Culturally Responsive Professional Development for Inclusive Education in Rural Malawi

Overview & Synopsis

Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world (World Bank, 2014). Yet, our experiences working with rural schools suggest that the Malawi education system may be far ahead of many developed nations, including the United States, in terms of their practical and philosophical commitment to inclusive education for all children, including children with disabilities. Universal free primary school education is a poverty reduction strategy for Malawi that began in the early 1990s. Many of the teacher trainees are experienced, but untrained (Coultas & Lewin, 2002). Teacher preparation in special education is relatively new and not yet widely available in Malawi. This paper describes the author's experiences of her initial explorations of professional development to support inclusive education in rural Malawi in collaboration with a local nongovernmental organization, The Landirani Trust.