Webinar Launch of Pedagogies of Belonging: How Educators Foster Community in Settings of Displacement & Migration
By Abbie Nolan, Mohammed Alam Begi, Tal Eitan, Bakht Ansari, and Maharia Muskaan
We celebrated the launch of Pedagogies of Belonging, with a webinar discussion of this book’s central question:
What would it take to ensure that all young people have access to learning that enables them to feel a sense of belonging and prepares them to help build more peaceful and equitable futures?
The book is a collection of microportraits of educators, grounded in research about educator practices. Authors of the microportraits came to know the educators in this book - Mr. Faisal, The Qari, Mr. Ahmed, Ms. Ethel, Ms. Susan, David, Ms. Isabel, Miss Leela, and Miss Alata - through long-term research projects that included interviews, observations, and sometimes participatory methods. The microportraits highlight the contexts, strategies, and practices of nine educators in nine countries, as well as the patterns that emerge across contexts. Together, they explore how educators:
Create relevant curriculum for their students, often despite rigidity in the content they are expected to cover
Recognize the identities students bring to the classroom and ones they create newly in the place they now live
Build and foster relationships that form a foundation for experiences of learning and belonging between students and teachers and among students
Engage in future-building with their students, even when the future seems scary and unknown
Are compelled to act with resistance, often at great risk, from schoolwide and national expectations and what their previous practices had been
They also highlight the interconnected nature of these themes, and how they all connect to purposes of creating spaces of belonging.
We organized the webinar with the hope that sharing some of the ideas that emerge from the microportraits might support all of our learning about what makes welcoming communities and inspire us to try some of these practices in our own classrooms. To do this, we invited the authors of seven microportraits to speak about what they learned from the educators they worked with and wrote about in this book.
Authors Vidur Chopra, Celia Reddick, Vikrant Garg, and Mara Johnson introduced the educators they worked with through video presentations. They focused on ways these educators recognized student identities, found ways to act with resistance, and engaged in schoolwide collaboration.
It was inspiring to learn about Ms. Isabel, who worked in a multilingual school where students spoke eight different languages. Although it was the policy in Uganda to use only English as the language of instruction in schools, Ms. Isabel tried to strike a balance between recognizing English as a language of power and opportunity for her students, and the importance of languages other than English for a child’s connection to self, family, and broader experiences of well-being. Rather than banning languages other than English from her classroom, Ms. Isabel allowed students to use languages to translate words, but encouraged them to do this discreetly, “not singing their departure from English-only policy from the rooftops.”
Following the videos, we invited authors Mervi Kaukko and Hiba Salem to engage in a live discussion of two educators who created relevant curriculum for their students in different contexts: Mr. Faisal in Jordan and David in Australia. Authors Zuhra Faizi and Sarah Dryden-Peterson then used the same format to discuss the theme of building relationships as exemplified by two other educators: The Qari in Afghanistan and Ms. Ethel in South Africa.
A valuable learning that emerged from this discussion was some similarities across very different contexts. For instance, both The Qari and Ms. Ethel ensured they got to know their students well, understood their needs, and strengthened their relationships within their communities to support their students.
We’re looking forward to more discussions that can address the patterns we see across contexts in educator practices that foster welcoming communities. We invite those who are interested to be in touch with suggestions, to share your experiences in learning about or trying out the practices of these educators, or to contribute a microportrait to the collection.
Disclaimer: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this publication belong solely to the authors and do not necessarily represent those of REACH or the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
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ABOUT THE AUTHORs
Abbie Nolan recently graduated from the Harvard Graduate School of Education with a degree in Education Policy Analysis, specializing in Global, International, and Comparative Education. Prior to joining HGSE, she coordinated a program for and instructed immigrant and refugee high school students in the State Department Resettlement City of Manchester, NH, taught English at a vocational school in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, conducted an original research project on the relationship between education and female empowerment in Uganda that was later published in an academic journal, and worked alongside school leaders seeking to remove health and social obstacles to education for vulnerable communities in Boston’s public charter school system. She is especially interested in the ways that education policy can contribute to gender equity - and its many intersections - on a global scale.
Connect with Abbie on LinkedIn or via email at abigail.s.nolan@gmail.com
Bakht Ansari is a gender and education rights activist from Karachi, Pakistan, and a graduate of the Education Policy Analysis program with a concentration in Identity, Power, and Justice in Education. She has a decade long experience working in the Pakistani education sector and has worked with different local and international non-governmental organizations to improve access to quality education in Karachi. Additionally, Bakht is on the organizing committee for the annual Women’s March, a protest march for people with marginalized identities to demand equal access to the state institutions regardless of class, religion and gender.
Connect with Bakht via email bakht.ansari@gmail.com
Muskaan Maharia is a social development professional from India, and a graduate of the Human Development and Education program. With almost a decade of experience prior to joining HGSE, she has led the design, management and evaluation of youth development programs, focusing on fostering a healthy support ecosystem for youth from high-adversity backgrounds.
Connect with Muskaan via LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/muskaanmaharia or email Maharia.muskaan@gmail.com
Tal Eitan is an educator from Israel. She graduated from Harvard's Graduate School of Education, specializing in education policy and analysis. Before joining HGSE, she had a significant role in leading various educational programs in Israel. Her focus was on providing equal opportunities to students from disadvantaged backgrounds. She has a particular interest in promoting peacebuilding and coexistence between Israel and Palestine.
Connect with Tal via LinkedIn or email taleitan9@gmail.com
Mohammed Alam Begi recently graduated with a Master's degree from HGSE. Prior to his time at Harvard, he was a Special Projects Consultant for the City of London Corporation, where he played a crucial part in conceiving, executing, and evaluating sustainable educational, cultural, and employment initiatives for those displaced by the resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Driven by a deep conviction in the power of education to drive positive transformations, Mohammed hopes to shape educational policies that have a lasting impact.
Connect with Mohammed via LinkedIn