On Monday, 27 November 2017, a new round of the Exchange Programme of the Early Childhood Professional Development Project was launched in Britain. The programme is organised by the Educational Research and Development Programme (ERDP) of the A. M. Qattan Foundation (AMQF).
Five Palestinian teachers and educators take part in the Exchange Programme under the supervision of Malik Al-Remawi, Manager of the ERDP Languages and Humanities Track, Vivian Tannous, ERDP Researcher, and Nader Wahbeh, Manager of the Science Studio. Participants live the experience of engaging with classes at the British Woodrow School, which applies the mantle of expert approach at the kindergarten and basic school levels. They also participate in planning and applying this approach with British teachers and educators.
Jumana Rabah and Suhad al-Sayyed (preschool educators) and Ayesha Salameh, Aya Badran and Samah Abdul Aal (first grade teachers) participate in two mantles of the expert drama projects. Of these, a project addresses photographer who discover a strange creature while they are covering an annual celebration. In the other, children look for missing pages from manuscripts kept in a Sudanese mosque in the context of the story The King’s Fountain. The mantle is an approach that achieves curriculum requirements, placing the curriculum in a social context.
The teachers and educators will spend a week at Woodrow. However, the Exchange Programme is not limited to hosting Palestinian teachers at the Woodrow School. It also involves a joint planning process as well as hosting British teachers at Palestinian kindergartens over subsequent months.