Published Research and Studies

Kristin Hadfield: Trinity College Dublin, International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA)
Mays Al-Hamad: Taghyeer Organization
Rinad Bakhti: Queen Mary University of London

Rana Dajani: Hashemite University, MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Amal El Kharouf: University of Jordan
Julia Michalek: Queen Mary University of London

Joana Mukunzi: University of Ottawa
Lina Qtaishat: Taghyeer Organization
Tanvi Sethi: London Business School MBA

Sophie von Stumm: University of York
Isabelle Mareschal: Queen Mary University

Refugee children often face disruptions to their education before and during displacement. However, little is known about either levels or predictors of refugee children’s literacy or about their attitudes toward reading in low- or middle-income countries. To address this, we conducted in-home literacy assessments using the Holistic Assessment of Learning and Development Outcomes with 322 Syrian refugee mother-child dyads who lived in Jordan (child age range 4-8 years, M = 6.32 years, 50% female). Overall, the children had quite low levels of literacy, although they indicated a strong enthusiasm for reading. Child age, maternal education, and maternal ability to read all predicted child literacy, although maternal literacy predicted it only among children enrolled in school. Among those enrolled in school (64.9% of the total sample, 88.7% of those aged ≥ 6), students attending hybrid classes had better literacy than those attending either solely in-person or solely online, although the frequency of school attendance did not predict literacy. A less consistent pattern emerged for predicting children’s attitudes toward reading. Our results suggest an urgent need to improve literacy skills among refugee children in Jordan, as well as a need for validated measures of attitudes toward reading for use with Arabic-speaking youth.

Julia Michalek: Queen Mary University of London
Matteo Lisi: Royal Holloway University of London
Nicola Binetti: Queen Mary University of London

International School for Advanced Studies
(SISSA), Trieste, Italy
Sumeyye Ozkaya: Queen Mary University of London
Kristin Hadfield: Trinity College Dublin, International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA)
Rana Dajani: Hashemite University
Isabelle Mareschal: Queen Mary University of London

Experiences of war and displacement can have profound effects on children’s affective development and mental health, although the mechanism(s) underlying these effects remain unknown. This study investigated the link between early adversity and attention to affective stimuli using a free-viewing eye-tracking paradigm with Syrian refugee (n = 31, Mage = 9.55, 12 female) and Jordanian non-refugee (n = 55, Mage = 9.98, 30 female) children living in Jordan (March 2020). Questionnaires assessed PTSD, anxiety/depression, insecurity, distress, and trauma. Refugee children showed greater initial avoidance of angry and happy faces compared to non-refugee children, and higher trauma exposure was linked to increased sustained attention to angry stimuli. These findings suggest that war-related trauma may have differential effects on the early and later stages of affective processing in refugee children.

Catherine Panter-Brick: Yale University
Rana Dajani: Hashemite University, University of Richmond
Dima Hamadmad: Department of Research and Development, Taghyeer Organization
Kristin Hadfield: Trinity College Dublin

Humanitarian research with Syrian refugees can be difficult to conduct in person, due to COVID-19 containment, security, and logistics issues. We assessed whether the online implementation of a brief, culturally grounded resilience measure would yield reliable responses for use with children and adolescents in the Middle East region. We implemented an online survey screening for socio-economic status, insecurity, prosocial behavior, and resilience (using the Child Youth Resilience Measure, CYRM) with 119 Syrian refugees (14–18 years old; 74 male, 45 female) living in Jordan. Responses were compared with in-person data, available for a separate cohort of 324 Syrian refugees, previously sampled in Jordan with the same survey instruments. The online CYRM produced reliable and valid responses, as shown by analyses of internal reliability, convergent and divergent validity, and 7-day test-retest consistency. We reflect on the logistic, ethical, and methodological challenges of online surveys, and suggest ways to plan and execute online research in hard-to-reach, crisis-affected communities.

Paul D. Hastings: University of California Davis
Lindsey C. Partington: University of California Davis
Rana Dajani: Hashemite University, Richmond University
Antje von Suchodoletz: New York University Abu Dhabi, New York University Global TIES for Children Research Center

This study of 52 predominantly lower income Jordanian and Syrian families with young children (31 girls; Mage = 53.37 months, SD = 3.53) in Jordan began in 2019, before the pandemic. Families were followed to explore stress physiology, family functioning, and mental health over the first 9 months of the pandemic. Mothers reported less adaptive coping and more negative changes to family life in June 2020 when their children had poorer behavioral self-regulation and more behavior problems, and when families had lower income, in 2019. More negative changes to family life predicted greater hair cortisol concentrations in children in June 2020, and more negative changes and less adaptive coping predicted worse child and mother psychosocial adjustment in December 2020.

The effects of a reading-based intervention on emotion processing in children who have suffered early adversity and war related trauma 2021.

Julia E. Michalek: Queen Mary University of London
Matteo Lisi: University of Essex
Deema Awad: Queen Mary University of London
Kristin Hadfield: Trinity College Dublin
Isabelle Mareschal:Queen Mary University
Rana Dajani: Hashemite University, University of Richmond

Suffering any type of trauma can cause serious issues to children’s mental health, therefore, interventions of any kind are necessary to help with socioemotional and psychological development. According to that, a research has been made to examine the advantages of reading-based intervention in helping children who have suffered early adversity and war-related trauma. The scientists who were responsible for the research used the We Love Reading program as an example to examine the study on the children. Participants were Syrian refugees (n=49) and Jordanian non-refugee children (n=45) aged 7-12 years old (M=8.9, 57% girls) living in Jordan. To measure emotion recognition, children classified the expression in faces morphed between two emotions (happy-sad and fear-anger), while mental health was assessed using survey measures of more complicated expressions. Before the intervention, both groups of children interpreted ambiguous expressions as sad, while there was no clear bias on the fear-anger spectrum. After the intervention, the scientists found changes in Syrian refugee children’s bias in emotion recognition away from sad facial expressions. This shift in the bias was not associated with changes in self-reported mental health symptoms. The results suggest a potential positive role of the reading intervention on affective development, but further research is required to determine the longer-term impacts of the program.

“Dad, read us a story!” An ecological systems approach to understanding fathers’ perceptions on shared storybook reading in Jordan (Master Thesis) 2020.

Madina Olomi: Lund University
Supervisor: Moira Nelson

The research employs Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory of development to understand We Love Reading (WLR) father ambassadors’ perceptions of and their involvement in reading with their young children in Jordan, and how this has affected other aspects within their homes, extended families, neighborhoods, and communities. Findings show that a majority of participants felt reading was the responsibility of the mother and were not involved before attending a WLR training. After the training, all participants continue to read with their children. Many read to children other than their own and encourage others in their communities and families to read with children, creating a ripple effect starting within homes and extending to other aspects of participants’ surroundings.

The Value of the We Love Reading Program for Executive Functions In Jordanian Children (MIT Conference) 2020.

Rana Dajani: Hashemite University
Alya Al Sager:Brown University
Diego Placido:Brown Univeristy
Dima Amso: Brown Univeristy

Early childhood enrichment opportunities have been shown to shape Executive Functions (EFs), which in turn play a critical role in the development of academic skills, including school readiness and future educational achievement and mobility. We partnered with We Love Reading, a Jordan-based organization designed to promote reading for pleasure among children, in order to examine the impact of the WLR read-aloud method on executive functions in children. Children completed a battery of executive functions tasks and parents filled out behavioral and demographic assessments of their children. Over a six month interval with the WLR program, we found that the number of books in the home and the number of children that considered reading as a hobby had increased. Changes in reading in the home from baseline to post-WLR also predicted larger improvements in executive functions, and particularly for younger children and for families who reported lower family income. We examined the impact of a reading for pleasure program, called We Love Reading, on change in EFs of 4-8 year-old children. The WLR read-aloud sessions seemed to influence spontaneous change in the number of books in the home and the number of children in the sample that consider reading a hobby. EFs showed expected developmental change in 4-8 year-old children in Jordan. Importantly, the change in reading attitudes and practices was related to improvement, in just six months, in executive functions development. This effect was particularly large for children from lower income homes. These data suggest that WLR read-aloud sessions impacted engagement with reading in the child’s home environment. Reading is a form of enrichment that has multiple values for cognitive development. It involves interaction with parents at a time when parents are the primary source of rule-guided information for the child. It is an enrichment opportunity that allows turn-taking, verbal interaction with caregivers, practice with object forms (the written word), opportunities for imaginative play, creative thought, and learning others’ perspective. All of these components of reading are important for supporting EFs development. EFs are a set of processes that govern context-appropriate thoughts and behaviors. They show a great deal of developmental change from three to about ten years of age and then again in adolescence [3]. EFs seem particularly relevant for early childhood education and success, and enrichment programs that can support their development are highly sought-after and informative. Here we suggest a simple, sustainable and inexpensive opportunity to support developing EFs through reading for pleasure. The ultimate goal is to support life-long learning and academic achievement through natural and culturally-sensitive means. What is unique about WLR is that it is a local program that considers the significance of culture and context. WLR offers an innovative simple solution that has the capacity to grow globally and sustainably. Reading is one medium, however, the cause is to encourage young children to realize that they have the potential and ability to think for themselves.

Antje von Suchodoletz: New York University Abu Dhabi
Randa Mahasneh: Hashemite University
Rana Dajani: Hashemite University

The research is presented at the CIES conference in San Francisco. To date, a majority of research has focused on the cognitive domain of learning whereas the affective domain, such as values and attitudes toward learning, has largely been neglected. However, students’ values and attitudes influence how they approach and organize learning on a day-to-day basis. This study developed and tested a short self-report measure of school interest in Jordan. A regression analysis, controlling for family background variables, showed a significant association with age, confirming the hypothesis that older children report lower levels of school interest. In addition, gender was significantly associated with school interest, indicating that boys had lower levels of school interest.

Knowledge management in the development of ‘We Love Reading’ (Master Thesis) 2019.

Diyar Kashlook: Copenhagen business school

This paper investigates the role knowledge management played in the development of the organization ‘We Love Reading’. The paper utilizes on the theory of social entrepreneurship, leadership, and knowledge management in order to understand the knowledge sharing and replication process of ‘We Love Reading’. It encompasses the theories to create a parallel between the knowledge management process of We Love Reading and its leadership style, when being a social enterprise.
The methodology of this paper is based on the interpretivist paradigm and applies semi-structured interviews and observations, as a method to understanding how ‘We Love Reading’ manages their knowledge. Moreover, what knowledge management challenges they have encountered and how they overcame them. Especially, the paper analyses the influence that the leader of the organization had in overcoming the knowledge management challenges. The paper’s findings indicate that the organization uses both principles and templates in their knowledge management process. They have encountered knowledge management challenges based on the lack of knowledge management systems. Hence, the leader of the organization played an important role in identifying and supporting the people responsible for technological innovation in the organization. Moreover, the organization had a challenge when the workforce resisted the implementation of knowledge management systems. The organization was able to overcome this challenge by the transformational leader motivating the employees and creating trust, which is essential for the organizational communication and knowledge sharing process.
The conclusion emerges from the role knowledge management had in the development of the social entrepreneurial venture, WLR. It ought to understand how knowledge is managed and has evolved in the venture. Furthermore, how it has improved WLR’s ability to exploit and replicate what they already know. It was important to create a link to the transformational leader as knowledge is created in the communication process between people. Furthermore, the transformational leader has the ability to motivate employees to share knowledge. The main knowledge challenges WLR encountered were the lack of knowledge management systems and the employees’ resistance to knowledge management systems. The findings reveal that WLR manages its knowledge via technological platforms, such as their apps and website, and utilizes on the combination of principles, templates, and background knowledge when aiming to replicate knowledge. The paper’s finding suggests that Dajani played a vital role as a learning architect. The transformational leader hired a CEO, who is specialized in quality and knowledge management systems, to manage the knowledge and establish systems and technologies to support organizational learning.

Fostering Litrate Environments: Increasing the Reach of the “We Love Reading” Program (Master Thesis) 2019.

Julie Boatright Wilson: :Harvard Kennedy School
Mariana Reina: Harvard Kennedy School

Using a combination of qualitative approaches, this research looks at the impact of the We Love Reading model and whether it can be replicated, and identifies viable paths to increase the reach of the program. The final recommendation is to execute two different strategies that complement each other. The first focuses on taking advantage of existing efforts to include more ICT in training and follow-up to create more targeted strategies of engagement for international actors interested in the program to lower financial barriers. The second emphasizes the importance of focusing on a particular region and identifying international actors with existing infrastructure and partners locally and collaborate to create a shared value.

Taghyeer’s work is incredibly important. In order to make literate environments available in every community, they create social capital within them to have local community members take charge through the establishment of an informal library where children will have access to books and to entertaining read-aloud sessions. Through this method, they instill intrinsic motivation, or better said a love of reading in children, and promote their cognitive development (Sullivan & Brown, 2013) which allows them to reach their full potential as learners (Marinak & Gambrell, 2008). This is very powerful as it empowers communities to take action towards their children’s future. Reaching children all over the world will entail a very strong and pro-active effort – especially in maintaining the quality of the elements of the model in order to ensure the highest positive impact on communities. As of now, the organization is already doing a lot for building up their capacity. Nonetheless these efforts can have exponential value if they are focused on a clear long-term plan. This document focuses on giving a third party analysis of:
The most important strengths and areas of opportunity of the model in order to inform capacity building and growth strategies.
– Understanding the current capacity of the organization and offering a menu of action items available for the organization to strengthen existing efforts.
– Identifying and evaluating four viable strategy options for the organization to begin to think about a targeted growth effort.
Taghyeer has many pathways which it could follow to reach their goal, ultimately the most important aspect for them to succeed is to focus on selecting a pathway and identifying measurable goals upon which to evaluate their efforts. The strategy may be continually adapted based on progress, circumstances, feedback and best practices as they already have experience in doing with the model. The path to scale will be challenging but Taghyeer’s motivating purpose is sure to keep efforts on track. Hopefully this document will be a useful contribution in the form of insight on how to strengthen the model, the organization and ultimately inform the creation of a detailed growth strategy in order to increase the reach and impact of the WLR Model.

Reading social stories in the community: A promising intervention for promoting children’s environmental knowledge and behavior in Jordan 2017. 

Randa Ali Mahasneh:Qatar University
Michael H. Romanowski:Qatar University
Rana Dajani: Hashemite University

Traditionally, education in various forms has been used as a tool to change values and behavior in children regarding the environment. These study reports findings from the We Love Reading Program that utilizes the reading of Social Stories in various communities in Jordan to address the environmental problems of Jordan. Results indicated the effectiveness of this informal educational intervention showing a significant increase in children’s knowledge about environmental issues and a positive change in behavior related to electricity and water consumption and littering, as reported by parents. The authors provide several recommendations on how Social Stories and appropriate curriculum can be used in schools and community to create awareness in students regarding environmental issues.

Evaluation of the We Love Reading program 2017. 

Randa Ali Mahasneh: Qatar University
Michael H. Romanowski: Qatar University
Rana Dajani: Hashemite University

UNICEF Jordan conducted an evaluation of the We Love Reading program that aimed to assess the impact of We Love Reading (WLR) on Children’s attitudes towards reading, their actual reading practices, and Children’s Willingness to go to school.
The results support the effectiveness of WLR intervention in increasing the reading practices of young children aged (4-12) and in improving their reading attitude.

The effect of the WLR intervention on children reading practices did not differ according to children’s gender, and place, which means that the intervention equally increased the male and female reading practices, and equally increased the children’s reading practices in all geographical areas (North, Middle, South).
However, the effect of the intervention on improving the children reading practices at the early stage (4, 5) was better than in the middle and the late stages.

Altogether, the results support the effectiveness of WLR program in improving children’s willingness to go to school. Analyzing the data collected using the direct measure (self-report measured by children) and indirect measure (by parents as observed) showed the following indicators of improvement:

– Children’s willingness to go to school (as reported by the children themselves) increased with effect size (0.11) although this is considered a small effect but this is because Children’s willingness to go to school was high before the intervention.
– The change in children’s willingness to go to school was not affected by gender, age group, or geographical region. That means that WLR program affects all children equally.
– Parents’ responses regarding children’s willingness to go to school showed improvement in the children’s willingness to go to school, however, the differences before and after the intervention were not significant. This result can be explained in light of the high level of willingness the children started with before the intervention which leaves a limited amount of improvement as an effect of the intervention. Apparently, this limited amount was not noticeable by parents.

We Love Reading – a women’s literacy program in the Arab world 2017.

Rana Dajani: Hashemite University
Abdullah Awad: Cambridge University

Older women who are readers feel a sense of fulfillment that they are serving their communities, and have something to offer. They become wise advisors in the leadership role they assume in the neighborhood. Youth have come up with innovative projects for literacy and reading, such as libraries on buses and reading clubs in villages. The WLR model has been adopted by ACEV the Mother Child Education Foundation in Turkey within their program of women literacy. They are using reading stories as a way of educating illiterate mothers. In Mexico, the model has been adopted by indigenous populations as a way to preserve
the oral heritage and pride of the local communities, as well as increase school enrollment. The model has been implemented by more developed countries to encourage literacy among immigrant communities and by refugee communities allowing for a constructive outlet to conditions of impoverishment. The model spread through word of mouth, social media and lectures.
The women who have been involved in WLR have developed into empowered women who have gained respect of their community members, not only among females but, importantly, among the males in their community. Trained women from refugee camps reported that the men of the neighborhood encourage them in their role as leaders of the libraries. Mosques clerics open their doors to women to manage and administer
the read-aloud sessions with joy and pride and donate funds to buy books. Alone in Jordan WLR has trained 2000 women, created 1200 libraries and directly
impacted 15,000 children (of which 60% are girls) and indirectly reached another 50,000 individuals (January 2016). The overall impact on the development of society is immeasurable.
In an evaluation done by the Hashemite University, The WLR program showed an 84% increase in leadership skills among the volunteers (unpublished data).

Impact Assessment We Love Reading 2017.

Walaa Aqrabawi: Integrated Services Indigenous Solutions (INTEGRATED)
Sirsa Qursha: Integrated Services Indigenous Solutions (INTEGRATED)
Rula Hiyari: Integrated Services Indigenous Solutions (INTEGRATED)

The assessment showed that WLR is very effective in cultivating the love of reading among children, noted by volunteers, parents and donors alike. WLR is somewhat effective in creating “change makers” in the communities in that a large majority of volunteers reported taking a leadership role in their communities and 80% established a good network. However, less than half (46%) trained other people on reading aloud for children, or took on other initiatives in the community (45%). There is a need to augment volunteers’ leadership potential and encourage them to train and empower other community members in order to better achieve change making outcomes.

SUSTAINABILITY

The WLR model is sustainable to the extent that it is human-centered, relies primarily on volunteers in the local communities (community-based), and is relatively cost-free. The ownership created among volunteers and wide donor base contribute to sustainability. Although almost up to half the WLR volunteers reported to have sustained their libraries, due to lack of clarity in definitions of active libraries/volunteers, it is not possible to draw substantive conclusions about sustainability of libraries among WLR volunteers, giving rise to a need to establish a clear definition of sustainability inclusive of: training date, first session date, frequency and number of read aloud sessions conducted, number of children in attendance. Nevertheless, there is strong evidence that volunteers are willing to continue their libraries, and sustainability could be supported by WLR’s additional attention to provision of additional reading material, addressing challenges to recruitment, problem behavior among children, and follow-up and networking support to volunteers. WLR’s continued attention to volunteers’ desire to belong to a movement larger than the individual could support improved sustainability outcomes.

The impact of the We Love Reading pilot program on the psychosocial health of participating children in Zaatari refugee camp 2014.

Sarah Yazji: Yale University

Catherine Panter-Brick: Yale University

We Love Reading was introduced in Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan through a pilot project in the summer of 2014. A psycho-social study designed by Yale University (USA) was conducted to assess the social and mental state of both the reading ambassadors and the children. The results in the test of resilience showed that the children who were read to had a greater ability to recover and return to a normal state after undergoing difficulties. There are a large number of children in Zaatari camp who are not enrolled in school for various reasons and reading aloud to these children encouraged them to go back to school. In addition, the children learned to love reading and to think and make decisions for themselves.

Of the 26 trained storytellers, 12 were reached, about 40%. The age of the storytellers ranged from 17 years old to mid-40s. All of the readers except 3 that were interviewed already work for IRD or at the IRD center. Of those who already worked for IRD or at the center, many cited their current involvement in similar activities as their reason for attending the training session. Of those who said that this was their first time taking part in this kind of activity, two cited their husbands as the person who informed them about the initial training for the program. Their husbands worked at the IRD centers.
Those who were interviewed did not know the remaining ladies who did not provide any contact information. The remaining ladies did not already work with IRD or partnering NGOs.

Reading about people’s feelings increases empathic concern and generosity in children 2014.

Jean Decety: University of Chicago

Jason M. Cowell: University of Chicago

Rana Dajani: Hashemite University

In 2014, We Love Reading, in collaboration with the University of Chicago (USA), conducted a study measuring the impact of the We Love Reading model on increasing children’s ability to empathize with others. It showed that integrating the values of empathy into children’s stories increased children’s generosity by 100%. In addition, it increased children’s interest in and concern for others. Importantly, the intervention did not affect what is called “affective empathy” or pain sensitivity. These changes were not observed in children who were not read to and who did not participate in the reading sessions.