Exploring the Effects of Precarious Employment on Teacher Morale and Management in Refugee Settings in Jordan

• In Event: Assessing Effective Teacher Policies in Conflict Affected Settings: Case Studies from Nigeria, Jordan and Bangladesh

Proposal

International evidence on teachers of refugees, particularly in conflict- or crisis-affected contexts is limited. The backgrounds of teachers of refugees and how they are recruited, trained, and managed in these contexts is largely unknown with most studies focusing instead on refugee children. A literature review by Richardson and colleagues (2018), which surveyed policies, practices, and debates surrounding the management of teachers for refugee populations, found a lack of rigorous and recent data with many discussions and recommendations based “on anecdotal observations of what seem to be the issues”. However, they concluded that more comprehensive research is critically needed, particularly on: (1) national teachers of refugees, (2) alternative ‘best practice’ models for teacher management in refugee settings, and (3) these teachers’ perceptions.

This evidence gap was also identified in Jordan, where approximately 1.3 million Syrian refugees currently live and access education through refugee camp schools or second-shift schools in host communities, both staffed with exclusively Jordanian nationals. Education stakeholders in Jordan recognize the poorer quality of these schools due to a lack of resources and the use of “additional” teachers hired on temporary contracts with little experience or training. According to the National Teachers Survey, which was closely aligned with the OECD’s TALIS survey and conducted in 2018, temporary contract teachers working in Syrian refugee camps or second shift schools were young (half were 21-30 years old), had few years of experience (60% had 5 years of experience or less), received training most commonly focused on psychosocial support for students, and were more likely to report refugee-specific challenges than other teachers. Furthermore, a UNESCO-funded report (Bengtsson et al., 2021) on teachers in refugee settings in Jordan highlighted that there “no regulatory framework for [temporary contract] teachers’ contracts, job conditions, and career paths”.

Due to these gaps, researchers on the Education Research in Conflict and Protracted Crisis (ERICC) programme designed a mixed-methods study on temporary contract teachers to explore the impact of hiring, evaluation, and management policies of these teachers. This paper will highlight the preliminary results from a year-long study, which began in June 2023. The data collection phase of this study includes a representative survey (n=1000) of temporary contract teachers, five focus groups with principals and supervisors who work with temporary contract teachers, and semi-structured interviews with 11 key policy-makers.

The results will provide insight into the post-Covid refugee context in Jordan and discuss how current policies and practices related to the hiring and evaluation of temporary contract teachers affect their motivation and classroom practices. From the data, the paper will also highlight teachers’ perceptions of working conditions and their future in teaching and make comparisons of temporary contact teachers from both host communities and camp settings. Moreover, the study also explores possible reforms to improve policies and practices for these precariously employed teachers to, ultimately, support their development. Finally, the study also aims to contribute new insights to the growing global evidence-base related to staffing for schools set up for refugee populations in other crisis-affected countries.

Authors

• Taline Sabella, Queen Rania Foundation

• Emilee Rauschenberger, Queen Rania Foundation for Education and Development