First Refugee Focus Group with Afghan teachers!

2011 group with refugee teachers

September 29, 2012

We just completed our first focus group with the refugee teachers! The photo above is from an earlier teacher group, and we will update with a more current photo from today's group asap. We will also provide a report of the results of the focus group(s) soon.

Our first meeting was with Afghan/Iraqi/Iranian refugee teachers and head teachers. The next focus group will be with Burmese teachers next week.

Our questions of interest:

1. How can we best develop a relevant training program? To get this information, we ask the teachers about:

• Refugee students behavior, emotional, and cognitive challenges and strengths
• Strategies the teachers use to manage their behavior, emotions, and attention in class
• Stresses teachers experience in dealing with children’s behavior and emotions, and how teachers manage their self-care

2. To get information on the community and school environment to help with implementation of the intervention:

• Potential allies and partners (a. NGOs; b. individuals; c. refugee communities/schools; d. refugee teachers)
• Logistic and practical concerns that will affect conducting refugee teacher training in the communities (including: What’s the actual number of teachers and students per refugee school?)
• How achieve long-term sustainability of training, especially providing training for new refugee teachers

  We were so thrilled to get insights from our first refugee teachers for this project! More soon...

  

Fulbright Alumni Team brainstorm together for first planning meeting

Siew Lee, Intan, Liz, Wai Sheng, and Patricia (Virtual Meeting member: Colleen)

We met, both live and virtually via Skype at Malaysian American Commission on Education Exchange (MACEE)

July, 2012

We had our first meeting in person, and not in person but through Skype. Wai Sheng led the meeting with Liz, Patricia, Siew Lee from the Fulbright Alumni team along with the support of the US Embassy in Malaysia with Intan, the Fulbright Alumni liaison, and Colleen was virtually at the meeting through Skype. 

We worked on the planning, roles, and timeline. We brainstormed how to manage the challenge of working with refugees with multiple languages - Refugees in Malaysia are largely from Burma, but they are also from Somalia, Afghanistan, among other countries. And, even in Burma there are multiple dialects. Luckily, most of the schools are taught in English so our target group of refugee teacher should know some English, but how much?

MACEE was kind enough to provide the venue for our meeting and the help with how to best implement our budget from the US State Department. So, we met with Kim Ho from MACEE to get her wise financial advice on budget payment logistics.

We thought it would be best to start the intervention after the Chinese New Year, given that EVERYTHING shuts down in Kuala Lumpur before, during, and right after the Chinese New Year. And, we need the time this fall to do focus groups with the target community schools to get a sense of how we can best collaborate with and help the refugee students and teachers via training and consultation in the refugee schools. 

Next step: Focus Groups with refugee teachers in September!

Teacher and Child Refugee Project Funded in Malaysia!

Photo of Community Refugee Teacher Training Intervention Pilot, 2011

July, 2012

Our collaboration with refugee teachers and students in Malaysia continues! The U.S. State Department has awarded our team of Fulbright Alumni professors, interventionists, and students $25,000 to help refugee teachers and students in Malaysia.

We are a team of Fulbright Alumni from Malaysia, Germany, India, and the U.S. with the goal to help improve mental health and academic performance in the largely hidden refugee schools in Malaysia. Given that Malaysia does not recognize the rights of refugees, the 40,000 refugee children in Malaysia are prohibited from attending the Malaysian government school system. However, that has not stopped refugees from providing an education to about 30% of their school-aged children, often teaching their students in hidden kitchens and apartments in Kuala Lumpur. Most of the teachers are unpaid Burmese refugees who are untrained in how to manage their Burmese refugee students' mental health needs.  

Building on a pilot refugee teacher mental health training intervention conducted in 2011 in Malaysia, the current Fulbright Alumni team will partner with UNHCR Malaysia, local universities, local NGOs, and refugee schools, to empower refugee teachers to improve their students’ socioemotional and academic functioning in the refugee classrooms. 

Specifically, the US State Department Fulbright funds will be used in Malaysia to: 

(1) Train refugee teachers to manage refugee students’ emotions, attention, and behavior, 

(2) Use a “Refugee Teachers Train Refugee Teachers” model to help trained refugee teachers mentor new teachers, 

(3) Conduct in-class consultations with refugee teachers, 

(4) Evaluate the program using research, and 

(5) Document the program via film and blog.

Here's our Fulbright team:

Dr. Ng Wai Sheng (Team co-leader; Fulbright Malaysia 2001/03) from Columbia Asia Hospital, Malaysia

Dr. Colleen O’Neal (Team co-leader; Fulbright USA 2010/11) from University of Maryland-College Park

Liz O’Sullivan, Ph.D. Government & Politics (USA, Fulbright 2008/09, currently in Malaysia)

Ng Siew Li, Ph.D. Candidate Clinical Psych (Malaysia, Fulbright 2011/12, currently in US)

Patricia Sloane-White, DPhil Social Anthropology (USA, Fulbright 2008/09

Brendan Gomez, Ph.D. Development and Counseling Psych (Malaysia, Fulbright 2000/02, currently in New Zealand)

Indrani Thiruselvam, MA Clinical Psych (Malaysia, Fulbright 2009/11, currently in US)

 Lee Chien Sing, Ph.D. IT (Malaysia, Fulbright 2008/09, currently Hon. Secretary of Fulbright Alumni Association of Malaysia) 

Ong Kian Ming, Ph.D. Political Science (Malaysia, Fulbright 2004/06)

Julie Olson, B.A. Chemistry (USA, Fulbright 2011/12, currently a UNHCR-Malaysia refugee education intern)

Charis Geevarughese, Ph.D. Candidate Clinical Psych (Malaysia, Fulbright 2008/09, currently in US)

Tilmann Vogt, Diploma in Media-Design (Computer Animation) (Germany, Fulbright 2001/02)

James Coffman, Ph.D. International Development Education  (USA, Fulbright 1989/90, currently Executive Director of Malaysian-American Commission on Educational Exchange (MACEE)

Santoshi Halder, Ph.D. Applied Psych (India, Fulbright 2011/12)