Teacher Management in Refugee Settings in Jordan – Key Findings

• In Event: Research-informed policymaking to support effective teacher management in refugee settings: The cases of Ethiopia and Jordan

Proposal

Jordan has a longstanding history of providing the refugees it hosts with protection and essential support, including education. Today, the country is home to around 750,000 UNHCR-registered refugees originating from Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Sudan, as well as a further 500,000 unregistered Syrians. In addition, Jordan hosts 2.2 million Palestinian refugees under UNRWA’s mandate, most of whom have Jordanian citizenship. For decades, refugees have had a significant impact on Jordan’s education system. While Palestinian refugees have been relatively well integrated into Jordanian schools, or provided for through schools run by UNRWA, the more recent influx of Syrian refugees has renewed concerns about education quality, due in large part to resource constraints and a shortage of qualified teachers. Despite additional strain on the education system, the Jordanian Ministry of Education (MoE) has extended free enrolment in public schools to Syrian refugees, not only in refugee camp schools, but also in schools in Jordanian communities, where over 80% of Syrian refugees reside.

This study uses an iterative, two-phased, mixed methods approach to identify promising policies and practices for the management of elementary-level teachers in refugee settings in Jordan at multiple levels of governance. Specifically, it focuses on two settings: public schools serving Syrian refugee students in Jordanian communities (mostly in the second shift of double-shift schools) and UNRWA schools, which provide elementary education for approximately one quarter of the eligible population of Palestinian refugee children. During the first phase, we analysed data from the 2018 Jordan National Teacher Survey (NTS), reviewed policy documents, and conducted interviews and focus groups with key stakeholders at the central level, and with principals and teachers at 14 public schools and 4 UNRWA schools. The second phase of data collection involved interviews with key stakeholders at the Field Directorate (FD) and the UNRWA Jordan Field Office, as well as follow-up interviews with stakeholders consulted during the first phase.

Key system-level findings include the presence of a promising policy framework to support effective teacher management in both the MoE and the UNRWA system. For example, the recent Jordanian National Strategy for Human Resource Development recognises the Syrian crisis as both a challenge and an opportunity, and outlines some key strategies for how to act on this opportunity. Within the UNRWA system, the Teacher Policy from 2013, which was developed as part of the Agency’s education sector reform efforts, recognises teachers and teacher motivation as the key to education quality, and outlines recommendations for further strengthening the teaching profession.

Both systems face significant challenges including but not limited to qualified teacher shortages, limited opportunities for pre-service professional development, infrastructure and resource constraints, and shortages of key support staff (for example, counsellors). However, there are also many examples of promising policies and practices aimed at addressing these challenges, from the central level, with both the MoE and UNRWA introducing clearer incentivised career structures, to the school level, where principals worked with teachers to overcome resource constraints and to provide a supportive educational environment for students and teachers alike.

Author

• Rachael Fitzpatrick, Education Development Trust