Tensions in Supporting Teachers and Teacher Professional Development Across the Humanitarian-Development Nexus

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

Due to high levels of global displacement, the right to a quality education for refugee children was codified through the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. A majority of the world’s refugee population seek asylum in neighboring countries with a limited number resettled to third countries. These education systems often have constrained education systems with emerging capacity and limited financing allocated to them, further stretched with an influx of refugee children. In many refugee-hosting countries, education systems are responding to the post-COVID-19 challenges of budget shortfalls, teacher resignations, and student learning loss. In addition, other health issues like Ebola outbreaks, civil conflict, climate-related disasters, and additional economic challenges compound. The intersection of such issues challenge global notions of “education in emergencies,” increasing attention to the importance of coherence between humanitarian refugee-response and long-term development programming.

With direction from the UNHCR, the right to a quality education has most recently been conceptualized through the inclusion of refugee children and youth into national education systems. This has been reinforced through the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (2017) and the Global Compact for Refugees (2018) at a global level. Refugee inclusion in education systems is often conceptualized as a spectrum or a continuum, ranging from separate parallel systems on one end to full inclusion of refugee children on the other. This spectrum accounts for varying levels of inclusion across a multitude of factors, including access to publicly-funded schools, advancement in education levels, teacher and resource allocations, formal certification, and future access to economic opportunities. Understanding inclusion policies helps policymakers, practitioners, and researchers to strengthen the appropriate systems for quality education delivery for all children, refugee and host community alike.

As one of the most important factors for student learning and child outcomes, teachers in both humanitarian and development contexts highlight a critical opportunity for strengthening systems. While the inclusion of refugee children into national school systems has been widely regarded as a sustainable solution, the integration of refugee teachers is a more complex issue. Varying inclusion policies, particularly regarding the labor and movement policies, have implications on the teaching cadre, teacher professional development, and additional teacher support structures. In some contexts, teachers may be host country nationals with formal certifications assigned to work in refugee communities while in others, teachers may be incentive teachers from the refugee community with limited professional development and qualifications. While not formally certified, teachers from refugee communities are often ‘alternatively qualified,’ with cultural and linguistic skills to support learners. Thus, strengthening teacher professional development systems and providing additional support for teachers are important but are complicated when organizational mandates do not holistically address the teacher workforce.

Teachers have often been neglected in the international education community but there has been increased global attention to the role of teachers. Within this focus, global attention toward the recruitment, training, and management policies and practices in refugee contexts highlight the gaps in humanitarian and development systems. In refugee contexts, teachers frequently receive little formal training and the training they do receive is often uncoordinated and ad hoc. To meaningfully support teachers, stronger efforts to design and deliver contextually-relevant teacher professional development considering the reality and lived experiences of teachers are critical for improving quality education delivery. Financing and resource provisions, such as teacher remuneration and teaching and learning materials, that address teachers’ real needs, both personally and as education professionals in classrooms, requires critical reflection. In the post-COVID-19 context, deeper interrogation of the challenges and opportunities across the humantiarian-development nexus is paramount for meaningfully strengthening existing teacher professional development and support systems

The four papers in this panel highlight various teacher professional initiatives in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. The first paper presents lessons learned from the PlayMatters project on a new tool developed for assessing the Minimum Quality Standards for the integration of Learning through Play pedagogies in Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Uganda, highlighting the tensions between humanitarian needs (physical needs like teaching and learning materials) and development needs (soft skills like pedagogical training). The second paper presents evidence from an arts-based curriculum and teacher professional development project from Teachers College, Columbia University in Uganda, describing tensions in re-conceptualizing the design of teacher professional development programs. The third paper presents findings from a pilot on a Diploma in Teaching Education in Emergencies from the University of Nairobi, elucidating tensions in the accreditation and formal qualifications of teachers in emergency contexts. The final paper presents data and implications from a process evaluation of the PlayMatters project through comparative case studies across the three countries, detailing the tensions and implications of refugee inclusion policies on large-scale teacher professional development opportunities.

This panel will highlight the opportunities and challenges in operating across the humanitarian-development nexus. Discussion will highlight key tensions for various actors (government and humanitarian actors, donors, policymakers, researchers, and practitioners) to consider and account for in planning, implementing, and evaluating teacher professional development activities in complex contexts.

Sub Unit

• Education in Conflict and Emergencies SIG

Chair

• Anne C Smiley, IRC

Individual Presentations

• Minimum Quality Standards for the Integration of New Pedagogies - Shewaye Tike, IRC; Anne C Smiley, IRC

• TPD for Arts Integration in Education & Community Spaces in Ugandan Refugee Settlements - Mary Mendenhall, Teachers College, Columbia University; Kemigisha Richardson, Teachers College at Columbia University

• Stuck in the Middle: Teachers at the Nexus of Humanitarian and Development Aid – the Case of PlayMatters - Arianna Pacifico, Teachers College, Columbia University; Rena Deitz, New York University; Danielle Lorber Falk, International Rescue Committee (IRC); Anne C Smiley, IRC

Discussant

• Ritesh Shah, University of Auckland