Online Learning during times of conflict and the welfare of children and teachers

    Project Details

    Description


    For children who are living through war, schooling provides a sense of normalcy and a safe place to be children, as well as continuing their academic progress. Schools should also focus on the wellbeing of teachers in times of crisis so that they can support their students (see International Rescue Committee’s Healing Classrooms). In Ukraine, many children are carrying on their schooling online rather than in physical schools, either from their homes, as internally displaced people, or as refugees. This research would aim to understand how and if schooling in this form serves the benefits usually associated with education in conflict. This research would look at how both teachers and students are experiencing education online and whether it is serving the academic and psycho-social purposes that education in emergencies. It could inform both teaching practice and policy in Ukraine as well as to inform international practice of education in emergencies.

    This research will begin with a literature review to fully understand the state of education in Ukraine. Next, the co-researchers developing two online questionnaires. The first will be for teachers and will address their practice to support their students’ wellbeing, and the second will be for students aged 12 to 18. We will utilise the International Rescue Committee and the Interagency for Education in Emergencies guidance on supporting the wellbeing of teachers and students in times of conflict as the basics for our questionnaires. The questionnaires will be translated to Ukrainian by an English teacher in the Institute of Economics and Management. We will aim to survey 80 teachers and 100 students who are studying from their homes, who are internally displaced (living away from home in Ukraine), and those who are currently living abroad. Once data from the questionnaires is collected and analysed, we will conduct focus groups with up to 20 teachers and separately with up to 25 students to capture any important data that was missed through the questionnaires. The data collected will provide an in-depth analysis of the experiences of online schooling for children in Ukraine in terms of promoting their wellbeing. We will be able to then make recommendations for teachers to improve their practice to help their students with their wellbeing. Additionally, we will make recommendations for the government of Ukraine and humanitarian organisations to support teachers as well as students.
    StatusFinished
    Effective start/end date29/03/2331/08/23

    UN Sustainable Development Goals

    In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This project contributes towards the following SDG(s):

    • SDG 4 - Quality Education

    Keywords

    • Ukraine
    • education in emergencies
    • student wellbeing
    • teacher wellbeing
    • online education

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