Teacher Management in Conflict & Protracted Crisis
This webinar was part of a series hosted by UCL Institute of Education, which aims to promote dialogue and synergy between emerging findings from the Education Research in Conflict and Protracted Crisis (ERICC) programme and the work of scholars and practitioners in the field.
This second webinar brought together Dr. Danielle Falk (International Rescue Committee), Dr. Mary Mendenhall (Teachers College, Columbia University), and Mading Peter Angong (Education Action in Crisis) to share their ongoing research with teachers working amidst conflict, crisis, and forced displacement. They were joined by Discussant Dr. Sean Higgins (UCL Institute of Education). The webinar focused on key challenges and opportunities for teacher management in conflict and protracted crisis settings, recognising that teachers are at the centre of children and young people’s educational experiences, especially in contexts affected by conflict and crisis where they may be the only resource amidst educational scarcity (Mendenhall et al., 2019). Yet, despite their central role, teachers face persistent challenges in their work, including irrelevant and inadequate professional development, difficult working conditions, insufficient compensation and benefits, limited to no career progression opportunities, and tenuous job security undermine the teaching profession, compromising teaching quality and leading many to leave the profession or avoid joining it in the first place (Falk, 2023; Martin, 2018; Wolf et al., 2015; UNESCO et al., 2024).
One of the first steps needed for improving support to teachers is understanding teacher management systems. Teacher management refers to the policies and functions pertaining to teacher recruitment, deployment, professional development and appraisal, compensation and benefits, and career progression. It informs the financing, allocation, and supply of teachers, and has important implications for teacher performance, motivation, and retention (Bengtsson et al., 2020; Best, Tournier, & Chimier, 2018; Halliday, 1995). In an integrated presentation, Dr. Danielle Falk presented the main findings of ERICC’s global evidence review on teacher management that drew on 158 empirical research documents on teachers in crisis contexts, focusing on four areas: teacher supply (right to work, contracts, recruitment, and deployment); compensation and benefits; data-driven policymaking; and teacher voice. Dr. Mary Mendenhall and Mading Peter Angong provided context-specific teacher management examples – with a particular focus on teacher compensation and benefits – from a recent qualitative study conducted in South Sudan. They will further discuss the implications of the continued reluctance of governments, donors, and other education actors to pay livable wages to teachers working in crisis contexts.