Transforming Refugee Education towards Excellence (TREE) – Jordan

Center for Systems Awareness HUB

In a collaboration between MIT Abdul Latif Jameel World Education Lab (J-WEL), Save the Children International and Community Jameel, Dr. Mette Boell and Dr. Peter Senge are working with the Jordan Ministry of Education to integrate the Compassionate Systems Framework in K-12 education throughout the country to support teacher and student well-being.

Since the onset of the Syrian crisis, Jordan has hosted one of the largest refugee population on the planet, which has greatly burdened the education system in supporting learning and well-being for all children in its care. A primary reason identified by the government has been a lack of a well-trained, well-supported teacher cadre.

In order to mitigate these challenges, Dr. Boell and Dr. Senge will work with a task force of people in Save the Children Jordan and the Ministry of Education in Jordan to support the development of critical socio-emotional well-being and reflective competencies amongst teachers. Using systems thinking tools and compassion-based practices, this approach will allow to teachers to manage their own well-being, supported through trainings and the creation of communities of practice. Additionally, efforts will be made to enhance the awareness of parents and senior leadership on the importance of teacher well-being and their influence on student well-being in return.

As a first step, a team from Save the Children and the Ministry of Education in Jordan attended the Introduction to Compassionate Systems workshop at MIT in January of 2019, which was followed by two days of co-design meetings with Dr. Boell and Dr. Senge along with J-WEL colleagues Dr. Claudia Urrea and Dr. Vijay Kumar. Building on this momentum, three members from the Save the Children team are attending the yearlong certification program and Dr. Boell is visiting Jordan regularly to provide capacity-building support. By fall 2020, 24 task teams in Jordan are expected to work with the Compassionate Systems Framework to support teachers and children throughout the country.

Please click here for detailed information on this project.

Article

MIT J-WEL and Save the Children come together to tackle refugee education crisis in the Middle East – read here.

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