Teachers in Forced Displacement Contexts: Persistent Challenges and Promising Practices in Teacher Supply, Quality, and Well-Being

In this interview, Dr. Ozen Guven talks to Dr. Mary Mendenhall, Sonia Gomez, and Emily Varni about their research on teachers and teaching practices in contexts of forced displacement. Mendenhall, Gomez, and Varni recently authored "Teaching Amidst Conflict and Displacement: Persistent Challenges and Promising Practices for Refugee, Internally Displaced, and National Teachers," a background paper for the 2019 Global Education Monitoring Report on the challenges and opportunities available to teachers working in forced displacement settings. Drawing from their paper, which includes case studies from countries as diverse as Germany, Kenya, Chad, and Iraq, the authors discuss such topics as education planning, teacher professional development, teacher well-being and motivation, and teacher agency. Throughout the discussion, they highlight practices and policies that could be leveraged to strengthen support for teachers working in displacement contexts. Mendenhall, Gomez, and Varni are scholar-practitioners whose work focuses on the challenges faced by teachers in crisis contexts, and on the policies and practices that provide these teachers with comprehensive support. Guven's work examines teaching practices among Syrian refugees in Turkey.