Forging a Future in Haiti, Part 1: It Starts With Schools

Notre Dame’s involvement in education in Haiti began 2006,  with support for Catholic schools. When the 2010 earthquake devastated Haiti, Notre Dame responded by helping to rebuild Basile Moreau, the Congregation of the Holy Cross’ flagship K-12 school, as well as broader engagement with Haiti’s Catholic schools in rural areas of the country. The Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child’s strategic education partnerships now extend to over 300 school communities—over 200 of which are Catholic. Listen in to a conversation focused  on school-based work which began with the implementation and study of the impact of an early grade literacy program in Catholic schools in Haiti.

The University of Notre Dame’s Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child  works to create pathways out of adversity for the world’s most vulnerable children in 25 countries around the world, leveraging evidence-based innovations to develop effective Whole Child Development (WCD) approaches to not only advance children’s academic achievement, but also create safe, supportive, and equitable family, school, and community environments. Join Kate Schuenke-Lucien, Director for Haiti and Senior Associate Director for Strategic Planning, and Tamara Doucet-Larozar, Associate Director of Language and Learning Education, for Forging a Future in Haiti and uncover Notre Dame’s history in Haiti, insights from the work that has been done to bolster the resilience of Haitian children and families, and why there is reason to hope.

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Transcript

kate-_1_12-04-2024_101620: 0:06

Hi, everyone. My name is Kate Schinke Lucien. I'm Director for Haiti Programs at the University of Notre Dame's Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child. center works to create pathways out of adversity for the world's most vulnerable children. In 25 countries, the Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child leverages evidence based innovations to develop effective whole child development approaches. To not only advance children's academic achievement, but also to create safe, supportive, and equitable family, school, and community environments. Managing one of the fastest growing research portfolios on the University of Notre Dame's campus, the Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child, integrates research and practice, learning and doing, in all of its work from the very beginning. I'm here today with Tamara Doucette Larazar, Associate Director of Language and Literacy at the Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child in Haiti. Together, we're launching, a three part series on Forging a Future for Children in Haiti, Notre Dame's history in Haiti, the work that has been done to bolster the resilience of Haitian children and families, What we've learned through implementation science initiatives and the work that we hope to accomplish in the future. We hope that you'll find your experience with forging a future for Haiti to be insightful and engaging. This episode is possible thanks to the Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child, the Institute for Educational Initiatives, ThinkND, and the Notre Dame Alumni Association. in this first session, Tamara and I will explore Notre Dame's history in Haiti and discuss how evidence informed our decision to activate the home, school and church systems that surround children in Haiti. Thank you so much for being with me here today, Tamara.

tamara-doucet-larozar_1_12-04-2024_101619: 1:55

I'm so happy to be with you, Kate.

kate-_1_12-04-2024_101620: 1:57

So to provide a little bit of background information, Notre Dame's involvement in education in Haiti began over 18 years ago in 2006, when we began exploring opportunities to support Catholic schools. I should note here that in Haiti, there are over 2, 400 Catholic schools, and Haitian, students, approximately 20 percent of students in Haiti attend, Catholic schools, whether they're Catholic or not. This makes, the Catholic education system in Haiti, the single larger provider of education services. For reference, the public system is only about 12 percent of the system. So by almost double, the Catholic school system is the largest school system in Haiti. And that's really why we chose to invest in that system. Many of you might recall in 2010, there was a catastrophic earthquake that devastated Haiti, and we responded at the University of Notre Dame by helping to rebuild Basil Moreau, the Congregation of Holy Cross's flagship K 12 school in Port au Prince. And I should also note that the Congregation of Holy Cross has a very long relationship and presence with the people of Haiti and has a very large order. It's a really growing and important part of Holy Cross's ministry globally, the ministry in Haiti. but in addition to rebuilding, Basil Moreau School, we began a broader engagement when in Haiti's Catholic schools in rural areas of the country. We formed some really important, partnerships with, the National Office for Catholic Schools in Haiti, which is Somewhat confusingly to me, Tamara called the Episcopal Commission for Catholic Education, but it's Catholic. It's not Episcopal. it's the acronym is the CEC, but that's the National Office for Catholic Schools in Haiti, and also with diocesan bureaus of education. So the Catholic system in Haiti is very well organized. It's got a hierarchy and an organization that really serves it, very well. And there are BDE offices, Bureaus of Diocesan Education, underneath that National Office of Catholic Education in each one of Haiti's 10 diocese. In addition, we work with parishes, directly with local parishes and their schools. So our education partnerships now, given all that history, extend to over 300 school communities in Haiti, over 200 of which are Catholic. So we work in. Some public schools and some community schools, but the majority of our work happens in Catholic schools. So today, we're going to be focusing on our school based work in Haiti, which really began in earnest in really making an impact in 2014, when we began to implement and study the impact of a new and innovative early grade literacy program in Catholic schools in Haiti. We conducted that program in, 50 schools and we were able to do a randomized control trial to evaluate that program and had really strong success. That's really where we started with our literacy work. Tamera's been a huge part of that work and has over a decade of experience working, in literacy, early grade literacy in Haiti. So I wondered, Tamera, if maybe you could tell us a little bit about that work that you've done and your experience working in literacy in Haiti. Okay.

tamara-doucet-larozar_1_12-04-2024_101619: 5:00

Of course, I would definitely be happy to share with you how I came about doing the work that we do. my motivation, really dedication to vulnerable children and youth and underserving and low income communities and countries such as Haiti really comes from my background, and upbringing as a descendant of Haitian migrants in Brooklyn. And my work in literacy in Haiti truly began when I was an English second language teacher to Haitian adults in Brooklyn right after the 2010 earthquake. my classroom, I had students from the age of 16 to in their mid 50s from all different backgrounds. But what really that experience taught me was the students who struggled the most in learning a new language were the ones who did not finish their primary education. And by that I mean that they didn't master their fundamentals

kate-_1_12-04-2024_101620: 5:53

can

tamara-doucet-larozar_1_12-04-2024_101619: 5:53

in literacy and reading and writing in their mother tongue or primary language.

kate-_1_12-04-2024_101620: 5:58

that

tamara-doucet-larozar_1_12-04-2024_101619: 5:59

And that presented itself with difficulties when now they had to apply concepts they did not master in learning a new language. And so that's when I really began to Concretely understand the connection between quality education, But with that experience, I also. Continue that work in Haiti when I was an English fellow at the Haitian Education Leadership Program. This is where now I'm working with college students. they've graduated from the education system in Haiti, their primary and secondary, and now they're in college. should be able to then move forward with the learnings that they've mastered in their prior education. But what I saw in my students was really, they continue to have the same student learning gaps that I saw in my adult students. Back in Brooklyn and also corresponding behavior challenges as well. And so what that meant that even with the students who were the best of the best in this college program, they were high achievers. They still graduated from an education system, not having mastered certain key skills that they will now need in college. Many of those are being soft skills, but then. As I continue my experience in literacy in Haiti, and this is where it came full circle for me, while serving as Acting Education Chief and Senior Education Advisor at USAID Haiti Mission, but also in my role now at the Global Center, it's really clear that literacy for Haiti is not a standalone issue. Won't get you the results that we want to see and help students fulfill their potential. And what is really needed to improve learning outcomes, and within that, literacy rates, is social emotional learning. Flexible and cross sectoral programming because students are going to school hungry. They're dealing with X, Y, and Z issues at home and in their community. So they're not really ready to learn when they do come to school. And so we do need a programming that is holistic and that is responsive to their needs in the context of their environment. For as little of a country Haiti is, and as Kate, it's very diverse from one department to the next, between the North and the South, even within your same neighborhood, there are, important differences in their environment. So it's really important to have a holistic program that responds to their needs in their context.

kate-_1_12-04-2024_101620: 8:23

So that's really helpful and it's complicated, right? we work with someone who is always saying poverty is complex. And so solutions to poverty or to the deep needs that people have are gonna, be complex. And I think, what you went over just really highlighted that and makes that really clear. before we get to maybe some of the more holistic approaches or the multifaceted approaches, to addressing literacy challenges, could you give a little bit more, maybe some more specifics about what you've learned about, Just the history of literacy challenges in Haiti. You mentioned some things about first language in your, when we were talking earlier, that you had students in Brooklyn that you were working with that had not learned to read in their first language. Can you just talk a little bit about that and why language might be complicated in Haiti when it comes to literacy?

tamara-doucet-larozar_1_12-04-2024_101619: 9:07

Yes. Haiti is known and when you speak to Haitians, whether in Haiti, Whether within the diaspora, we tend to call ourselves bilingual. that's because there are two existing languages within Haiti. You have the mother tongue, primary language Creole, and you also have French because Haiti was colonized by the French. And so the part of that complication we now have, and that I saw within my students of Haiti, So what we've seen over the course of different ages is that French has been prioritized. It's been the sole language of instruction during colonization and even after Haiti gained its independence in 1804. And that lasted for centuries, almost

kate-_1_12-04-2024_101620: 9:47

Okay.

tamara-doucet-larozar_1_12-04-2024_101619: 10:00

French

kate-_1_12-04-2024_101620: 10:00

Okay.

tamara-doucet-larozar_1_12-04-2024_101619: 10:01

language of instruction in schools. Creole was not allowed in schools. It was banned from schools. Students were reprimanded for speaking in Creole. And so that meant that the population that speaks Creole, 100 percent of the population speaks Creole, but only 5 percent speaks French. It then marginalizes more than the majority of the student population

kate-_1_12-04-2024_101620: 10:23

Yeah.

tamara-doucet-larozar_1_12-04-2024_101619: 10:24

for all those decades. And what happened with the 1979 Bernard Reform, it really opened the country to debate and really question what do we mean by bilingualism. What is the place of Creole in the education system? Mr. Bernard Reformed then allowed Creole to have a place in schools, where before it was silenced. And now it can be an object of instruction, so now you can actually learn Creole as a language. Then what continued to be debated even after the reform was the role of the Creole language as a language of instruction. So allowing the teachers to use Creole as the language that they teach in for their students. And that's what,

kate-_1_12-04-2024_101620: 11:05

math or something like that, right? So you're saying maybe you could learn Creole in the classroom as a language, but you were not being instructed in other subjects in Creole. Those were still maybe happening in French.

tamara-doucet-larozar_1_12-04-2024_101619: 11:16

yeah, so during the time of the Bernard Reform, everything was in French.

kate-_1_12-04-2024_101620: 11:20

Gotcha.

tamara-doucet-larozar_1_12-04-2024_101619: 11:21

Creole was not a language that was taught in the classroom, so that means even for my parents, they were not taught Creole in the classroom, how to read and write it. But the generations after, at least at a minimum, they were able to learn Creole as a language in the classroom. But that meant still all the remaining subjects, math, science, social study, history, even in the higher grades, Creole literature was done in French. That was the reality not giving students the opportunity to critically think in their mother tongue to learn all of their basic social emotional learning foundational skills and literacy reading and writing, being able to make the connections that develops your brain in their mother tongue. And so within that. You had, and that really did have some challenges for the teachers as well, because not just the students who speak Creole, the teachers as well

kate-_1_12-04-2024_101620: 12:15

Silence.

tamara-doucet-larozar_1_12-04-2024_101619: 12:24

our teachers also have not mastered the French language, and they at the same time are not well prepared to teach how to read and write, because they don't have access, to certain key concepts. So that's one of the main challenges is teacher preparation as teachers are not trained. For the job that they hold only 20 percent and then also the dearth of quality of materials. As I mentioned, if everything is being taught in French, then all the materials are also in French for both teachers and students, and then students lack of preparedness is another reality for Haiti because students on one hand are not going to school on time, so they're not going to school in first grade at the appropriate age. Many of them start late and then at the same time, We do have lack of preparedness in terms of kids going to preschool as well. So there's a lot within that we'll do a bit later. And then there's also overcoming the rote education system of Haiti, which truly determines what type of practices are used within the classroom and the practices that they use, unfortunately, impede learning, because a lot of it's based on memorization.

kate-_1_12-04-2024_101620: 13:35

Can you give an example of what rote learning would look like in a classroom? if you walk into Haiti, where a teacher has not been well prepared or where they're just, using the materials that they have, what would that look like in a classroom?

tamara-doucet-larozar_1_12-04-2024_101619: 13:45

So in a classroom, what that would look like, in world education, the teacher usually has a ruler in their hand. You go into a classroom, they have that ruler. Everything's written on the board. They use the

kate-_1_12-04-2024_101620: 13:56

Mhm.

tamara-doucet-larozar_1_12-04-2024_101619: 13:57

on the board. And the classroom repeats everything together. So the students are not engaged and not set up in groups. They're not, applying practices that allow students to really engage with the content and with the learning. There's no really hands on experience. There's no visualization other than what's on the board. And so a lot of it is just repeat. And repeat. So say, for instance, they're learning certain words on the board in first grade. The teacher would just continue to go through each word and just consistently repeat it until they memorize it. So that also means that you're not sure if the student understands what they're learning at the same

kate-_1_12-04-2024_101620: 14:38

you're talking, I've seen that within, younger grades and then I've even seen really those practices carry over into upper grades where you would think that there really should be some higher order interaction or engagement happening. And, As we both know, having lived and worked in Haiti, often electricity is an issue. There isn't regular power or electricity for homes. And I remember when I lived in Cap Haitien, which is in the northern part of Haiti, seeing students, 15, 16 year old kids all crowded underneath a street lamp, because that would be the light that was on. And I thought, what are they doing? Cause it was like a chorus. Like you would just hear people repeat it. And I was like, Oh, they're just memor it's memorization. Like they're just, Memorizing a text or that's what the homework would really entail is being able, to come into class the next day and being able to recite from memory, this, and then there's a place for memory, we all got to memorize our math tables, or multiplication tables. There's a place for that, but you have to go beyond that if you really want people to develop, critical thinking skills, reading comprehension skills, all of that, you really have to go beyond. So that's a lot of challenges. So that's you've identified a lot of challenges within the system. is there anything Can you talk a little bit more, you mentioned that most teachers are only 20% of teachers are prepared. Could you talk a little bit more about how teachers are prepared in Haiti to become teachers and some of, how that existing system works, and how it could maybe be improved

tamara-doucet-larozar_1_12-04-2024_101619: 16:00

not a problem. And so what you mentioned about memorization, right? This goes along with teacher preparation because if you're not teaching in a language that you're consistently exposed to, if you're not learning in a language that you consistently listen to, but in a language that you're not familiar with, then what else would you do other than memorization? And so with the teachers not being trained adequately for the role that they will hold, they're not trained in the science of learning, these concepts that are fundamental. Helping a teacher understand, ooh, what are the key milestones or the key pathways that allows a child to learn? the assumption, before the early grade reading and writing, interventions in Haiti, the assumption was that, reading is innate. Reading is something, that's something you learn. And so that goes back to pre service, what is being taught in pre service. And also post service, because post service is. It's not, it's non existent in Haiti, unfortunately. Once you're done with pre service, you go into your teaching role, then if it's not for the school director, if it's not for your school leadership, or your own personal motivation to continue your own education, then you're not really exposed to any post service training and continued professional development, unless you are in a project, such as the projects and interventions. Outside of that, they don't have any other opportunities to be up, to be informed about the evolving science of education and what that then means for them in their teachings in the classroom and upgrading their, what they do in the classroom in terms of best practices as well. And with that, in terms of the bilingual context in Haiti, that's why it's hard to, when you're talking about literacy in Haiti, to not touch on bilingualism,

kate-_1_12-04-2024_101620: 17:43

Yeah.

tamara-doucet-larozar_1_12-04-2024_101619: 17:44

because French and Creole now coexist in the classroom. the Bernard Reform allowed Creole to have a space in the classroom and in schools, but it was never really defined. guidance. It was never defined with

kate-_1_12-04-2024_101620: 17:58

title

tamara-doucet-larozar_1_12-04-2024_101619: 17:59

that can help teachers use both languages effectively in the classroom. And so teachers, they determine how they use French and Creole in the classroom. So you imagine in a classroom, whether you're in first grade, whether you're in secondary, wherever you are in the system, Your materials are in French, most likely your teacher is speaking Creole, but some French included because they're trying to help you understand what you're seeing in your textbooks. And so that also has an influence on what the student is then able to learn because they're constantly in like translation mode. But also the teacher on their end, they may have a low proficiency in French. So they do rely on Creole quite a bit in the classroom, but there's no clear guidance on what works when it comes to using both languages in the classroom.

kate-_1_12-04-2024_101620: 18:46

So it sounds like from what you're saying students only have access to materials in French or sometimes in Creole. Could you talk a little bit about just the availability? I know there's been some changes, in the past decade or so about what's available, to students in Creole versus French materials.

tamara-doucet-larozar_1_12-04-2024_101619: 19:02

And so when it comes to availability of materials in French and Creole, so of course when Creole is the object of instruction, so for your Creole courses there is material. especially now, after a good decade and a half of teaching. early grade literacy programming in Haiti. There are publishing companies that have come around as well as now there are educators who have come around to understand the importance of mother tongue instruction in teaching students how to read and write. So when it comes to materials to go over the basics of reading and writing in Creole and teaching that There are some materials, whether they are of quality, is still debatable because that then depends on the approach that you will use in teaching students how to read and write, but then everything else remains in Creole. So there's still a lot of work to be done in this area, because it still remains significantly insufficient in terms of the materials that we have in Creole. but in terms of defining the quality of the Creole materials. That's something that the ministry is usually involved in, and it's not clear how Haiti defines quality materials, particularly quality materials in Creole, which reflects, the history, the colonial history, right? Because for decades and centuries, they've been developing materials in French. So if you were to do a comparison between French materials and Creole materials, you'll see that French materials are far more of higher quality compared to Creole materials as well.

kate-_1_12-04-2024_101620: 20:30

Gotcha, so thinking about this, you've talked a bit about mother tongue and, why that's so important, just for our, folks who are listening now, I think it might be helpful to explain too, there was a global movement or, an understanding in the science of learning, I don't know if I would say within the past, Decade or so, maybe even more, that really learning in your mother tongue, that children should learn, it was the best practice for kids to learn to read in their mother tongue, in Haiti that would be Creole, and then once they have solidified those skills in their mother tongue, that they could transition to a second language. So you might, in Haiti, that would be learning first to read in Creole, then transitioning to French. In other countries, there are many countries, for example, thinking of many countries in Africa where multiple languages, there might be multiple languages spoken at a regional level, but then one unifying, colonial language, if that's English, if that's Dutch, if that's French, Portuguese, the idea being instead of teaching kids to learn first to read in that second language, that colonial language, it is a much better approach and shows much better results for kids to learn to read, in their mother tongue. so that's like a global, that's where I think also helped in a way in Haiti to push this forward was that global recognition about the science of learning and literacy. And there's one, even given, so we've talked about this soup, for lack of a better word, of all the problems that Haiti is facing and why there's such a struggle, to have effective literacy practices and for kids to really learn. And one statistic that really sticks out to me, people always think that I'm making it up. If I give a presentation about our work, I'll say, Almost 50%, like 49 percent of Haitian students are unable to read a single word in Creole or French by the time they finish second grade. And people will say, oh, you must have misspoken, that can't have been the statistic. And I say, no, it's like astounding and shocking in a really bad way, but that is the statistic. That's how poor the results, like whatever has been happening. I think that's a statistic from the, 2000 teens, right? So hopefully there's been, some progress since then, but the last large study in Haiti about a decade ago showed this result.

tamara-doucet-larozar_1_12-04-2024_101619: 22:31

Yes.

kate-_1_12-04-2024_101620: 22:32

so it's really sobering. we don't want to just be sobering. We're going to get to some more of the solutions and the things that are being done to address this. But can you talk a little bit more too, just to give the full context, you mentioned earlier preschool. Okay. and that, can you talk a little bit more? What does preschool? So we know by the time kids finished second grade, things are still a little complicated for most kids. What's happening in preschool? Are kids going to preschool?

tamara-doucet-larozar_1_12-04-2024_101619: 22:55

Yes, so when it comes to preschool, it also touches on, mother tongue instruction as well, because in preschool, mother tongue instruction is still in French. so even despite that we've mentioned this movement, towards understanding the science of reading, the science of learning, the importance of mother tongue instruction, there still isn't enough movement even in the English language. Early years before you get to first grade.'cause you do have 60% of the population in Haiti that attends preschool. And preschool is private. the public school is starting, the public school system is starting to provide more preschool, services, but for the most part it's largely, private providers. And then for the other 40%, the first time they're going to school is really in first grade. And. Many of them are over age. And so what, there was a recent study, when, I mean recent, around 2015, that actually preschool had an adverse effect on student learning, and

kate-_1_12-04-2024_101620: 23:53

Sad. Yeah.

tamara-doucet-larozar_1_12-04-2024_101619: 23:55

it's. If once again, it's a reflection. So you can imagine if first and second grade or the early grade teachers aren't receiving the pre service and post training that they need, preschool itself that's been neglected

kate-_1_12-04-2024_101620: 24:06

Yeah.

tamara-doucet-larozar_1_12-04-2024_101619: 24:20

that kindergarten grade, they're treating them as first graders. So you don't have them set up in like group settings or in circles. They're sitting at the bench and they're writing and copying in their notebooks. There's no playful learning for the students. The focus on pre numeracy and pre literacy is so important. Also, within the first couple of years of preschool and that last grade of preschool kindergarten, they're focused on teaching children how to read in French. Once again, are they learning? How do they understand what they're reading? That's questionable, not particularly because of the methodology that they're using. And so if you have students who are learning to quote unquote read Through memorization, and then they go to first and second grade, and they're still not able to attain the level of fluency they should for their age. that's also how you do end up with that statistic that you mentioned. 49 percent of second graders not being able to read one single word in either French or Creole.

kate-_1_12-04-2024_101620: 25:22

Yeah. So again, we've, I don't want us just to marinate, like it's hard because it is, it's a complicated, very challenging environment, but we know that there are things that work. I mean, this is why we've been there for as long as we have. This is why Notre Dame and the Global Center have been so invested in Haiti, because we've said, even given all these challenges, you can make a significant difference in learning outcomes for kids. scale, right? Like you can do these things, particularly through the Catholic system. So could you talk a little bit about what's been proven to be effective? Are there any strategies that work in Haiti, even given this really complicated situation?

tamara-doucet-larozar_1_12-04-2024_101619: 25:57

Yes, no, definitely. Like what we've learned, and this is what also helped move the needle to accept mother tongue extraction, is understanding that, yes, phonics works, but most importantly, phonics and the five pillars of the science of reading works in Haiti. Whereas before, they would just focus on the synthetic literacy approach, which really focuses on the individual sounds and blending them, but then that's it. Whereas the science of reading, yes, it's phonemic awareness. Yes, there's phonics. Yes, there's, but there's also fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. It's a set of pillars that is aligned with how children learn how to read, level of fluency that's age appropriate.

kate-_1_12-04-2024_101620: 26:39

just for our listeners, I have a third grader so I'm a little bit familiar with these, and administering this program too, but phonemic awareness and phonics. I think fluency, that's how, being able to read at a pace, you gotta be able to read fast enough that it's not painful, right, so you have to be able to read at pace. Vocabulary and comprehension, those make sense. Can you just explain what phonemic awareness and phonics are?

tamara-doucet-larozar_1_12-04-2024_101619: 26:59

So phonemic awareness is really the ability to identify and manipulate sounds that you already hear, right? So it's recognizing them in the words, in your regular activity, in your regular languages. Whereas phonics is really starting to recognize them, blend them, to make words.

kate-_1_12-04-2024_101620: 27:20

Gotcha.

tamara-doucet-larozar_1_12-04-2024_101619: 27:20

And so both of them, you, through both the process of phonemic awareness and phonics, you understand the relationship between sound, letters, and the alphabet and its connection to words.

kate-_1_12-04-2024_101620: 27:32

Okay. given that, knowing the science of reading, mother tongue instruction, how have those things been applied to work in Haiti? What's worked?

tamara-doucet-larozar_1_12-04-2024_101619: 27:40

So what's worked is, so the materials that we've used and developed, with, The ministry of education is applying these five pillars across various of activities and applying them with a scripted lesson because taking into consideration the inadequate preparation of our teachers, we cannot just say, here are the five principles. Go ahead and do it. instruct them into your classroom. We did have an approach where each lesson is scripted, and how to really do activities that touch on these five pillars in their classroom. And that really helped them understand What is science of reading? Also help them understand the connection to the alphabet, because Creole language is still evolving. But then also help them understand what are the best practices when it comes to these five pillars. And so by providing them with a quality of materials that is comprehensive, Touches on these five pillars that also provides the teachers with their own teacher guide that's scripted and the students actually have reading materials, they have workbooks because that's another reality, is that parents cannot afford to pay for all the textbooks that they need to purchase for their child. And by providing the materials to the students, we know that they have a workbook. We know that they have a reading book and the teacher then goes through the activities with the students and the activities are somewhere a bit more student centered. So trying to get away from the

kate-_1_12-04-2024_101620: 29:08

This

tamara-doucet-larozar_1_12-04-2024_101619: 29:09

and the memorization

kate-_1_12-04-2024_101620: 29:11

wrote

tamara-doucet-larozar_1_12-04-2024_101619: 29:11

helping students really break down each of those different pillars.

kate-_1_12-04-2024_101620: 29:15

of

tamara-doucet-larozar_1_12-04-2024_101619: 29:16

then also

kate-_1_12-04-2024_101620: 29:17

is

tamara-doucet-larozar_1_12-04-2024_101619: 29:17

materials had assessments. them periodically.

kate-_1_12-04-2024_101620: 29:20

go

tamara-doucet-larozar_1_12-04-2024_101619: 29:21

yes, while you're teaching your students to learn how to read and write, it's important to assess them, evaluate them, understand where they are. And so when we developed the Classroom Library, which also helped understanding where they are on the spectrum of reading and how they're progressing,

kate-_1_12-04-2024_101620: 29:35

person who

tamara-doucet-larozar_1_12-04-2024_101619: 29:36

was to also build a culture of reading. Because Haiti does not have a culture of reading. And so that's something that we also embedded

kate-_1_12-04-2024_101620: 29:44

what

tamara-doucet-larozar_1_12-04-2024_101619: 29:44

the materials we provide to

kate-_1_12-04-2024_101620: 29:46

as.

tamara-doucet-larozar_1_12-04-2024_101619: 29:47

the teachers and the students.

kate-_1_12-04-2024_101620: 29:48

going

tamara-doucet-larozar_1_12-04-2024_101619: 29:49

But another key component was the coaching as well. Once again, we don't want to just leave the teachers with a set of materials

kate-_1_12-04-2024_101620: 29:56

Yeah.

tamara-doucet-larozar_1_12-04-2024_101619: 29:57

So the school directors are also trained. We also have coaching for the teachers who periodically at least go into the classrooms twice a month. To then provide support to the teachers and that improves fidelity and also improves their performance as well.

kate-_1_12-04-2024_101620: 30:12

everything that you just described, all those best practices and those things that were introduced to Haiti, in our school based work, as over the past decade, we've been able, as a research university to do that. evaluations and research studies on this, this approach that you've talked about, and we've seen significant improvements. So kids that participate in our programs as compared to kids that don't, it's a significant, statistically significant due to the program, that kids improve in their outcomes. So that is a very positive, that's why we continue to do this work. That's why in spite of the challenges, thank you for all that information about literacy specifically. but you talked about how kids need more, like because of the challenge in Haiti, where One of the things that we've come up, come across in our work is we can intervene in schools in this academic, in these academic areas, but really that social and emotional learning, that component is really important, for kids to feel comfortable and safe and to be able to absorb, that academic content. So could you talk a little bit about social emotional learning and how that's playing in Haiti and how it's being, adopted?

tamara-doucet-larozar_1_12-04-2024_101619: 31:12

Sure, not a problem, Kate. When it comes to social emotional learning and literacy, particularly in the reality that the students in Haiti are living, like coming to school and being ready to learn, social emotional learning has played a key role in creating that shift at the school and at the school environment level and helping them, take a break, pause, Everything that's happening at home, let's distance ourselves from that and get into a playful, positive environment before we get into the content for the day. And so the social emotional learning in that sense also shows the teacher that you can get away from mode education, right? Get away from lecturing all day to your students

kate-_1_12-04-2024_101620: 32:00

U

tamara-doucet-larozar_1_12-04-2024_101619: 32:16

that already exist in Haiti in terms of collective effort. there's something that we know we called compite in Haiti and that's something that's reflected in the morning meetings that we have as an activity, an SEL activity. And so within that, before we did get into all the different activities for social emotional learning, we did have to look at the existing frameworks. What does that mean for Haiti? So we did look at the CASEL framework and try to contextualize it to Haiti, making sure

kate-_1_12-04-2024_101620: 32:46

is A US based, right? That's like a US based social emotional learning. And just to clarify to you, you mentioned morning meetings. People might, I know my daughter does them. My son used to do them at school. Right? It's like when you come into the classroom, you meet together as a class and talk through things. So some of these practices that we're introducing are things that people might be familiar with, but go ahead. So CASEL is a U. S. based social emotional learning framework.

tamara-doucet-larozar_1_12-04-2024_101619: 33:07

Exactly. And with that framework, the University of Notre Dame, the Global Center, then contextualized it to Haiti and to take into consideration the cultural context, to really identify from that framework what needs to be emphasized. And from there, we then develop the SCL activity, the morning meetings, which can also be known as circle time in the morning for preschoolers. And from there, we also focus on the teachers in terms of the environment that they're creating in their classroom by focusing on the positive discipline, positive climate to that, the corporal punishment, the strong language, the public humiliation that are

kate-_1_12-04-2024_101620: 33:49

Okay.

tamara-doucet-larozar_1_12-04-2024_101619: 33:57

education system that's not unique to Haiti is really about building relationship out of fear between you and your student. That's how you're going to get them to behave and to learn. And so SEL is a way to provide an alternative. The Ministry of Education

kate-_1_12-04-2024_101620: 34:13

Yeah.

tamara-doucet-larozar_1_12-04-2024_101619: 34:20

is a tool that can help create that mind shift. And what we've seen with the teachers, they enjoy it. They love it with morning meetings, we have students coming to school on time because they don't wanna miss out on morning meetings. And we've seen also fights have also decreased. So it's having the impact that we want it to have.

kate-_1_12-04-2024_101620: 34:41

it's a positive alternative. And again, just speaking to what we're able to do in our implementation science, the research learning through doing, we do formative evaluations and also research on how these social and emotional learning practices work. And we've published papers on this, and we've had results that show that the social emotional learning program has positive impacts on students skills and abilities, and that it's really actually working, which is really encouraging to us because we try it, we implement it, we improve upon it, and then we study it and see if it works, and it does. So that's been, I think, a great advantage of having a research university involved in these types of projects. I want to go back. And talk a little bit about something you mentioned earlier about preschool. How, even kids that go to preschool, they're not being served well in Haiti, right? Like preschool, a lot of kids are not attending preschool and those that are, it might actually be doing harm, which is crazy to think about. There's so much evidence now with advancements in neuroscience and neuroimaging of brains. We know. much about how important ages zero to five are, just all the growth and development and capacity that's just exponential, about how brains are developing and growing and how important that is, in early childhood and that kids who have really positive, enriching experiences and nurturing care at that age group, zero to five, you can see exponentially how, that has, Pays dividends and puts them on a different trajectory in their future. Right? Like it really sets them up on a path to success. And one thing that, speaking to the issue of preschool and kids coming into first grade, one thing we realized when kids came into our programs in first grade in Haiti, many children came in not knowing what a book was, never having held a book, not knowing what a page number was, not having a concept of the relationship that here's this text, these are words written in a book, and then there's meaning to those words, like just that combination. These are kids who, for many reasons, had not been read to by their parents and had not had that exposure to text. And so they really started behind. Many of our kids, we saw dramatic improvements in the kids that participated in our program. So many kids came in so far behind that there was too high of a percentage of children that still were not reading at a competent level after participating in our early grade literacy program for those two years, for first and second grade. And we realized it's because they came in at such a deficit. And we thought, In order for the schools, the academic school based programming that we're doing in early grades, we really have to start earlier in the home and in the preschool so that kids come in fully prepared and don't have to do all that catch up work. You guys know I love my Midwestern, proverbs or phrases, but there is a, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, I think is the way that it's said. And that is true, right? That if we can get to kids earlier, we can solve so many of these problems. That are coming. So again, we just realized that school based work was necessary, but not sufficient if we really want to change the trajectories for these very vulnerable kids in Haiti. We have to continue to do this school based work. we will continue. We know what works. We're going to keep iterating and improving, and working at scale on that, but we need to start earlier.

tamara-doucet-larozar_1_12-04-2024_101619: 37:52

yes.

kate-_1_12-04-2024_101620: 37:57

there's a Haitian proverb, which you probably know, Haitian parents will say that if a child is Behaving, if you're doing a good job as a parent, your child will be in one of three places, the three L's. La calle, l'église, l'école, which is the home, the school, or the church. having, knowing that proverb, having heard that before, we started to think about, what's the system that really impacts kids? What is the child learning and development system? The school is a part of it, but especially in these Catholic communities, the Ministry of Education is not capable of intervening. There's no Department of Public Health that's intervening to help kids. There's no Head Start or Early Intervention. None of those things exist in Haiti. Really, the system that's impacting kids is the home, the school, and the church, and combined, that is a really powerful system, to work with kids from those early ages, zero to five, and then continue on with school, and continue to have churches and homes, that support kids. this is a teaser, for our next episode, because We've given you an idea of the school based work, why that's so important, the challenges, how we've overcome them, and how we're making improvements, but this work has shown to us that we need to do more earlier in the system that directly impacts children's lives. So we're going to really dive into the home element of the L3 system, in our next episode. But, I just want people to leave with hope. I think it's important. Again, we talked a lot about challenges, but we've really worked to improve access to quality education in over 300 school communities, and the challenges are immense. Haitians face immense obstacles and difficulties from, Earthquakes, to political instability, to the COVID pandemic, which we didn't even touch on, but that really impacted, students in Haiti who didn't have access to learning materials during that time. but we've seen real progress. There's evidence. again, we've been able to do research and show, yes, these programs are working. The literacy program is working. Social emotional learning programs, are working. So while there's still a lot of work to do, we really think that we've built a much stronger foundation for change. And this is a story of hope. Resilience, lessons learned that can offer valuable insights into strengthening systems that surround vulnerable children in other crisis affected countries. Haiti is not alone. There are many other countries in the world where we really believe, and this is why we continue to do this work at the Global Center, where the homeschool and church system could be activated to really help kids, in places where They're really vulnerable. And we're really grateful we have wonderful, supporters, from the Notre Dame community that have, given their time and have given their resources to support this work. And I really think that this, Tamara, is an only Notre Dame thing. the consistency, the amount of time that we've invested in Haiti and working in these areas, other universities would not do this. This is not the kind of challenge. it's not, If I might say, it's maybe, a neglected area of research that maybe doesn't get enough attention because it is so difficult. And that's where I think Notre Dame has really dug in and had a long term commitment. it's an only Notre Dame type of story. So thank you Tamara for joining me and for sharing all your wisdom and insight. I really appreciate it. And thank you all of you, for joining us this month on ThinkND. On behalf of the Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child, ThinkND, I hope you had. a good time. I hope you enjoyed this episode and that you'll join us next time as we talk about activating the home system in Haiti. and I hope until then that this inspires your mind and sparks conversations and encourages you about how Notre Dame is operating for good in the world.