9.1 How to influence change at pre-service level

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The long-term vision for the Zambia programme is for the inclusive education training modules to be integrated into the work of all teacher training colleges and universities across Zambia. This will help bring about systemic and sustainable change in mainstream teachers’ attitudes and practices.

The Zambian programme has taken 2 main steps to help bring about change in pre-service training.

Recruit pre-service trainers into the in-service training programme

From the start, the Zambia programme made and maintained strong connections with pre-service institutions.

When selecting Principal Trainers, we deliberately chose some lecturers from teacher training colleges and universities who work in curriculum development and pedagogy (i.e. they guide and influence teaching and learning methodology) rather than special needs education.

Build relationships with senior education officials

The programme has reached out directly to senior personnel in colleges and universities and the Ministry of General Education (MoGE) and Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE). We:

• discuss the training programme with them;
• invite them to engage in the process;
• keep them informed of progress;
• discuss how the training modules could be integrated into, or help inform revisions to, the core pre-service training curricula.