Understanding teacher practices in times of government divestments and social upheaval

• In Event: Engaging with school communities in MENA during crisis

Proposal

This presentation will focus on the impact of teacher development programs on reading instructional practices in Lebanon. The Reading Instructional Practices Study, conducted in December 2022, examined how well teachers apply new knowledge and skills gained from professional development programs designed to address learning loss after years of school closures due to widespread protests, recurring teacher strikes and the COVID-19 pandemic. The Ministry of Education and the local research team developed the study tools and conducted data collection jointly. The study consisted of multiple rounds of classroom observations and in-depth interviews with 21 grade 3 reading teachers in 10 public primary schools in Lebanon. In each school, the researchers and their Ministry counterparts conducted daily classroom observations of two teachers over four consecutive days, to limit reactivity or behavioral changes by the teachers. Once observations were completed, the researchers conducted in-depth interviews with the teachers they observed.
The study explores challenges teachers face in public schools and examines how teachers adapt teaching methods to integrate newly introduced evidence-based practices while managing an ambitious curriculum and a compressed school calendar, reduced to four days a week due to government austerity measures and punctuated by recurring teacher protests. Additionally, this presentation will discuss how the mixed methods research design, developed and implemented by local researchers and the Ministry of Education, provided an opportunity for the Ministry to engage in critical research aimed at better understanding classroom practices since the onset of the socio-economic crisis in Lebanon. We will also discuss public school teachers’ views on continuing to address students’ learning needs while fighting to repair a system that is collapsing.

Author

• Rouba Reaidi, Management Systems International