1 Well-Being and Performance - Connecting the Dots for Syrian Refugees and Iraqi IDP School Children and Teachers in the Kurdish Region of Iraq

This paper aims to “connect the dots” of different data points and measures, to describe various states of teaching and learning within formal primary schools in urban and camp-settings for Syrian refugees and Iraqi... [ view full abstract ]

This paper aims to “connect the dots” of different data points and measures, to describe various states of teaching and learning within formal primary schools in urban and camp-settings for Syrian refugees and Iraqi Internally Displaced Peoples (IDPs) in the Kurdish Region of Iraq (KRI) who are currently supported by the International Rescue Committee (IRC). The study investigates students’ learning achievement, students’ well-being as well as teachers’ motivation, job, satisfaction, and burnout levels in order to understand how we can provide access to safe quality education that supports the well-being of students and teachers in complex conflict affected contexts. We used a quasi-experimental design to answer the question: What are, if any, the differences between Syrian refugee and Iraqi IDP students’ learning outcomes, their well-being and their teachers’ well-being within the schools that the IRC supports? For students, baseline and end line data were collected using the Annual Status of Education Review (ASER) reading evaluation to measure students learning outcomes and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) to measure students’ well-being. For teachers, a one-time assessment was conducted using IRC’s global Teacher Well-Being Questionnaire. Preliminary results suggest that students are, on average, experiencing emotional distress issues and are generally reading below a grade 2 level. We also found that SDQ results appear to be a predictor of students reading scores. Teachers are also struggling, where we present motivation and burnout predictor models. Implications for the field of education in emergencies and future education research in conflict settings are discussed.