Authored by Candyce Billy and Katja Hinz from IIEP-UNESCO with Helen West from Education Development Trust. This article is part of a series of articles on teacher management in refugee settings.
This article highlights global recommendations to improve access to and the quality of pre- and in-service teacher professional development in refugee settings.
Global recommendations:
Expand the offer of pre-service teacher training and recognised bridging and upgrading programmes
Potential teachers from host and refugee communities face a range of barriers which limit opportunities to qualify as teachers. National candidates from remote refugee hosting regions often achieve lower levels of education than candidates from more advantaged areas and may not meet the entry requirements for teacher training college. Providing recognised bridging and upskilling programmes would support both refugees and nationals from the hosting regions to become teachers through an alternative route. In countries where unqualified refugees are recruited as teachers or teaching assistants a pathway to upgrade to qualify as a teacher should be provided.
- Spotlight on Kenya
In Kenya, the Borderless Higher Education for Refugees (BHER) project delivered a one-year Certificate in Education Studies (CES-E) for refugees who did not have any post-secondary qualifications. The CES-E was accredited by York University in Canada and recognised internationally. Credits from the CES-E could also be put towards a Diploma in Teacher Education delivered by Kenyatta University.
For more information, see p.49 of the Kenya Case Study.
Include psycho-social skills training in national pre- and in-service programmes
Teachers in refugee settings; both in host community and camp schools, face teaching children who have experienced trauma in overcrowded, multilingual classrooms. There is a need for national teacher training institutions to include these areas in both pre- and in-service curricula to both prepare and provide ongoing support to teachers working in these conditions.
Provide meaningful induction and regular mentoring to new teachers
“A new teacher needs to learn how to prepare before delivering lessons to learners.” (Headteacher, Kenya)
Induction should be provided to prepare teachers as they start their teaching career and when they change schools. Induction requires more ongoing support than a general introduction and involves helping new teachers to better understand the school's culture and ethos, as well as the different roles and responsibilities of the school community. . A key part of induction should be the signing of a code of conduct and teacher-teacher mentoring. The practice of an experienced teacher mentoring a new/unqualified teacher, whether these teachers are refugees or from the host community, should be systemised to enable all teachers to benefit from the support of more experienced colleagues.
Ensure equal access to professional development opportunities for teachers in remote host community areas
As refugee hosting areas are often in remote and challenging settings, there is limited access to teacher professional development. Efforts should therefore be made to provide practical and logistical support to enable teachers of refugees to access meaningful professional development opportunity. This may include providing stipends to facilitate transportation, creating satellite campuses to reach those in more remote areas, and providing transport or fuel allowances to enable government officials to support the most remote schools.
Deliver programmes which are nationally recognised and aligned to national standards.
Education partners play a key role in providing professional development to teachers in host community settings, as national teacher training centers are often quite far from refugee hosting regions. However, a lack of coordination and accreditation by national bodies can lead to ad-hoc and uncoordinated training which is not formally recognised. This in turn affects the motivation of teachers to take part in continuous professional development (CPD). Ensuring that training is both guided and signed off by accredited bodies would raise standards, ensure that training is delivered in line with government priorities and help to avoid both duplication and gaps in training opportunities across different regions.
In camp settings where it is not yet possible to deliver nationally-accredited CPD, those stakeholders who manage teachers should ensure that, as a minimum, training is aligned to government programmes. This means that as progress is made towards inclusion, it can be demonstrated that teachers in camp settings have received similar CPD to those in government schools.
- Read the other articles in the series on:
- Teaching and thriving in refugee settings: A series of articles on key recommandations for teacher management in refugee settings
- Creating an enabling environment for effective teacher management in refugee settings
- Attracting, recruiting and deploying teachers in refugee settings
- Supporting teachers in refugee settings: job conditions and career pathways
- Support teachers in displacement situations
In the lead up to the Global Refugee Forum (GRF) 2023, the Task Team on Teachers developed guidance for States and other pledging entities to effectively address the needs of teachers working in contexts of displacement and crisis. The guidance includes 10 key actions that stakeholders can commit to at the upcoming Global Refugee Forum.
