Temporary Contract Teachers in Jordan: Qualitative Findings

For children displaced from conflict, attending school can be a lifeline, providing stability, learning and opportunities for socialisation. In such contexts, teachers become more than facilitators of learning as they find themselves providing social-emotional support and guidance to traumatised students and their families. Yet, teachers of refugees and other vulnerable children are often the least supported, compromising their ability to teach effectively and provide high-quality education to students. This is the case in Jordan where most Syrian refugees are taught by temporary contract teachers (TCTs), who are Jordanian nationals and typically begin teaching with little to no training or classroom experience. Although nearly all hold bachelor degrees, TCTs are precariously employed and usually paid the national minimum wage, which is a fraction of the salaries their permanently employed counterparts receive.

This study’s overall research objective was to understand the effects of current hiring, training and evaluation policies and practices on TCTs’ motivation to work and their perceptions of teacher management policies, system practices and working conditions in Jordan. The study is primarily descriptive in that it assesses TCTs’ perspectives and needs, current practices and possible solutions, laying the groundwork for intervention design and testing in a later phase. The following research questions (RQs) guided the study:

• RQ1: What are TCTs’ motivations, challenges and experiences with hiring processes (recruitment, selection and deployment) under the current policies?
• RQ2: What are TCTs’ motivations, challenges and experiences with the application (or lack thereof) of current teacher evaluation and training protocols and practices?
• RQ3: What interventions (strategy, policy or programme) do teachers and system-level stakeholders perceive to be desirable and potentially cost-effective and scalable to improve motivation, management and support?

While an associated technical brief focuses on the quantitative findings of the study, this brief focuses on the outcomes of the qualitative components of the study and hence focuses on the qualitative sample and results, which relate to research question .