Adapting national teachers’ professional development standards to respond to the specific challenges of teachers in Lebanon and Myanmar

• In Event: Roundtable Session (Wednesday III)
  In Refereed Round-Table Session: Sustainable and holistic teacher professional development in crisis contexts: challenges and solutions

Proposal

There is a large agreement that the availability of well-trained, highly motivated teachers is one of the key factors in assuring quality in education (OECD, 2009; Talbot, 2010). However, being a teacher, especially in emergency settings, requires complex and dynamic combinations of knowledge, skills, understanding, values and attitudes; their acquisition and development is a career-long endeavour that requires a reflexive, purposeful practice and high-quality feedback (European Commission, 2013; Ericson, Krampe & Tesch-Romer, 1993). Immense efforts have been made to equip teachers in emergency and fragile contexts with appropriate skills, whether they are basic pedagogic / educational skills or more conflict-specific (child protection, psychosocial support, etc.) (INEE, 2015; IRC, 2006).

Some of those efforts have focussed on developing professional standards that inform training programmes and professional development strategies. The Teachers in Crisis Contexts Working Group (TiCCWG) defines a set of basic teacher competencies list from the Training for Primary School Teachers in Crisis Contexts. Thought this competency framework have been defined, its applicability remains global and not adapted to any specific education system students are immerse.

The present work is the initial stage of a research project lead by the Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs (IIHA) at Fordham University and the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) to contextualize, apply, measure and institutionalize standards for teacher professional development in three different fragile contexts (Lebanon, Chad and Myanmar). Concretely, this presentation introduces two case studies defining competency frameworks for Lebanese teachers working for Syrian refugee children in Lebanon and community volunteer teachers working with IDP children in Myanmar.

Myanmar is in process to implement the Myanmar Teacher Competency Standards Framework (TCSF), with the support of UNESCO’s project “Strengthening Pre-Service Teacher Education in Myanmar” (STEM) project. The first framework of its kind in the country and opens the door for Education in Emergencies actors to tailor training and coaching mechanisms around it, aiming to ensure sustainable and effective professional development. Alignment with national standards will be critical in the development of potential pathways for recognition of community teachers working with displaced population.

In Lebanon, Syrian refugees are mainstreamed in formal schools and the Government is the principal responsible for their education. Humanitarian actors assist this process by providing bridging courses or complementary education programmes to compensate language limitations or gaps in prior education. Having as reference country’s competency framework for teachers ensures quality of these programmes.
In both cases, a context-specific competency framework has been developed through a participatory process; TiCC’s framework and country standards were at the basis of each framework. They define teachers’ core and EiE specific knowledge, cognitive and practical skills and dispositions and the required levels of performance of various stages of their teaching experience. The programme also includes a methodologic approach and a set of monitoring mechanisms that help both teachers (through self-reports) and supervisors (e.g. head teachers) being able to evaluate the development of teachers’ competences and training needs along the different phases of their professional career.

This presentation will discuss the challenges and lessons learned from the adaptation process of national framework and international standards these two specific fragile contexts, outlining the future phases of the research, that focus on measuring the impact that strengthening teachers’ competencies has on the improvement of students’ well-being and learning in crisis-affected context.

Author

• Nadezhna Myriam Castellano Sosa, IIHA-FORDHAM