Scaling a pedagogical reform within the humanitarian-development nexus: Concepts, challenges and opportunities

• In Event: ECD and Education Quality Improvement at Scale: Centering Equity in Design, Data, and Developing Partnerships

Proposal

The protracted and complex nature of conflict has led record numbers of children and youth to seek schooling while forcibly displaced from their homes (UNHCR, 2023). Amidst this crisis, numerous actors, such as governmental ministries, non-governmental organizations, United Nations agencies, and donors – often with competing priorities – work towards providing education for these children (INEE, 2021; Mendenhall, 2019). In response to losses in aid effectiveness, lack of coordination, and the unsustainability of interventions, there are increasing global calls to strengthen humanitarian-development coherence and invest in understanding the opportunities for scaling interventions across refugee and host communities to ensure quality education for all children (World Bank, 2017; OCHA, 2017). What it means to scale educational interventions across the humanitarian-development nexus remains understudied and urgently needed as the number of refugees rises globally alongside their average length of displacement (UNHCR, 2023).

Drawing on the case of PlayMatters (PM), a teacher professional development (TPD) initiative aiming to cultivate holistic learning and well-being for refugee and host-community children ages 3-12 across Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Uganda, this research addresses knowledge gaps across two bodies of literature. First, while there is extensive research on the efficacy of TPD in low and middle-income countries, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa (e.g., Popova, Evans, Breeding & Arancibia, 2022; Sayed & Bulgrin, 2020), little attention has been paid to understanding how TPD initiatives within the humanitarian-development nexus can achieve scale in refugee hosting contexts across varying commitments to refugee inclusion, and the relationship between achieving scale and refugee inclusion policies. Second, while recent research has explored the opportunities, barriers, and principles for scaling educational interventions in middle- and low-income countries (Brookings, 2023; Perlman, Winthrop, & McGivney, 2016), there is limited empirical research on scaling pathways in conflict and protracted crisis settings (Nuwayhid, Kallas, & Mikdashi, 2024).

This qualitative case study examines available scaling pathways for PlayMatters and how they are operationalized across different levels (e.g. local, sub-national, national, regional, global) and countries (Creswell & Poth, 2016; Saldaña & Omasta, 2017). The cases provide a useful point of comparison for scaling pathways as the three countries represent a spectrum of refugee inclusion in national systems: from attending public schools (Uganda), to attending UN/NGO managed schools using host country curriculum (Ethiopia), to attending segregated schools using home curricula (Tanzania). Comparison across countries sheds light on how different national policy environments related to refugee inclusion inform the barriers and opportunities for scaling education interventions. Additionally, characteristics of scaling pathways considering diverse teacher and learner profiles related to refugee inclusion policies highlights the complex nature of system capacity to provide comprehensive TPD to teachers and, relatedly, provide quality education to children. This research draws on semi-structured interviews (n=70) with non-state and ministry actors engaged in PM project implementation and PM’s scaling efforts. Our findings have implications for policy and practice to ensure TPD initiatives in refugee and host communities support system strengthening in order to provide long-term support for teachers sustainably and equitably to improve education for children learning amidst crisis.

Authors

• Lillian Viko, International Rescue Committee (IRC)

• Danielle Lorber Falk, International Rescue Committee (IRC)

• Jonathan Kwok, International Rescue Committee

• Anne C Smiley, IRC