Call for Proposal-Revision of Year 3 Art Curriculum (Performing Arts and Visual Arts)

Call for Proposal

UNESCO Myanmar Strengthening Pre-Service Teacher Education in Myanmar (STEM) Revision of Year 3 Art Curriculum (Performing Arts and Visual Arts)

Terms of Reference

Date Issued: 15 September, 2022

I. Background

UNESCO works to Strengthen Pre-Service Teacher Education in Myanmar (STEM). The project addresses four fundamentally important aspects of pre-service teacher education. These include:

1. formulating a policy framework of pre-service teacher education and identifying standards for quality assurance,
2. improving a system of pre-service teacher training institutions by designing the new four- year degree programme of pre-service teacher education and creating good networks to accumulate and share knowledge and experiences,
3. developing institutional/management and human resource capacities, and
4. mainstreaming inclusion and equity issues in teacher education.

Under the STEM project, UNESCO is supporting to produce Year 1-4 student teacher textbooks (TBs) and teacher educator guides (TGs) for the new pre-service teacher education programme across states and regions in Myanmar. Year 1 curriculum was developed in 2019 and Year 2 and Year 3 curriculum are currently being finalized apart from Year 3 Myanmar, Art and Local Curriculum. Year 3 Art (Performing Arts and Visual Arts) primary and middle school specialisation tracks are developed in Myanmar language by national curriculum experts and being translated in English. During the quality assurance process, it is identified that Year 3 Draft Art needs further improvement, firstly, to be aligned with the international practices and approaches, and then, to meet the high standard evidence-based academic writing. The focus of this revising process is to ensure that Year 3 Draft Art, in terms of overarching concepts, content, learning activities, teaching and learning strategies and assessment approaches, are contextualized while meeting the international standards and trends, including mainstreaming inclusion, Education for Peace and Sustainable Development (EPSD), Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH), gender and equity.

A brief overview of total number of periods for Year 3 Art (Performing Arts and Visual Arts) primary and middle school specialisation tracks, Semester 1 and Semester 2 of TBs and TGs is shown in the table below(a):

Performing Arts

Semester 1 – Primary-6 periods, Middle-6 periods

Semester 2 – Primary-4 periods, Middle-4 periods

Visual Arts

Semester 1 – Primary-6 periods, Middle-6 periods

Semester 2 – Primary-4 periods, Middle-4 periods

Total number of periods per semester – 24 periods for Semester 1 and 16 periods for Semester 2

Total number of periods for both tracks – 40

The contractor will i) review the Year 3 Draft Art (Performing Arts and Visual Arts), and ii) revise, edit and finalise the Year 3 Draft Art (Performing Arts and Visual Arts) by conducting further research, integrating the international practices and approaches to the content and the pedagogy and restructuring and editing the draft.

II. Tasks and Responsibilities:

1. The contractor will perform the tasks under the overall authority of the Director of UNESCO Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education, the direct supervision of the Head of Office of UNESCO Myanmar Project Office, the day-to-day guidance of the Curriculum Specialist and in close collaboration with the STEM project team.

2. The contractor will, for the revision and finalisation of Year 3 Draft Art (Performing Arts and Visual Arts) primary and middle school specialisation tracks:

i) Review 4 student teacher textbooks and 4 teacher educator guides with total number of 24 periods for Year 3 Semester 1 Draft Art (Performing Arts and Visual Arts) primary and middle school specialisation tracks, and get familiar with initial review comments and other relevant documents on curriculum development;

ii) Review 4 student teacher textbooks and 4 teacher educator guides with total number of 16 periods for Year 3 Semester 2 Draft Art (Performing Arts and Visual Arts) primary and middle school specialisation tracks, and get familiar with initial review comments and other relevant documents on curriculum development;

iii) Conduct further research to ensure Year 3 Draft Art (Performing Arts and Visual Arts) primary and middle school specialisation tracks in terms of overarching concepts, content, learning activities, teaching and learning strategies and assessment approaches, are contextualized while reflecting the international standards and trends, including mainstreaming inclusion, cultural aspects of EPSD, ICH, gender and equity;

iv) Compile a list of comments from UNESCO using the template provided by UNESCO;

v) Communicate with UNESCO and regularly to provide updates on the revision process and to make clarifications on the comments received on the draft Year 3 Art (Performing Arts and Visual Arts) primary and middle school specialisation tracks, Semester 1 and Semester 2 of TBs and TGs;

vi) Revise and finalise the Year 3 Draft Performing Arts, primary and middle school specialisation tracks, Semester 1 and Semester 2 of TBs and TGs based on the guidelines provided by UNESCO;

vii) Revise and finalise the Year 3 Draft Visual Arts, primary and middle school specialisation tracks, Semester 1 and Semester 2 of TBs and TGs based on the guidelines provided by UNESCO;

viii) Complete and submit the additional resources list and artwork brief along with the finalised TBs and TGs;

ix) Organize and format the documents of Year 3 Art (Performing Arts and Visual Arts) primary and middle school specialisation tracks, TBs and TGs such as the technical content, artwork brief such as illustrations, infographics and photographs, and teaching and learning resources to make sure that they meet the requirements of UNESCO style guides, are up to standard and are of good quality;

x) Year 3 Art (Performing Arts and Visual Arts) primary and middle school specialisation track TBs and TGs must be revised with evidence-based and concrete educational practices and approaches, including but not limited to, the alignment with primary and middle school curriculum and Year 1 and Year 2 curriculum, coherence of the strands, sub-strands, scope and sequence, learning outcomes, lesson topics and learning activities; improvement of the assessment/evaluation scheme; and enhancement of the list of relevant learning resources.

III. Duration of Contract:

1. The contract is valid from 30 September 2022 to 31 December 2022, however, shorter periods will be applied depending on the actual project start date.

2. All deliverables need to be submitted in English and in editable format (such as MS-Word and MS-Excel format). As for lists of art works, lists of teaching and learning resources and the actual resource files, they should be submitted mainly in English, with the use of Myanmar to refer to items only available in the Myanmar language.

3. All deliverables will be developed by the contractor in collaboration with UNESCO. All comments received from UNESCO on curriculum revision must be thoroughly reviewed and addressed in the revision and finalization process.

4. Prior to submission, the contractor ensures that proper copyediting and proofreading should have been carried out for all deliverables and the relevant templates and formats should have been closely followed. The contractor may be requested by UNESCO to revise the deliverables if they are determined by UNESCO to be unsatisfactory and/or incomplete with the required standard of quality. No additional payment will be made for any correction of the deliverables.

5. The contractor grants UNESCO the exclusive worldwide right for the works created under this contract to exploit, to publish, to reproduce, to diffuse, to distribute, to communicate to the public, etc., in any form and on any support, including digital and broadcast, and to license these rights to third parties on the basis of the rights herein vested in UNESCO.

IV. Deliverables:

The contractor shall provide the following deliverables according to the timeframe:

1. Submission of full draft of Year 3 Semester 1 Art (Performing Arts and Visual Arts) primary and middle school specialisation tracks, a total of eight TBs and TGs by 25 October 2022;
2. Submission of final versions of Year 3 Semester 1 Art (Performing Arts and Visual Arts) primary and middle school specialisation tracks, a total of eight TBs and TGs by 9 November 2022;
3. Submission of full draft Year 3 Semester 2 Art (Performing Arts and Visual Arts) primary and middle school specialisation tracks, a total of eight TBs and TGs by 25 November 2022; and
4. Submission of final versions of Year 3 Semester 2 Art (Performing Arts and Visual Arts) primary and middle school specialisation tracks, a total of eight TBs and TGs by 9 December 2022.

V. Eligible Organisations for application:

Eligible organisations are local and international education service providers, focused on teacher education curriculum development and have extensive work with pre-service teacher education and continued professional development for educators (teacher educators, teachers, trainers, etc.), together with knowledge and experience in curriculum review. Some criteria for application are as follows:

1. Holding the necessary permission to provide the services as outlined in the ToR;
2. Evidence by pervious and current registration or ongoing application registration;
3. A good knowledge of pre-service teacher education curriculum in Myanmar and learning needs of the different educators would be a great advantage;
4. Have expertise in pedagogical approaches to learning, linking to the concepts, methodologies, practices, learning strategies and assessment;
5. At least 5 years of experience in the area of teacher professional development and related fields is required, preferably with experience in curriculum development;
6. Sufficient technical support professionals for curriculum revision with appropriate experience in education, international development or a related field; and
7. Sufficient professionals with excellent communication and writing skills in English and Myanmar.

(a) In each semester, the same total number of periods as per the table must be developed for each TB and TG. Primary and middle school specialisation tracks must be differentiated whereas for Year 3, there should be an alignment with Basic Education primary school level (KG to Grade 2) for primary track and middle school level (Grade 6 and Grade 7) for middle track.

How to apply

Interested organisations are invited to submit both Technical and Financial Proposals (detailed cost breakdown in USD, e.g. daily rate, number of team members, number of days, with own template), accompanied with the following documents to [email protected] by 21 September, 2022.

1. Profile of the organization, including the organization structure, registration and CVs of the technical, management and implementation support personnel proposed to work on the project; and
2. Evidence of previous work on the development of teacher education and curriculum review and development that qualifies the organization to undertake this project. Two references for services in the areas of module development for curriculum development and curriculum review and mapping is preferable.

Your application should reach [email protected] by email no later than 17:00 Hours (Yangon time) on 21 September 2022.

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.