GCRF Development Award, Edu-Peace: Supporting Educators in Conflict-affected Settings
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Cambridge
Department Name: Faculty of Education
Abstract
This proposed award will support the development of the Edu-Peace Network (that will form the basis of our larger bid) through bringing academic and non-academic research partners from across the country contexts together in a series of workshops to strengthen and further develop our shared understandings and priorities for the network, to co-construct our contextualised research methodologies and to define the scope of our proposed activities. Through these dialogues, as a project team and with broader partners and advisors, we lay the foundations both for a coherent and cohesive research Network and for future collaborations.
The proposed global Network for Edu-Peace is grounded in the assumption that educators in settings affected by conflict and crisis are already, to varying extents, working towards peace. The network aims to have a positive impact on the welfare of children and young people in settings affected by conflict and crisis through a focus on their education, and in particular through a focus on peace-building.
Central to the Network is peer-to-peer learning and collaboration with academic, government, NGO and community partners through the identification of case studies in three regions affected by conflict: South-South East Asia (Bangladesh & Myanmar); the Horn of Africa (Somaliland & South Sudan); and the Middle East (Lebanon). Building on existing research, and connections with partners in these regions we aim to: deepen understandings of key challenges in emergency contexts; identify innovative and successful education and peacebuilding practice, particularly through case-studies of non-traditional education programmes or projects; highlight and develop conflict-sensitive and gender-sensitive provision; facilitate peer-to-peer learning and knowledge exchange; generate capacity and new pathways to locally-responsive impact; generate new interdisciplinary knowledge that will advance the fields of Education, Law, Politics, Gender Studies and History.
The locations for our joint meetings have been chosen to maximise opportunities for co-production of the research agenda and methodologies and to allow for further stakeholder and community engagement which will strengthen the local relevance of the Network and support South-South collaboration and learning. This also provides us with an opportunity to test the ease of travel, including visa applications, for team members in order to develop a sound plan for future collaboration and Network activities. Three main workshops are planned in:
Nairobi, Kenya - hosted by the Kenya office of Rift Valley Institute:
Dhaka, Bangladesh - hosted by the Liberation War Museum;
Cambridge, UK - hosted by the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge;
The third smaller meeting is planned to take advantage of visits to the UK by the LMIC CIs and partners for the Network Plus grant interview in December. Additionally, Network advisor and potential project partner, Dr Maha Shuayb, Director of the Centre for Lebanese Studies at the Lebanese American University will be in Cambridge as a Visiting Scholar during this period, so a small meeting provides the opportunity for partners from South Sudan and Bangladesh to consolidate research connections with further Lebanese collaborators.
The proposed global Network for Edu-Peace is grounded in the assumption that educators in settings affected by conflict and crisis are already, to varying extents, working towards peace. The network aims to have a positive impact on the welfare of children and young people in settings affected by conflict and crisis through a focus on their education, and in particular through a focus on peace-building.
Central to the Network is peer-to-peer learning and collaboration with academic, government, NGO and community partners through the identification of case studies in three regions affected by conflict: South-South East Asia (Bangladesh & Myanmar); the Horn of Africa (Somaliland & South Sudan); and the Middle East (Lebanon). Building on existing research, and connections with partners in these regions we aim to: deepen understandings of key challenges in emergency contexts; identify innovative and successful education and peacebuilding practice, particularly through case-studies of non-traditional education programmes or projects; highlight and develop conflict-sensitive and gender-sensitive provision; facilitate peer-to-peer learning and knowledge exchange; generate capacity and new pathways to locally-responsive impact; generate new interdisciplinary knowledge that will advance the fields of Education, Law, Politics, Gender Studies and History.
The locations for our joint meetings have been chosen to maximise opportunities for co-production of the research agenda and methodologies and to allow for further stakeholder and community engagement which will strengthen the local relevance of the Network and support South-South collaboration and learning. This also provides us with an opportunity to test the ease of travel, including visa applications, for team members in order to develop a sound plan for future collaboration and Network activities. Three main workshops are planned in:
Nairobi, Kenya - hosted by the Kenya office of Rift Valley Institute:
Dhaka, Bangladesh - hosted by the Liberation War Museum;
Cambridge, UK - hosted by the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge;
The third smaller meeting is planned to take advantage of visits to the UK by the LMIC CIs and partners for the Network Plus grant interview in December. Additionally, Network advisor and potential project partner, Dr Maha Shuayb, Director of the Centre for Lebanese Studies at the Lebanese American University will be in Cambridge as a Visiting Scholar during this period, so a small meeting provides the opportunity for partners from South Sudan and Bangladesh to consolidate research connections with further Lebanese collaborators.
Planned Impact
Impact Summary
This proposal will ultimately impact on the well being and education opportunities of children and young people in settings affected by conflict and crisis through:
A fully developed bid submitted to GCRF responding to feed-back;
Co-produced research methodologies and tools, public engagement strategy and structured communications plan;
A co-developed practical and theoretical framework for the 'Edu-Peace worker' that will provide a grounding for further research and praxis;
A sustainable Edu-Peace Network, in a position to begin network activities, and / or apply for other external funding.
A central tenet of this development bid is to work collaboratively with locally- embedded academic and non- academic partners located in 3 conflict-affected regions (the horn of Africa, South/ South East Asia, and the Middle East). The proposed activities will assist them through increased capacity both in terms of: their theoretical resources to conceptualise peacebuilding; their research skills and knowledge, leadership capacities and their networks.
In addition, 4 UK-based academics will receive capacity-building benefits, 3 of whom are early career researchers. One of these, Lindsey Horner, will be in a better position to work with her research office to develop a research culture in Bath Spa University (a post-92 HEI). Thus an additional impact is enhanced institutional capacity building in the UK, as well as in LMIC academic institutions. This will place us all in a good position to respond to future calls of this type, and to establish ourselves more firmly in the field.
We expect the planned workshops and meetings to result in increased professional-confidence, feelings of dignity and respect and potential for networking, cooperation and wider research and development. Furthermore, on a personal level each participant's experiential knowledge gained through this proposal will deepened their understanding of reciprocity, the contexts and co-produced research in multifarious insights to take back to their parent disciplines (Education, Law, Politics, Gender Studies, and History) with potential unpredictable impacts.The workshops build on each other and culminate in a sustainable network with enhanced research capacity and development ideas. If successful, our wider bid will begin from a much strengthened position.
The collaboration on the conceptual development of Edu-Peace will impact the local stakeholders directly, who will benefit through their recognition, where they shift from the acted-upon to the acted-with, while ensuring that future research agendas and outputs are contextually aware and respond to local conditions and structures, aiding their relevance and impact. This development project will produce a model for South-North community-university equitable partnerships that can potentially be shared and replicated elsewhere as a published outcome.
The project is also committed to generating further research bids with their own positive impacts, thus acting as an impact multiplier. If the shortlisted bid is successful, this will be achieved through the commissioning rounds. If the shortlisted bid is not successful, this will be achieved through further bidding, either to the GCRF, or to other funders (e.g the AHRC's Follow-on Funding scheme). In addition, the networks established, and public engagement strategy co-created, will exist independently of this and therefore will be employed as a multi-sectoral commitment to co-producing contextually led collaborative research to inform peacebuilding whatever the outcome.
This proposal will ultimately impact on the well being and education opportunities of children and young people in settings affected by conflict and crisis through:
A fully developed bid submitted to GCRF responding to feed-back;
Co-produced research methodologies and tools, public engagement strategy and structured communications plan;
A co-developed practical and theoretical framework for the 'Edu-Peace worker' that will provide a grounding for further research and praxis;
A sustainable Edu-Peace Network, in a position to begin network activities, and / or apply for other external funding.
A central tenet of this development bid is to work collaboratively with locally- embedded academic and non- academic partners located in 3 conflict-affected regions (the horn of Africa, South/ South East Asia, and the Middle East). The proposed activities will assist them through increased capacity both in terms of: their theoretical resources to conceptualise peacebuilding; their research skills and knowledge, leadership capacities and their networks.
In addition, 4 UK-based academics will receive capacity-building benefits, 3 of whom are early career researchers. One of these, Lindsey Horner, will be in a better position to work with her research office to develop a research culture in Bath Spa University (a post-92 HEI). Thus an additional impact is enhanced institutional capacity building in the UK, as well as in LMIC academic institutions. This will place us all in a good position to respond to future calls of this type, and to establish ourselves more firmly in the field.
We expect the planned workshops and meetings to result in increased professional-confidence, feelings of dignity and respect and potential for networking, cooperation and wider research and development. Furthermore, on a personal level each participant's experiential knowledge gained through this proposal will deepened their understanding of reciprocity, the contexts and co-produced research in multifarious insights to take back to their parent disciplines (Education, Law, Politics, Gender Studies, and History) with potential unpredictable impacts.The workshops build on each other and culminate in a sustainable network with enhanced research capacity and development ideas. If successful, our wider bid will begin from a much strengthened position.
The collaboration on the conceptual development of Edu-Peace will impact the local stakeholders directly, who will benefit through their recognition, where they shift from the acted-upon to the acted-with, while ensuring that future research agendas and outputs are contextually aware and respond to local conditions and structures, aiding their relevance and impact. This development project will produce a model for South-North community-university equitable partnerships that can potentially be shared and replicated elsewhere as a published outcome.
The project is also committed to generating further research bids with their own positive impacts, thus acting as an impact multiplier. If the shortlisted bid is successful, this will be achieved through the commissioning rounds. If the shortlisted bid is not successful, this will be achieved through further bidding, either to the GCRF, or to other funders (e.g the AHRC's Follow-on Funding scheme). In addition, the networks established, and public engagement strategy co-created, will exist independently of this and therefore will be employed as a multi-sectoral commitment to co-producing contextually led collaborative research to inform peacebuilding whatever the outcome.
