Supporting the Transformative Role of Teachers in Contexts of MassDisplacement

Educators for Change: Supporting the Transformative Role of Teachers in Contexts of MassDisplacement

.Tejendra Pherali, Mai Abu Moghli, and Elaine Chase.Journal on Education in Emergencies, Vol. 5, No. 2. pp. 147-175

This paper focuses on the educational issues faced by the refugees in context of mass displacement and suggests a transformative model for teachers professional development(TDP)programs in which they can make the most of available digital technologies by sharing local knowledge, professional abilities and creativity.

After reviewing the concept of future education and current TDP programs in displacement contexts, the paper introduces the ecological systems theories and the perspective of teachers as “transformative intellectuals” as the theoretical foundations. Instead of seeing teachers as individuals reacting passively to external support or constraints, this article argues that by drawing on the current resources, teachers are “a source of inspiration and enablers of change”. This approach provides great insight for shedding light on the power of stimulating teachers initiative and the potential of mobilizing them to creatively take advantage of their intellectual resources and rich experiences.

The findings of this research are based on focus group discussions andinterviews with teachers and education practitioners.Apart from a limited number of samples, which isadmitted later in the paper, it is also claimed that those samples are purposively selected by NGOs that run informal schools for Syrian, with whom the researchers hadestablished a working relationship. This sampling method is biased and an assumption can be made that there is a lack of representation of teachers working outside of NGOs, especially those who teach in camp schools and are uncertificated in host countries.It is also worth noticing that the fourth workshop was held at the Lebanese American University in Beirut, which implies that participation of teachers from unrested areas was further prevented by the unavailability of transportation and other obstacles. In addition, there is no mention of the proportion of female and male, Syrian and Lebanese teachers sampled in this research andreaders are not informed about the distribution of teachers of different professional status. All of these factors could lead to fact that the selected samples are not representative enough.

Other flaws might arise in the process of completing the group task. First of all, the researchers fail to explain how these groups were divided. Secondly, the task, which asks how they could transform their current learning spaces into their imagined ones, may serve as the stimulus of priming effect. In this case, participants might be inclined to report more active and innovative teaching practices and demonstrate their role as more positive and transformative than in reality.

Overall, this paper contributes to the current study of TPD model in mass displacement context, and proposes a digital learning space as the model for future education, which has a strong reference value and practical significance. But due to the inherently problematic research method and the limitation of sample selection, the conclusion should be treated with great caution.