Better understanding and improving support for teacher well-being in contexts of forced displacement

• In Event: Prioritizing Teachers in Fragile and Crisis Contexts: Contextually-Grounded Approaches to Understanding Teacher Well-being in a Digital Age - Part 2

Proposal

Perhaps now more than at any other time in recent history children are seeking schooling amidst uncertainty (Nicolai et al., 2015; UNICEF, 2021). To date, nearly 120 million people have been forcibly displaced from their homes (UNHCR, 2023a), and compounded crises – including global health pandemics, climate-induced disasters, economic shocks, and wars, to name a few – disrupt the provision of education and adversely affect learners and teachers alike (Education Cannot Wait, 2023; UNHCR, 2023b). Amidst such insecurity, education can provide protection for children in their day-to-day lives, while also building social foundations toward long-term goals of sustainable development and peace (Aguilar & Retamal 2009; Arega, 2023; Jordans, Pigott, & Tol, 2016; Nicolai & Triplehorn, 2003; Pherali, 2019, 2022; Tol et al., 2013; Winthrop & Kirk, 2008). Teachers are central to this work, playing an integral role in the provision of schooling while also taking on expanded roles to provide psychosocial support to their learners (Adelman, 2019; Falk et al. 2022; Falk, 2023; Kirk & Winthrop, 2007, 2013; Sharifian et al., 2023).

Recent research has highlighted the important relationship between teachers and the holistic development and well-being of their students as well as the relationship between teachers’ well-being and that of their learners (Jennings, 2016; Jennings & Greenberg, 2009; Jennings et al., 2017; Jones et al., 2013; Shephard, Falk & Mendenhall, 2023; Winthrop & Kirk, 2005). Yet, despite widespread consensus on the importance of teacher well-being, teaching remains one of the most stressful professions (Greenberg et al., 2017), with conflict and protracted crises compounding these stressors (Falk et al., 2019; Wolf et al., 2015). To improve holistic support to teachers, it is thus critical to understand teachers’ lived experiences and the factors that enhance or impede their well-being. Part of this work is to develop and implement validated measures for teacher well-being in crisis-affected contexts.

This paper contributes to these efforts by presenting findings for a global evidence review of 158 studies on teachers in crisis contexts as well as findings from empirical research on teacher well-being with more than 400 teachers in refugee and host communities in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Uganda. By synthesizing the global evidence before empirically exploring teacher well-being in four contexts affected by forced displacement, this study deepens our understanding of the intrinsic and extrinsic factors that enhance or impede teacher well-being.

Authors

• Danielle Lorber Falk, International Rescue Committee (IRC)

• Silvia Diazgranados, International Rescue Committee