Improving Quality Implementation of Learning through Play Across East African Refugee Contexts: Implementation Research Findings from PlayMatters

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

As governments, non-governmental organizations and bi- and multi-lateral agencies seek to implement quality and effective education programming, it is critical to understand not only the effects of interventions but the mechanisms by which those effects are achieved. With limited resources and growing need, implementation research provides practitioners and policymakers the opportunity to understand what works and why to maximize education interventions to scale. Implementation research is still not widely employed as it often requires flexible planning and dedicated resources to ensure sound methodologies (Dowd, 2024). However, the benefits of implementation research can inform programs and policies to provide children and teachers with optimal opportunities for improvements. In an increasingly global digital age, education technology innovations arise as promising solutions for closing the gap between policy and implementation. Quality implementation research allows policymakers and practitioners make evidence-based decisions about what education technology innovations, if at all, can and should be implemented to achieve learning outcomes and programmatic goals.

PlayMatters (2020 – 2026) is an education project that strengthens the capacity of education systems in Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Uganda to integrate active teaching and learning through play (LtP) to benefit refugee and host community children. PlayMatters developed a complementary research agenda including formative and implementation research, impact evaluations, and cost analyses considering the different refugee contexts that PlayMatters operates in. Implementation research has been designed to align measures across the three countries of implementation to understand teacher practices and well-being, as well as student holistic learning outcomes, to assess PlayMatters’ theory of change and ensure the project is implemented as intended. Utilizing mixed methods approaches, in collaboration with national Universities as Co-Principal Investigators in each country, PlayMatters has generated evidence on opportunities and challenges to implement LtP effectively.

The first presentation will highlight findings from Uganda with a particular focus on the relationship between teachers’ classroom practices and continuous professional development mechanisms in the Northern and West Nile regions of Uganda. The second presentation will focus on teachers’ practices and the quality of the training cascade model in Nyarugusu Refugee Camp in Tanzania. The third presentation will feature the relationship between teacher and child outcomes in the Somali Region of Ethiopia. Findings from this panel inform how practitioners and policymakers can ensure quality teaching and student holistic learning and well-being in crisis-affected contexts.

References:

Dowd, A. J. (2024). “Everyone is talking about it, but no one is doing it”: How implementation research is–or isn’t–informing adaptation towards scale in international education. International Journal of Educational Development, 108, 103068.

Sub Unit

• Education in Conflict and Emergencies SIG

Organizer

• Jonathan Kwok, International Rescue Committee

Chair

• Anne C Smiley, IRC

Individual Presentations

• Carrying Out Education Implementation Research in Refugee Settings: A Practical Framework - Jonathan Kwok, International Rescue Committee

• PlayMatters Uganda Implementation Research Findings - Eva Sophia Smallegange, War Child Alliance

• PlayMatters Tanzania Implementation Research Findings - Pambas Basil Tandika, The University of Dodoma; JULIANA DYEGURA, IRC -TANZANIA

• PlayMatters Ethiopia Implementation Research Findings - Abraha Asfaw Ambaye, Addis Ababa University; Silvia Diazgranados, International Rescue Committee; Kassa Michael, Addis Ababa University

Discussant

• Nikhit D'Sa, University of Notre Dame