Meet our newest Board Member, Jessica Oddy

In January 2021, Amala was delighted to welcome Jessica Oddy to our Board of Trustees. Jessica has worked for over a decade in the education in emergencies space for organisations including Save the Children, LWF and War Child. She has also worked as an Academic Tutor for the University of East London’s preparation course for refugees and asylum seekers and is pursuing a PhD on transitions to higher education for displaced youth. As a published author, teacher and researcher, Jessica is committed to supporting organisations, academic institutions and individuals to design and deliver equity and evidence based programmes and research.

We caught up with Jessica to learn more about her background, her thoughts on the evolution of education in emergencies provision, and what role Amala can play in catering to the needs of displaced learners. 

Jessica, we are so glad you have joined the Amala Board of Trustees. What are some of the things that motivated you to work in Education in Emergencies? 

I first became engaged in refugee education as a student at the University of Liverpool. At the time, a lot of unaccompanied minors were arriving in the city, and so I volunteered for the Refugee Council as a peer mentor. Later in my degree, I spent a year in Cuba, where I met so many students who came from around the world, some from conflict affected contexts and refugee camps. It was that experience that made me aware of the power of education as a humanitarian response. After university I went on to train as a teacher and then into  work in the humanitarian sector.

Your combined experience of ‘on the ground’ work with research. Can you tell us a bit about your PhD research and how that has impacted your thinking on education in emergencies interventions? 

My PhD research focused on young people’s education experiences in the UK, Jordan and South Sudan. After working in the education in  emergencies sector for 10 years, I found that the way young people (in conflict affected settings) were spoken about tended to be homogenising, and does not recognise the value of their lived experiences. I am using a digital storytelling approach, where I work with young people to write their own narratives around their education experiences and challenges. I want to understand to what extent education in emergencies responses and colonial legacies influence programmes that are funded and implemented in refugee contexts and why there are so few opportunities for youth in particular.

My research has reinforced the commitment of young people to their own learning; there is a huge demand for opportunities at both secondary and higher education levels. Young people want to pursue their education, despite living in challenging circumstances and with very limited means. However, there are often discriminatory practices in place which mean that opportunities are awarded according to factors like the person’s nationality, or whether they are officially recognised as a refugee in the contexts where they are living. These structural barriers determine and limit opportunities for the many young people who want to continue their education.

How have approaches to refugee education changed over your time working in this area?

There have been significant changes! When I first started working in this area, education was not recognised as a priority service in humanitarian contexts. In the last ten years we’ve seen so many more people being displaced, and that people are being displaced for longer periods of time. Alongside that there has been increased advocacy among education practitioners, an increasing recognition of the importance of education in conflict-affected settings and many more organisations involved in providing educational programmes. However, there are huge needs that are not being addressed; in particular, youth in crisis affected contexts are underserved by the humanitarian community.

Let’s speak more about young people! What are some of the gaps you see in humanitarian provision for youth and what role can Amala play in helping to bridge these gaps? 

There are some huge gaps. Despite being one of the largest groups in displacement settings, young people are the least prioritised; only 3% of refugees make it to higher education. The data around enrolment is somewhat limited but there are high dropout rates at lower secondary education level, and there are very few opportunities for young people if they haven’t been able to access secondary education, or catch up on their education, despite most young people wanting to continue. 

Amala’s High School Diploma programme fills a critical need - it is unique because of its learner centric approach and because the programmes have been informed by young people. It is also a model that works in a number of different protracted refugee settings, and is already being implemented in Jordan and Kenya.

What is the ‘direction of travel’ of organisations working in this area? How have things changed in the last ten years? 

When I started out ten years ago, education in emergencies programmes were considered to be short-term interventions, such as supplying stationery in temporary learning spaces and one-off teacher training. Today, there is much more recognition that most displacement is long-term and that, as we’ve seen with Covid, children and youth spend protracted amounts of time out of school. There needs to be longer term funding and longer term programmes that support people to get back into education.

Education is not just about academic learning but also social and emotional learning, and strengthening processes in different programming. Young people who have experienced displacement bring such a wealth of cultural and social capital and we need to work with the assets that they bring.

What are you most looking forward to about being on the Amala Board? 

What attracted me to Amala was the focus on secondary education - Amala’s programmes and approach fills a critical gap. Amala’s model is also very innovative in the curriculum that has been developed, the usage of partnership models and the way young people are engaged and listened to. I am looking forward to being part of an organisation that is growing and is going to play an important role in reshaping refugee education globally. 

You can find out more about Jessica’s work on LinkedIn and her website.