Online session presented by Dr. Khaleel Ajineh- the principal of the Lebanese International School with the student Khaled Abed Al-Aal

This session presented the experience of the principal of the Lebanese International School – one of the TAMAM partner schools – in his mentorship journey with the school learners during this academic year and his continuous follow-up with them in order to discover their abilities and develop their skills, making use of the TAMAM school improvement journey to launch this initiative and plan its procedures with continuous follow-up and monitoring of progress and impact.

The student Khaled Abdel-Al also participated in this session, expressing his own experience with the school principal and its personal impact on him.

To view the session, please contact us.

Here is the link for the Facebook Post.

As a continuation of this year’s partnership between Al Maymouna Education and TAMAM project in collaboration with the Center for Civic Engagement & Community Service (CCECS) at AUB which aims at evaluating quality of learning and teaching in Al Maymouna Schools and building partnership with parents, the TAMAM steering team held a training workshop for the central instructional team and the team of Partnership with the parents on Friday, June 17, 2022, in order to present first, the progress of the evaluation process, the criteria that were adopted, the indicators for each criterion and the rubrics that were developed specifically for Al Maymouna Education and which included standard levels that respect the specific context of Al Maymouna Education, and second the development of the socio-cultural form and its implementation knowing that this form was customized especially for Al Maymouna context. Then the classification table of families was presented by TAMAM expert in order to empower teams’ members on how to build upon it to plan for the coming open day in the schools. After the presentation, there was a think tank about the most important learned lessons by the schools’ teams and the most prominent concerns about the process and its outcomes. The steering team also stressed during the training its keenness to adhere to TAMAM competencies during the evaluation process, so that the process is collaborative, experimental, based on inquiry, far from personalization, in order to reach decisions based on evidence and needs.The session was valuable, as the schools’ teams expressed, and is considered an entry point to later dependency, in order to achieve the ambitions of Al Maymouna staff and its founder.

Here is the link for the Facebook Post.  

On Thursday 2 June 2022, Dr. Rima delivered a presentation for the University of Seniors participants titled “Leading school reform: from vision to action”.

During this presentation, Dr. Rima presented TAMAM’s experience in building and implementing a scalable model to transform schools into self-renewing institutions by empowering practitioners with leadership capacity for change while working in a concerted effort through strong partnerships with researchers, policy-makers and community members. The presentation illustrated success stories of improvement of Lebanese public schools and will discuss the role that partners/the community can play in advocating for school reform.

At the end of the presentation, the attendees expressed their admiration to the presentation and the achievements that TAMAM made with the Lebanese public schools.

It is worth noting that the University of Seniors is a ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​new life-long learning initiative at AUB, the first of its kind in Lebanon and the Middle East. It gives older adults (who are 50 and above) the opportunity to share their wisdom and passion, to learn things they have always wanted to learn in a friendly academic environment and to interact socially with other seniors, AUB faculty and students.

#AUB #TAMAM #UnivesityOfSeniors #UfS #schoolimprovement #publicSchools #Lebanon

Online session presented by Mr. Rabih Murr– Academic Principal of Ahliya School in Lebanon.

This session is based on a case study and academic research for a master’s degree by Mr. Rabih El-Murr on the experience of a school principal in a private school in Lebanon (the Ahliya School in which he works). The session shed light on one of the organizational frames, which is the political frame, especially the micropolitical level, and the strategies and procedures that the school principal can follow under it to reduce resistance from members of the institution while leading the change process and taking the school towards renewal and continuous improvement while being respectful of the context and identity of the institution.

The session was attended by about 45 practitioners and educational researchers from TAMAM participating schools in different Arab countries, in addition to members of the advisory board of Al-Ahlia School, which is a TAMAM-friend school.

The session began by presenting the reality of ineffective educational reform in the Lebanese context, as well as the context of the case school. Then the international literature was explored to describe change as a complex process that is accompanied by many challenges, as it undermines the status quo and the identity of the institution. It is also accompanied by resistance to change, which is considered one of the most important challenges of change from the perspective or the political framework of the institution, especially from the micropolitical lens. The study considers the latter a promising lens for understanding change in the Lebanese context and deals with the concept of self-interest that may conflict with the interest of the institution, and the role of the educational leader in adopting strategies and political methods to reduce resistance to change and overcome obstacles towards achieving it. The study showed that prior to initiating change plans and actions, it is imperative for the school principal to have a good understanding of the school’s culture and identity and build an understanding of the culture’s reactions and attitude to change, coupled with building a thorough awareness of the school’s micropolitics – mainly power dynamics and personal interest versus the interest of the institution. Another key strategy that emerged from the study is the school leadership’s differentiated approach in managing groups of teachers, mainly those who were pro-change and those who were still resisting change especially during the first micropolitical landscape. The case study underscores the importance of achieving educational change through strategies that transform the school toward continuous self-renewal rooted in its unique identity by following a bottom-up approach to change. The session concluded with the model Mr. Rabih established to delineate a grounded process for initiating and effecting change in a context like that of the case study school. The model is based on a theory of educational change aimed at transforming the school into an institution continuously engaged in self-renewal that is rooted in its unique identity. The session then was followed with discussion of comments and questions from the attendees.  

To view the session, click on the following link.

Here is the link for the Facebook Post.

In person presentation by Ms. Stephanie Jureidini: Reflections on the Development of an Arab Feminist Framework: Lessons Learned from a Critical Inquiry with Women Educational Leaders

On April 19, 2022, Ms. Stephanie Jureidini (PhD student at University of Wisconsin-Madison) delivered a presentation titled: “Reflections on the Development of an Arab Feminist Framework: Lessons Learned from a Critical Inquiry with Women Educational Leaders” at the 66th Annual Conference of the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES). The presentation is based on a study that she conducted with Dr. Rima Karami to examine the experiences of women educational leaders in TAMAM. The presentation presented a critical reflection on the methodology used and discusses its implications for the development of an Arab feminist framework. The conference was held from April 18 to 22, 2022 under the theme “Illuminating the Power of Idea/lism”.

Here is the link for the Facebook Post.