Teachers for Teachers: Strengthening Support to Refugee Teachers in Kakuma (Kenya)

Session Submission Type: Group Panel

Description of Session

The role of a teacher in the field of education in emergencies and refugee contexts is profoundly significant. Teachers are at the heart of learning—whether they teach in a building, a tent, or a space under a tree—and they can provide life-saving information and skills that promise an alternative to child labour, early marriage, or recruitment into armed forces. Perhaps most important, teachers can bring a sense of stability and hope by equipping learners with the skills to heal, grow, and participate in the peaceful reconstruction of their communities. While the scholarly base for the field of education in emergencies is expanding quickly, one key stakeholder remains understudied--the teacher.

According to a recent study conducted in East Africa, communities struck by disaster and conflict regard education as the first priority (Gladwell and Tanner, 2014). And yet, education is drastically underfunded, representing a mere 1.4 percent of the global humanitarian budget (UNESCO, 2011). Donors who do support education often focus on school construction—a short-term, tangible, easily photographed “quick win.” Despite global commitments to providing quality education for all children, routine responses have fallen far short of this goal: teachers typically receive minimal or no teacher training and many only have secondary school certificates and their own educational experiences to draw on. If they do receive training, it is often in the form of one-off workshops delivered by visiting NGOs. As a result, refugee teachers report exceptionally low motivation, citing lack of professional support, training, recognition, or connection to a professional community.

To respond to this gap, Teachers College, Columbia University partnered with Finn Church Aid, UNHCR and LWF to design a new Teachers for Teachers initiative that aims to provide refugee teachers with meaningful and sustained support using a combination of intensive training, personalized face-to-face coaching support, and, mobile mentoring. The Teachers for Teachers model draws on the best evidence for developing the expertise, knowledge, and motivation of teachers. It is a multi-layered and staged approach that unfolds over time, allowing teachers time to digest what they have learned in the classroom and to test and adopt new strategies.

During this panel, our team will present specific areas of work related to training and coaching, mentoring, research and evaluation, and teacher engagement in an effort both to share the interlinking components of this project, but also to engage session participants in critical reflection on this approach and how we might further improve it. As we collectively aim to problematize (in)equality, our panel will help bring attention to the critically important needs and contributions of refugee teachers working not only in Kenya, but also in other displacement contexts around the world.

Sub Unit

• SIG: Education Conflict and Emergencies

Chair

• Mary Mendenhall, Teachers College, Columbia University

Individual Presentations

• Continuous Teacher Professional Development: Building Communities of Collaboration to Improve Teaching Practice - Danielle Falk, Teachers College, Columbia University; Jihae Cha, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Creating Global Connections to Support Refugee Teachers - Shezleen Vellani, Columbia University

• Designing a Research Framework and Learning Agenda for New Teacher Professional Development Models in Refugee Contexts - Lauren Bowden, Teachers College, Columbia University; Emily Richardson, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Capturing Teachers’ Experiences and Sharing Them Beyond Kakuma Refugee Camp - Sophia Collas, Teachers College, Columbia University

Discussant

• Mary Tangelder, Mastercard Foundation