When the Personal Becomes the Professional: Exploring the Lived Experiences of Syrian Refugee Educators

 

Summary

This article explores the personal and professional experiences of refugee teachers, drawing on interviews with Syrian educators living as refugees and working to educate refugees enrolled in non-formal schools in Lebanon.

The author demonstrates the challenges these educators face as they work to balance their teaching obligations with the realities of living as refugees themselves. These educators are fully committed to their profession and to the needs of their students. At the same time, refugee teachers struggle with psychological exhaustion and concerns for the future, and they have few opportunities to receive support.

Key Takeaways

We offer the following practical steps and actions based on this research below (click to expand).

+ For Policymakers


INSIGHTS ACTIONS
Refugee educators experience their own trauma from displacement, as well as secondary trauma in classrooms. As they navigate different personal and professional roles as refugees and teachers, psychological and community support can boost their own well-being and support for students. ➟ Allocate resources to support refugee educators. Make teacher counseling and professional development available, supporting classroom pedagogy and creating a collegial staff culture.
As refugee teachers, Syrian educators in Lebanon create empowering and safe educational spaces for refugee students. ➟ Support refugee educators’ unique roles as they work toward students’ inclusion, learning, and well-being.
Financial instability is one stress factor for refugee educators. ➟ Provide consistent payment for work. Where possible, advocate for access to the formal labor market.

+ For Educators


INSIGHTS ACTIONS
Refugee educators deal with uncertainty, systematic marginalization, and trauma. ➟ Make time and space to reflect on the ways that personal and professional experiences and identities relate to work with refugee students.
Refugee educators find themselves in a contradictory position, expected to instill a sense of agency and hope in students, even as they share marginalization in the present and uncertainty about the future. ➟ Build school cultures that are sensitive to teachers’ diverse roles in schools and communities, including professional learning communities (PLCs) for structured problem solving and community support.

+ For Researchers


FURTHER RESEARCH IS NEEDED TO EXAMINE:
  • Refugee educators’ professional identity formation relative to socio-political contexts;

  • Teachers’ well-being relative to a) structures of inequity and b) conflicting responsibilities to the state and students, particularly in conflict settings;

  • Professional learning communities (PLCs) in conflict-affected contexts.
Additional reading

Citation (APA): Adelman, E. (2019). When the Personal Becomes the Professional: Exploring the Lived Experiences of Syrian Refugee Educators. Journal on Education in Emergencies, 5(1), 94-122.

 
Sarah Dryden-PetersonBelonging, Equity, Integration, Pedagogy, For Educators