; Herz & Gallo, 1996; Millard, 1997). The Gender Integration Toolkit suggests ways to measure and study students’ responses to non-fiction materials and teachers' experiences using these materials. Data can be used to inform future trainings, production of non-fiction materials, and policy development.

Stay tuned for more gender and reading research to emerge from USAID Tusome Pamoja, Tanzania!

12/28/2018

MWAI Begins Partnership with UNGEI and FAWEZI

October 2018. MWAI has teamed up with UNGEI (United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative), and FAWEZI (Forum for African Women Educationalists), Zimbabwe to implement the ‘School-Related Gender Based Violence" (SRGBV) Whole School Framework Pilot Initiative’. Together, FAWEZI and MWAI teams will collaborate to adapt and test the Whole School Approach to Prevent SRGBV: Minimum Standards and Monitoring Framework in two districts.

FAWEZI is employing a partnership-based approach with government, schools and communities, as well as collaboration with external partners, in efforts to address and prevent SRGBV in and around schools. This two-year pilot initiative of the Whole School Minimum Standards and Monitoring Framework will focus on 10 schools. MWAI, as the monitoring, evaluation and learning partner, will work alongside FAWEZI, Zimbabwe's Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education (MoPSE), and other key stakeholders to adapt, monitor, and test the Whole-Schools approach.

MWAI is excited to be working to promote awareness of SRGBV and efforts to make schools safer for boys and girls! We look forward to years of collaboration and shared learning with FAWEZI as we collectively leverage global research, contextual and technical expertise in hopes of seeding sustainable change in two districts in Zimbabwe.

The Forum for African Women Educationalists Zimbabwe Chapter (FAWEZI) is a non-governmental organisation established in 1998 and registered as a private voluntary organisation in 1999. FAWEZI is an affiliate of the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE), a Pan-African Non-Governmental organi...

11/02/2018

MWAI Produces MERIT Safe Learning Spaces Brief!

MWAI Associates, produced a two-page brief on how USAID MERIT (Malawi Early Grade Reading Improvement Activity) project is fostering safer learning spaces in Malawi’s schools.

Check out the brief!

10/26/2018

MWAI Strategic Planning for 2018-2019

In July, MWAI team members came together in Minnesota for an annual strategic planning session. MWAI was excited to have Dr. Jan Westrick join the discussion from Valparaiso University!

This year’s annual strategic planning included aligning MWAI’s mission, vision, and values with our areas of expertise: whole school improvement, teacher professional development, education and gender across sectors, and inclusive education.

08/01/2018

MWAI launches a qualitative study in Malawi.

As part of the USAID-funded Malawi Early Grade Reading Improvement Activity (MERIT), MWAI conducted a qualitative study focusing on issues related to safer schools and classrooms (including gender responsiveness, inclusive education and discipline). The purpose of the study is to better understand classroom dynamics and school practices that lead some students to feel safe and/or included and others to feel unsafe and/or excluded. MWAI conducted interviews with students, teachers and head teachers (principal) as well as school and classroom observations at 8 rural primary schools in Malawi over 2 weeks in May/June 2018. This study’s findings will inform future head teacher and teacher trainings for Malawi’s National Reading Programme. [text and photo contributed by Dr. Kara Janigan. Photo of group work in a Standard 4 classroom on May 31 2018 in Machinga, Malawi]