By Elaine Chase, on behalf of the CoMOOC team, 14th February 2025
On Friday 31 January 2025 the research team above – from UCL-IOE and the Inclusive Education Foundation (INED) on the Thai Myanmar border – beld a joint webinar to launch a new professional development pathway for Educators working in contexts of displacement and crisis. The morning before this event President Trump announced the following:
‘We have also blocked 45 million dollars for our diversity scholarships in Burma, 45 ! that’s a lot of money for ‘diversity scholarships’… in Burma… you can imagine where that money went (laughter from audience). These were the types of payment, and many others, and I could stand here all day and tell you things that we found, and we have to find them quickly because we want the money to flow to proper places’
So, where exactly was that money for diversity scholarships going? And where might be those ‘proper places’ towards which the money could be better directed?
Where the funding went
InEd has been funded by USAID to give all the refugee children from Myanmar (Burma) a fair chance to go to school, learn and develop the skills they need to thrive. You don’t have to imagine where the money went. The UCL team collaborate with InEd on the teacher professional development programme and pathway. It begins with a series of CoMOOCs (co-designed, massive open online collaborations) progressing to entry to a professional education course at UCL. The webinar was part of this programme.
The webinar opened to an audience of approximately 80 participants, mostly teachers and educationalists working in some of the most challenging circumstances in Thailand, Myanmar and in other contexts of crisis and conflict across the globe.
The professional pathway is a series of three CoMOOCS – or co-designed massive open online collaborations. Unlike conventional MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). CoMOOCs are designed in situ with teachers and educators working in similar contexts of conflict and crisis to ensure they meet their needs. The aim to support participants’ collaboration in responding to their most pressing educational challenges. CoMOOCs create opportunities for sharing learning and practice and building communities of educational practitioners working in humanitarian settings. They are hubs of intellectual and practice innovation and excellence which harness the extensive knowledge and experience of those working in the field, transforming it into a rich shared resource, accessed through an open online learning platform or adapted for face-to-face or hybrid modalities when required.
In terms of the new professional pathway, participants who successfully complete the three CoMOOCs have the potential to enrol on a subsidised, affordable, one year distance learning Post Graduate Certificate in Education Teacher Development at the University of London. At the unit cost of under £2,000, the PGCE uniquely offers teachers in these contexts the possibility of completing an internationally recognised post graduate teaching qualification at a cost which is realistic and attractive to potential funders. At the time of writing, eight of our colleagues who continue to work day-to-day on the Thai Myanmar border are enrolled on the PGCE and have completed the first semester. Funding for the next tranche of teachers to enrol on the programme along with the money to complete the co-design of CoMOOCS 2 and 3 had been secured through USAID funding under the label of ‘diversity scholarships’ – that was until President Trump’s announcement a few days ago.
We started the webinar by firming up security arrangements for participants online, indicative of the complex and unsafe circumstances in which they are living and working. They were encouraged to use pseudonyms online if preferred, to feel free not to open cameras at all, and all participants were requested not to take screenshots of the event. Note the paradox of implementing these safety mechanisms for online participation, while Trump’s announcement is a threat to the very existence of these teachers and their practice.
The professional development pathway is the product of more than a year’s work involving 15 organisations in Thailand and Myanmar working with a team of researchers at UCL. Yet the developmental work leading us to this point goes back much further and is born out of the ESRC-funded RELIEF Centre (now PROCOL Lebanon) based at UCL’s Institute for Global Prosperity and the culmination of a partnership with amazing colleagues in Lebanon over several years.
The webinar was an opportunity to launch the first CoMOOC – ‘Understanding Education in Conflict and Crisis Settings’ from the context of the Thai Myanmar border. Professor Tejendra Pherali in the opening address highlighted the complex roles that teachers play in conflict and crisis settings,
‘We know teachers play a crucial role in the holistic development of children and young people, in enabling learners to feel safe as well to learn about their lives and develop aspirations for the future. We also know that the quality of the teacher is a great predictor of psychosocial wellbeing of students. Yet beyond their roles in the classrooms, teachers also play multiple roles within the communities in which they work and contribute to long term sustainable development and peace within those societies’.
Those of us familiar with these contexts know the many challenges that teachers face including difficult working conditions, insufficient pay and benefits, physical and psychological insecurity for themselves and their families. Yet probably the most disempowering challenges for teachers relate to the limited opportunities for career progression, tenuous job security and uncertainties about their own futures. Many end up leaving the profession and those who may be well placed to move into teaching are disincentivised from doing so. The creation of a professional pathway to support teachers in these contexts is a game- changer: it offers teachers viable professional futures while strengthening access, quality and continuity of learning opportunities for millions of children and young people living in contexts of displacement and crisis.
Are there really more ‘proper places’ for this funding to be directed?
The partnership roles
Greg Tyrosvoutis, director of INED explained a critical local dilemma. Despite the innovations afforded by online opportunities for teacher professional development, many teachers working in these contexts have limited connectivity and few digital resources so the online-only version of the CoMOOCs alone is not viable. The team responded by making the online version available for those who can access it, as well as hybrid and face-to-face options for those teachers with no internet access.
Saw Sam San, the Education Project Manager at INED, well understands the challenges teachers face every day. He started his own school in Myanmar several years ago, has been responsible for supporting the professional development of hundreds of teachers, and has now led the CoMOOC development while also completing the first semester of the PGCert at UOL. He spoke about the triangular approach adapted to the CoMOOC development, ensuring that it (i) responded directly to the needs of teachers; (ii) was aligned with TPD programmes designed by other partner organisations in the region; and (iii) was informed by topics on the PGCE programme at UOL, to prepare participants for potential access to the PGCE once they had completed the CoMOOCs.
Saw Sam San explained the co-design nature of the first CoMOOC model as:
- mapping TPD priorities with teachers through workshops,
- filming educational practice in the contexts in which they worked,
- refining the course design through workshops with teachers in Mae Sot, and
- meeting weekly online with colleagues from UCL.
This first CoMOOC comprises three weeks covering modules on: understanding teachers in context; theoretical frameworks helpful for supporting pedagogical practices in conflict and crisis; and supporting teachers to work on aspects of social and emotional learning. Prior to the online launch, 150 teachers had already completed the CoMOOC in its face-to-face form. Plans are currently underway to extend this into Karen refugee camps along the border. In English, Burmese and Karen, teachers learnt together in one room with the online course presented on a single projector and printed handbooks available in the different languages.
Eileen Kennedy from UCL’s London Knowledge Lab then invited participants at the Webinar to look inside the COMOOC and explore some of its interactive components such as Padlets and discussion forums, stressing the essence of a collaborative learning experience rather than a one-to-many ‘transmission’ course model. While the CoMOOC is free and open access at the point of entry, access to the FutureLearn platform is limited to a number of weeks after which participants would normally be required to pay to have continued access. In response to this, UCL colleagues are working on transferring the content to a parallel open access platform – OpenLearnCreate, to ensure unlimited access.
Participants’ responses
Chu from Help without Frontiers Thailand Foundation, a key partner in the design of the CoMOOC, spoke of the value of the collaborative design process for teachers in migrant and refugee contexts. She particularly welcomed the emphasis on creating safe learning spaces and how to collaborate with community sectors as well as the ‘day in the life of’ teacher vignettes, depicting their daily struggles. Chu commented,
‘I participated as someone who has a passion for education and when I went through the CoMOOC with collaborators and partners, I recognised the value of the course for teachers in migrant and refugee contexts. This is a strength because so many partners collaborated, so it is beneficial for teachers from very different contexts’
Ei Ei from the Jesuit Refugee Service commented,
‘We have over 40 years of experience working with refugees from Myanmar in camps along the Thai-Myanmar border, providing education, such as teacher training, curriculum development, and emergency response, including during the COVID-19 situation. While we designed and delivered training modules, our work was primarily with local partners within our specific context, with limited collaboration with other partners in different settings along the border. However, with COMOOC, we, as refugee education providers, are working together with migrant education providers and also forming some IDP context. This collaborative and collective approach ensures we are on the right track in building teacher capacity in a consistent manner, with contextualization and accreditation. Additionally, in the COMOOC module, each organization contributes their best practices, aligned with UCL guidelines, resulting in an inclusive module. For example, through SEL, teachers feel safe and empowered to create emotionally safe learning environments. We also feel a sense of solidarity, moving forward with others. From my perspective, everyone involved in COMOOC feels more confident in addressing the educational needs in conflict-affected areas’.
Nway Nway Aung from the Marist Asia Foundation working with migrant workers in the fishing industry in the far South of Thailand said,
‘Regarding the CoMOOC training, I was very excited at first when I participated at the workshop, and it increased my motivation and interest after I had a chance to go through the course…For me as an educator to be able to share back to other educators in the Migrant learning centres was a strength. It became a product of the collaborations of all of our partners…. One thing I liked was being able to hear the life experiences of teachers in different settings – IDP, migrant, refugee teachers, so I hope that teachers can join the course as it will be very beneficial to them. This course is not just one way learning but supports learners to practice the learning back in their classrooms. It includes resources which are from many collaborators and different settings and the learners will be able to utilise the tips they learn from the course. Having the course in English, Burmese and Karen is very helpful’.
Greg Tyrosvoutis concluded the webinar by emphasising how the strength of the established collaboration meant that despite President Trumps announcement about funding cuts, we would continue to stand in solidarity with teachers working in the most complex circumstances around the world. The multi modal, multi-lingual first CoMOOC has already been completed by 150 people and more than 300 have enrolled in the first facilitated run of the CoMOOC online.
Understanding Education in Conflict and Crisis Settings is available for registration on FutureLearn. The first run is being moderated by the research team between 3-21 February 2025. If you would like to receive email updates, you are invited to sign up to join the mailing list.