Article
How Perkins’ model programs in Latin America are strengthening educational communities
Perkins' article on their model programs and schools was featured in the DBI Review, detailing the four years of work in Latin America.
At Perkins School for the Blind, we are building a world where every child can learn. Perkins is proud to have been recognized for our work with Model Programs in the latest DBI Review, in April 2023. The DBI Review is a journal published twice a year by the global organization Deafblind International.
Through our Model Program Approach, we meet children where they are, currently working with governments and stakeholders in 20 countries. By partnering with communities, training teachers and empowering families, our work seeks to strengthen local capacity to build an inclusive education environment where all children and youth belong.
In Latin America, we have worked for 30 plus years in collaboration with governments and civil society organizations to elevate educational opportunities for children and youth having vision loss, multiple disabilities and/or who are deafblind.
3 takeaways from Perkins’ model programs and schools
In 2019, we deployed Perkins’ “Model School Approach,” a scalable strategy that transforms education opportunities, access, and systems in nine schools across Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina. We supported these schools in a model of change that included self-evaluation, revision of practices, and implementation of proven practices for children with disabilities.
Four years after the beginning of the project, with several pieces of evidence gathered and research that aimed to record the process of change, Gloria Rodríguez-Gil, Director for Perkins in Latin America, and Maria A. Vázquez, Researcher for Latin America, looked into the results and reflections of this experience.
In the April 2023 DBI Review publication, “Model School: Quality and Leadership in Education of the Individuals with Having Vision Loss, Multiple Disabilities, and the Individuals who are Deafblind,” the authors share the following lessons learned:
- Perkins’ Model School approach is fundamentally linked to the concepts of evolution and change. Schools are asked for flexibility to incorporate social changes around inclusion, diversity, equity, and access.
- The impact created was evident in numerous ways. Changes were observed in the attitudes and values of the team members, in the appropriation of new knowledge resulting in shared best practices, and in the practitioners’ reflections and resulting decisions about which actions to prioritize during the change process.
- The leadership that this concept proposes and that each school develops is linked to classroom management, as well as to institutional management, where the characteristics of the services, the actions of teachers and managers, and the participation of the family are understood.
The authors define a “Model School” as a place of constant search for improvement, a leader in self-assessment and innovation, committed to the revision of practices based on each individual demand. It is a school with social awareness as they see themselves as a school of reference and support, a training site, a model for other schools.
Read the full Perkins’ article published in the 69th edition of the DBI Review in April 2023.
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