Managing Implementation in a Humaniratian Crisis – Insinghts from a Collaborative Teaching Model from the Rohingya Camps in Bangladesh.

• In Event: Roundtable Session 7
  In Refereed Roundtable Session: How It Works: Mapping Implementation Dynamics from a Public Administration Perspective in Resource-Constrained Education Contexts

Proposal

The current presentation will examine the development and implementation of a collaborative education delivery model that has been operational in one of the most challenging humanitarian crisis contexts in the world – the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh. Rohingyas, or the Forcible Displaced Myanmar Nationals (FDMN), as they are officially called in Bangladesh, had taken refuge in neighboring Bangladesh ever since they were driven out of their homes in Myanmar as a result of a violent ethnic cleansing, resulting in one of the most tragic humanitarian crises for an entire community. Since August 2017, approximately 700,000 Rohingyas, who joined around 300,000 more Rohingyas from the past waves of displacement, are residing in 30 temporary camps in Bangladesh – effectively making this the world’s largest refugee encampment. As the repatriation of the Rohingyas to Myanmar remains a distant possibility, providing basic services, such as education, health, security, etc. for this vulnerable population has been a significant undertaking of the Bangladesh Government in collaboration with international partners.
This presentation will focus on the delivery model of lower primary grades education – namely Kindergarten to Grade 3 - of the currently implemented formal Myanmar Curriculum for the Rohingya children. Operating mostly in one-room “Learning Centers”, this model entails having a Rohingya teacher (officially called as volunteer) side by side with a Bangladeshi teacher, both in co-teaching roles. This design – necessitated primarily due to the limited number of trained teachers within the Rohingya population in the camps – is rare within humanitarian contexts internationally. The presentation will examine the dynamics of teacher management and the implications of teacher collaboration across host (Bangladeshi) and displaced (Rohingya) communities. While collaboration among teachers is central to their development of “professional capital” and enhanced efficacy, such assumptions have never been studied in humanitarian contexts. Besides the educational value of having a bi-cultural educational experience for the Rohingya children, the broader potential of this collaborative model for social cohesion and resilience for these two communities is also of enormous importance.
The preliminary findings discussed in this presentation will be informed by a multi-prong data collection effort (planned for November 2024) including a survey of 200 teachers (100 Bangladeshi, 100 Rohingya) who work together in the Learning Centers in five of the 30 camps, and six structured interviews with Teaching-learning professionals from implementation partner agencies who offer professional training, monitoring and support to these teachers. Additionally, the study will include five unstructured interviews with representatives from the Education Sector and guiding authorities (such as UNICEF, Save the Children, UNHCR, Office of Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner) that coordinate education programs in the camps. The presentation will analyze the roles of international, state and non-state actors that engage to shape the implementation of teacher support and primary education delivery mechanisms in the backdrop of an uncertain political landscape.

Authors

• Md. Tanvir Rahman Bhuiyan, UNICEF Bangladesh

• Tamo Chattopadhay, American University of Central Asia