Building bridges: Trauma-informed curriculum in the Syrian ELL context

• In Event: Technology Beyond Borders: Adult Education in Conflict Settings

Proposal

Background
Education is often one of the first sacrifices a family makes amid conflict and declining safety, and yet it is the one investment which allows an individual to gain access to college and career opportunities (Zouev,1999). Notwithstanding the social and economic cost of transition from conflict to safety, the cost of a loss of education is perhaps the most detrimental in the long-term. Before the March 2011 crisis, the majority of secondary-age children were enrolled in school in Syria, and the nation’s literacy rates for both men and women were over 90%. Regionally, Syria’s literacy rates were similar to its neighbors Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan and exceeded Iraq and Egypt. Between the years of 2004 - 2009, the Syrian government’s budget allocation for education increased from 15% to 19% of the GDP. The collapse in education has been profoundly impactful nationwide, but particularly in areas hit by devastating violence. Overall, since the inception of the conflict, over 5,000 schools in Syria have been destroyed, damaged, or transformed into shelters for the displaced (UNHCR, 2014).

After surviving such a conflict and during the time of settlement, a young adult may begin seeking work and schooling in their new context and may be provided with resources that allow them to support their families. However, this is not an opportunity offered to all who manage to escape and the effects of trauma have severe impacts on the ability to procure a job, build essential relationships, and gain skills needed to situate successfully in a new community (UNHCR, 2016).

Solution
To address this post-conflict reality, Paper Airplane’s trauma-informed curriculum is based on educational research and experiences with student survivors of conflict. By incorporating educational psychology, intercultural competency, and adult pedagogy, Paper Airplanes’ English program aims to meet the educational, professional, and long-term personal needs of the student population, and, concurrently educate tutors in intercultural understanding. The curriculum covers all four language strands (reading, writing, speaking, and listening) and includes thematic units relevant to real-life, incorporating such concepts as active citizenship alongside communication, self-care, and self-advocacy skills.

This approach seeks to stem the disparity between young adults’ educational journeys through four key factors: a reflective curriculum based on students’ needs; long-term curricula from beginner to advanced matched with international bodies in EL planning; challenging and rigorous assessments using the Universal Design for Learning model, which are later used as materials for college and career interviews (e.g. portfolios, essays, and other interactive artifacts); and sustainable design which allows for replication and collaboration between external agencies.

Challenges
The main challenge of Paper Airplane’s program is to inculcate strategies of self-empowerment and relationship-building via a rigorous skills-based English language program. Tutors, however, do not necessarily have backgrounds in adult language education or experience working with conflict affected populations. For some tutors, volunteering with Paper Airplanes is their first experience working with language learners and non-US American students. Furthermore, many tutors are overwhelmed by the expectations of tutoring a student with a recent history of conflict and this leads to tutor attrition and requires tutor support and encouragement to complete the training.

Another key challenge is that not all students connect the importance of all four language skills, and many wish to focus on a subset of skills such as speaking or writing. This is complicated by the variation in educational history of both tutors and students. Tutors fall on spectra of beliefs about education and their own history informs teaching practices and is often manifested in such decisions as teaching certain skills while ignoring others.

Significance

The Paper Airplanes English Language Program curriculum is significant in its combination of empirically-based trauma-informed curriculum, adult pedagogy, intercultural practice, and technologically accessible materials. The UNHCR findings show that survivors of conflict who are listened to, have the opportunity to experiment with knowledge, talk with others about their goals, and build relationships are better able to process their experiences and are more optimistic about their prospects. Through a home-based program such as Paper Airplanes with a rigorous and student-centric curriculum, the reverberating positive effects are already evident: 1,200 students served from our programs to date and 80% are satisfied with the program, meanwhile, 98% of non-Syrian tutors say that they feel closer to the crisis as a result of tutoring, and 90% state that they have gained leadership and mentorship skills. Friendly learning spaces such as Paper Airplanes’ individualized tutoring friendly are essential to reach some of the most vulnerable generations in Syria.

Author

• Sarah Batool Khan, Paper Airplanes