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Improving learning environments in Jordanian public schools: Lessons from school visits and community dialogue in Northern Jordan

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Jordania
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Introduction

This report from the project “Education for the Future” provides an overview of challenges and prospects of improving learning environments in Jordanian public schools in general. Available literature and public narratives on education in Jordan since 2011 highlight the many challenges to the creation of a positive learning environment posed by the increased number of children attending Jordanian public schools, and Syrian children in particular. The report observes how such challenges have affected the learning environment of Jordanian and Syrian children in the governorate of Mafraq (northern Jordan), where the number of Syrians refugees in the main town exceeds that of the indigenous population (about 100,000 versus 80,000) (Al-Ghad, 2015). It also focuses on an often neglected dimension of the learning environment, namely parental involvement and the role of parent-school relations.

The report is based on a literature review and fieldwork comprising,

• Visits to 40 schools in Mafraq Governorate in May-June 2015, which included observation of the physical and social school environments as well as informal interviews with school staff and school children;

• Seven focus groups and 15 individual/small group interviews with parents, school children and teachers in Mafraq town in December 2015 and May 2016; and

• A questionnaire survey among Jordanian and Syrian households with children enrolled in public schools in Mafraq town.

The questionnaire survey was carried out in October 2016 with the main objective of empirically testing many of the new insights obtained from the school visits and the semi-structured qualitative interviews held with groups and individuals. The survey comprised a total sample of 107 households with one or more children enrolled in a public basic school: 65 households with Jordanian nationals and 42 households comprising Syrian refugees. The majority of questions, however, covered some aspects of children’s education, parents’ perception of their children’s education and the relationship between the families, on the one hand, and the schools and their staff, on the other.