EDUCATIONAL DILEMMAS UNCOVERED

Reference # 1 Martha Hewison Education Advisor UNHCR, Tanzania hewison@unhcr.org Reference # 2 Diana Woolis Director, Center for Learning in Practice at The Carey Institute for Global Good (New York) dwoolis@careyinstitute.org (646) 573-4676 Reference # 3 Julie Kasper Refugee Educator Academy Project Manager JKasper@Careyinstitute.org (520) 405-2433

القارئ الرقمي على المحمول لمجابهة الأمية في 50 دولة منى يونس    وصل عدد الأميين على مستوى العالم إلى 740 مليون نسمة من بينهم 250 مليون طفل في المرحلة الابتدائية، وذلك وفق إحصائية حديثة لليونسكو، ويعتبر وجود الكتاب وتوفره بين يدي الأطفال وأولياء الأمور والمربين في مراحل التعليم المبكرة أمراً مهماً لكونه محفزاً على التعلم، لما للكلمة المكتوبة من سحر وبريق ولاسيما لو رافقتها الرسومات البراقة والمبهجة. وفي استطلاع للرأي أجرته مؤسسة SACMEQ II وجد أن 40% من مجموع المدارس في القارة الأفريقية تفتقر للكتب المدرسية بصورة كلية أو أن العدد الموجود بها محدود للغاية. الحل التقـــــني تعتبر  مشكلة توفير الكتب والمحتوى المكتوب  معضلة مركبة ذات أبعاد مختلفة في دول العالم الثالث بسبب تشابك العوامل الاقتصادية (مثل ارتفاع تكلفة الطباعة) والعوامل القانونية (مثل حقوق النشر والطباعة) والعوامل الثقافية (المحتوى المناسب ثقافياً واجتماعياً). وفي ظل هذا الوضع المعقد قام عدد من الهيئات العاملة في مجال توفير تكنولوجيا التعليم بالاستفادة من الهاتف المحمول لتوفير الكتب والقصص...

I have spent over 15 years in the field of teaching, teacher training and school management. I have been interested in observing and understanding how do educational initiatives make a difference in people's lives. When I decided to do my PhD research, it was clear for me That will study issues related to the impact of education on people's lives, well-being and status. This opened my eyes to the concept of “Empowerment”.  Empowerment, a buzzword that has been used and sometimes overused, especially in the field of international development. But to clear my mind from all the tens of definitio, I decided to stick to the World Bank definition: “the capacity of individuals or groups to make purposeful and effective choices in the interest of pursuing a better life for themselves” (Walton, 2003, p.3). Empowerment is a complex term with endless interpretations, due to its multi-contextual (political, socio-cultural, economic…) and multi-dimensional (individual, community,...

I have just finished this 6-week amazing course on coaching and mentoring of teachers in crisis contexts. It was organized by the Carey Institute for Global Good and led by Amazing Dr Rosemary Arca. I really did enjoy it. The Course e xplores how to coach refugee educators; discusses coaching methods and routines that support faculty including examples of effective lessons, weekly messages and lesson comments; and include discussion on reflective practice and provide strategies to support faculty as they learn and implement the practice to deepen reflection on their work. Learning facilitator: Professor Emerita Rosemary Arca, author of the Coaching Field Guide for the City University of New York (CUNY) Reflective Practice Institute.  The course's learning objectives: The framing questions are: 1. What is reflective coaching and why is it a powerful tool? 2. What expertise leads to successful coaching? 3. How is skill in the craft of coaching developed? ...

التعليم الإلكتروني بدون إنترنت للمجتمعات المهمشة منى يونس عقد في الفترة من الخامس إلى السادس من أكتوبر/تشرين الأول الماضي في العاصمة الأميركية واشنطن مؤتمر التعليم عبر تطبيقات المحمول، والذي استهدف عرض وإبراز  التقنيات والحلول المبتكرة  لتوفير التعليم عبر التقنيات الحديثة، ولا سيما الهاتف المحمول . وبحث المؤتمر مواضيع مثل توفير المحتوى لذوي الاحتياجات الخاصة، محتويات تدريبية وداعمة للمعلمين، والتعليم للاجئين والمجتمعات المهمشة. وفي إطار عرض التقنيات الحديثة لتوفير المحتوى التعليمي  للاجئين والمهمشين  في دول العالم الثالث، تم استعراض عدد من التقنيات الحديثة التي استطاعت أن تتغلب على مشاكل غياب البنية التحتية لخطوط الإنترنت، وارتفاع تكلفة المكالمات الهاتفية والأجهزة الإلكترونية مثل الحاسب اللوحي. وكان من بين الحلول المبتكرة التي تم عرضها "كوليبري"، وهو تطبيق تقني لا يعتمد على توصيل المعلومات أو المحتوى من خلال خطوط الإنترنت الثابتة والمستقرة. ويقول خبراء تكنولوجيا التعليم، إن الحلول المبتكرة لتوفير التعليم عبر التقنيات الحديثة ترتكز على محورين: تق...

My PhD research is a real learning journey. I do enjoy it. However, it is time consuming, exhausting and daunting. I have aside, on another space a JOURNAL where I observe my day to day progress, not only on the research side, but the more general side of reaching towards my FAAAAAAAAAAAR Reaching dream--> to be an expert, a real valuable one, in the area of Education in Emergencies... to add to the field and make a difference. This space here is just a synopsis of what my research will tackle. To give you an overview, very quickly though, it falls in the grey area between three fields of enquiry: EiE /  ICT4E / Tertiary  Education.   I will every now and then publish bits and pieces that will be parts of the research.  I hope everyone reaches here, will enjoy reading it  :)

The below is a quick teaser, overview or let us say ABSTRACT of the work in progress.... still a looooooooooooooong way to go, but I really do hope to see the light at the end of the tunnel. “Refugee access to higher education is less than 1%” (UNHCR, 2014 ).  “Language and Academic Skills and E-Learning Resources programme (LASER)” is one of those emerging solutions. This EU-funded and British Council implemented programme supports over 3000 displaced Syrian students and disadvantaged youth in Jordan to re-integrate them into the higher education system. This project provides language training, academic readiness skills, coaching and distance education programmes. LASER consists of two key components: 1) face-to-face English and academic skills courses, delivered by experienced British Council trainers over 100 hours; and 2) short online courses (MOOCS AND SPOCS) as well as internationally-accredited online degree courses in partnership with Amity University a...

Can't Wait to Learn (CWtL) Project  Can’tWait to Learn (CWtL) proposes new cost-effective solutions to the urgent challenges facing education for children in emergencies. By utilising innovative technological solutions with a focus on serious gaming, CWtL builds on concepts which have been successfully piloted in Sudan. Can’t Wait to Learn has the potential to provide out-of-school children with access to education opportunities, especially in rural areas where no formal schools exist. The programme uses education technology as part of a model of education which is offering certified curriculum level content through applied gaming and personalised pupil engagement. The role of Qatar-based volunteer team A team of six developed Arabic stories, that were aligned to set grammar lessons. My role as Team Lead was to bridge the communication between the team members and the development team in Amsterdam. I additionally supported with tasks related to linguistic checkin...

Over the past decades a paradigm shift took place, from a top-down conventional to a bottom-up participatory development agenda, envisioning empowerment as an outcome of participation, due to its respect for local knowledge and ability to facilitate local ownership (Chamber, 1994). New top-down participatory approaches, commonly referred to as ‘participatory monitoring and evaluation (PM&E) emerged. PM &E approaches differ from the conventional approaches, in that they seek to actively engage project stakeholders, while assessing the project’s progress and results (The World Bank, n.d.) . According to Rietbergen-McCracken & Narayan (1998) , there are four main principles all kind of PM&E approaches follow: Local people are active participants, not just sources of information Stakeholders evaluate, outsiders facilitate Focus on building stakeholder capacity for analysis and problem-solving Process builds commitment to implementing any recommended cor...

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is considered one of the greatest contributors to the development of evaluation policies and guidelines in the field of international development initiatives. According to the OECD, evaluation is a systemic and objective assessment, of an ongoing or completed project, programme or policy, its design, implementation and results. The goal of this undertaking is to “determine the relevance and fulfilment of objectives, developmental efficiency, effectiveness, impact and sustainability. An evaluation should provide information that is credible and useful, enabling the incorporation of lessons learned into the decision-making process of both recipients and donors” (OECD, 1991,p.5). Evaluating what happened during and after the delivery of a development programme aims to observe if empowerment has been achieved. This involves tracking changes in relationships. However, due to the dynamic, complex and contextual nat...