Refugee Educator Academy

Reach a Teacher, Change the World

THE PROBLEM: Countries, including the U.S. which is experiencing an unprecedented teacher shortage, must recruit 68.8 million teachers by 2030 to provide every child with primary and secondary education (UNESCO). In response, UNESCO calls for a "seismic shift" in teacher recruitment to overcome "massive shortages" in the education workforce.  But “massive shortages” is not the only exigency. The problem is intensified by a lack of, and access to, quality professional development coupled with the reality that for children and young adults, the learning environment in their host country greatly influences their ability to assimilate and be productive members of the new community. 

THE SOLUTION: Improve the experiences and outcomes for refugee children and families, especially through teacher workforce development at scale.

The Refugee Educator Academy will increase the number and accelerate the preparation of qualified refugee educators and service providers in the United States and around the world with the goal of reaching 10,000 teachers/service providers by 2025.

The Refugee Educator Academy integrates course content, micro-credentialing (through Digital Promise), teacher learning communities and a peer-support system. 

Specific goals include:

• Designing and offering an evidence-based dynamic online course
• Developing a widely accessible digital “badge” process
• Providing open access to curated content to any refugee educator in multiple languages
• Creating a community of practice that facilitates peer-learning
• Offering a customized platform for any refugee educator workforce developer
• Generating and analyzing critical data for and about refugee educators
• Promoting awareness and building credibility for Refugee Educator certification

Globally, the education need is growing. While targeted outreach and thoughtfully designed programs for refugees are critical, the necessary education resources are in short supply. 

CHANGE THE WORLD: Education is recognized as central to Sustainable Development and personal and community well-being. (UN SDGs) Teacher quality is recognized as the number one indicator of student achievement within our formal education systems. (Teachers Matter, Rand Education Report) When we reach – train, support, and retain – educators worldwide, we open up opportunities for individuals and contribute to the sustainable development of regions around the world and the stability and democratic ideals of all nations. Given the teacher shortage crisis, the time is now to identify, train, celebrate, and sustain our teacher workforce.  The Refugee Educator Academy allows us to reach the most stressed teachers, in the most challenging contexts, and address this need. What we learn through this initiative will be replicable in other education sectors, creating a ripple effect of learning. As we reach each teacher, and thus each student, we change the world.

Despite excellent work across NGOs, educational institutions, local schools and districts, and governmental agencies, many teachers of refugees worldwide are isolated, under-resourced, and under-supported. Our innovation is in bringing the refugee education sector together into a robust professional learning space to surface and share training curriculum and materials in dynamic formats that allow participants to contextualize, apply, and reflect on content provided and build a community of practice. Leveraging the functionality and analytics of an online learning platform and open-source plug-ins, and utilizing lean design methods, we are able to provide high quality, relevant, and transformative workforce development at scale. 

We are working on teacher development globally and at scale. These two factors make technology integral to our solution.  Through available technologies, we are able to reach teachers across space and time, in ways that fit into their busy schedules and respond to their unique contexts and circumstances. As we build out academy offerings, we can reach many more teachers than possible through traditional face-to-face trainings.  We can also supplement existing face-to-face trainings and extend their impact by offering follow-up courses and peer-support networks for implementation of knowledge and skills presented in those trainings.

Our goals for the year ahead:

• refine and share widely our Sustainable Learning Framework through an open course offering
• build out templates and tools for course designers, enabling them to efficiently and effectively bring offline training online
• develop a catalog of courses for refugee educators that are mobile-accessible, free and low-cost, relevant, and transformational
• cultivate a community of practice comprised of teachers, teacher trainers, researchers, and program directors committed to making Sustainable Development Goal #4 (access to quality education for all) a reality
• devise tools for evaluation and for accessing “value patterns” in teacher practice at individual and cohort levels.

Our vision is to develop learning academies for various sectors across the educational ecosystem and aligned with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals over the next three to five years.  We see the Refugee Educator Academy as our prototype in an iterative process that will allow us to provide workforce development at scale for educators and trainers more broadly, from those working in healthcare, to those working in housing, to those working in solar energy and sustainable farming practices. By embedding learning in the work - in the practice - of our participants, we promise deeper learning and transformation across sectors. 

We work with NGO’s and nonprofits to build learning channels for their courses and ours, connecting communities of educators to our learning platform: https://learning.careyinstitute.org.  This hub is accessible from anywhere in the world on any device and in multiple languages. Additional supporting technologies include WhatsApp, Skype, Zoom, Survey Monkey, and MailChimp. They provide opportunities to connect and engage with the learning platform and other aspects of the work, as does our Carey Institute website.

Direct emails, newsletters and social media communications reach over 4100 diverse global stakeholders. Presentations, publications, and face-to-face convenings at the Carey Institute extend our reach.

Since our Spring, 2017 launch, we have reached over 400 teachers, teacher trainers, and education program developers through Refugee Educator Academy (REA) activities. Currently, we have 40 individuals from 12 countries enrolled in a summer pilot course. Participants shared: “I appreciate this initiative of empowering us as refugee educators…it has been a gift from heaven because I am no longer the same as I was before joining this course.” And “I have learned a great deal…it has reminded me how much I love being in school. I am now looking into pursuing a Master’s Degree in Refugee and Migrant Studies.”

We hope to engage 1000 participants in webinars, courses, course design, and other project-based cohort activities this year. We anticipate hosting monthly webinars that draw 40-50 participants each, offering at least 10 courses with 30-40 students per course per year, and promoting sustained engagement in communities of practice for interested members of our growing Refugee Educator Academy. Within 3 years, we plan to engage 5000 educators.

We expect to see teachers who are:

• better prepared
• using evidence-based tools and techniques
• attaining competencies in their fields
• connecting with each other
• committed to teaching refugees
• celebrating their refugee students’ achievements and well-being

Our team consists of experts in workforce development, education, and non-profit leadership. Our CEO has 20 years experience leading humanitarian organizations, our Center Director has 30 years practice and research experience in workforce development, and our Academy lead is a National Board Certified Teacher with curriculum development, teaching, and teacher coaching expertise. Collectively we have the assets needed to move the work forward and have built strong networks of support which we leverage to create opportunities and solve problems. Our track record of creating and launching the Academy in 18 months and engaging 100’s of sector stakeholders substantiates our claim.

The Carey Institute has strategically diversified funding to ensure project sustainability. The organization receives a mix of public (federal and local) and private (foundation and corporate) funds as well as support from individuals. The aim of the program is to be as self-sustaining as possible through curriculum and platform fees, as well as workshop revenue. Due to the nature of the project, it allows for expansion and adaptability to new areas of professional development post project period. The Carey Institute is dedicated to ensuring the success of this project and has invested significant resources its development. The Carey Institute maintains a revenue generating conference center which generates funding that is used, in part, to support the development of programs. We will add fee structures for course building and instructional design support in the future, as organizations and institutions request to bring their offline materials onto our learning platform. Additionally, we are exploring a partnership with our platform designer to sell content in a virtual marketplace for workforce development.  

We are each limited by our experience and imagination. Knowing this, we seek to collaborate with thought leaders in a variety of fields to extend our thinking and open up new possibilities. We recognize knowledge sharing as at the core of professional practice and seek opportunities to learn from and with others. Specifically, we desire to partner with MIT Solve because of the leadership it demonstrates in the technology and innovation sectors of development and because of the collaborative and iterative processes it employs. 

Barriers include:

• getting the technology right: iterating on platform design to ensure Sustainable Learning, integrating open-source tools into our platform, and building an app to increase access for participants with limited wifi
• marketing and networking: getting word out about our initiative and building a broader network of participants and partners
• measuring impact: designing the rubrics, algorithms, dashboards, and reports that allow for data extraction, value pattern identification, and sharing

Solve can help in each of these 3 areas by providing resources, sharing best practices, and connecting us with collaborative partners to develop solutions within each domain.