Community-led, shared book-reading interventions can improve early childhood development and reduce inequity. One such programme, We Love Reading (WLR), was implemented in Jordan in response to the Syrian refugee crisis and involves mothers reading stories to children. This research project will examine the potentially transformative nature of WLR, by (a) evaluating WLR qualitatively and quantitatively and (b) interviewing the people who developed and implemented WLR (WLR Ambassadors, women trained in WLR, children who took part) to create a toolkit for effectively developing and implementing non-formal education resources elsewhere.
To address the first aim, a grounded theory analysis of interviews with stakeholders (i.e. parents, children) will be conducted, along with a quantitative randomised controlled trial with Syrian refugee women and children. This will allow us to understand how an education intervention may impact children’s educational trajectories during war and displacement, and how interventions can effectively be implemented in other humanitarian crisis contexts.
Research team: Dr Kristin Hadfield, Queen Mary University of London; Dr Isabelle Mareschal, Queen Mary University of London; Professor Amal Alkharouf, University of Jordan; Professor Sophie von Stumm, University of York, Professor Rana Dajani
The British Academy funds International Programmes that focus on fostering international collaboration in the humanities and social sciences as well as promoting the sharing of international perspectives on global challenges.
Education and Learning in Crises is one section of the British Academy that funds research exploring the challenges of education and learning in contexts of conflict and protracted crises.