Our Publications

This article by Rosalie Metro, Associate Teaching Professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia, and Min Layi Chan, the Research Program Manager at TeacherFOCUS Education Consulting, offers practitioner insights on ethical and participatory research practices in conflict-affected contexts. The authors share principles they have learned facilitating participatory research, including co-creating research questions with community members, adapting consent processes to local cultural norms, and ensuring findings are translated, accessible, and returned to the communities that generated them.

The article addresses locally-informed ethics, including the role of the Community Ethics Advisory Board (CEAB) and the cultural dynamics of "voluntold" participation. The article explores the tension between academic rigor and data sensitivity in collaborative settings. Chan's bee-and-mosquito analogy offers a critique of extractive research practices, urging researchers to prioritize reciprocity and community benefit. The conversation also explores the pitfalls of collaborative research, including unequal labor burdens, the risk of suppressing inconvenient findings, and the challenge of preserving authentic local voices within academic writing conventions.

Citation: Metro, R. and Chan, M, L. (2026). Be a bee, not a mosquito: Research ethics on the Thai-Myanmar border. Tea Circle.

This comparative case study examines two Karenni teacher professional development (TPD) systems operating under conditions of chronic disruption: the Karenni Education Department (KnED) managing education in two temporary shelters in Thailand, and the Seh Theh Foundation (STF) supporting teachers in conflict-affected areas of Myanmar's Karenni State. The research aims to understand how these TPD systems operate, whether they exhibit characteristics of complex adaptive systems, and how they can be more effectively supported. The study applies systems thinking and complexity theory as analytical frameworks, viewing TPD not as fixed interventions but as dynamic, interconnected networks shaped by local contexts and feedback pathways. Fieldwork was conducted between August and December 2024, drawing on evidence from 23 key informant interviews and focus group discussions involving 52 total participants (27 in Thailand and 25 in Myanmar). The study found that both TPD systems demonstrate characteristics of being "designed for disruption," allowing them to continue operating despite severe constraints. KnED's system in Thailand combines centralized pre-term training with decentralized in-term coaching, creating tight feedback loops that enable responsiveness, while STF's more dispersed system in Myanmar operates with greater autonomy at local levels due to geographic and conflict-related barriers. The research recommends strengthening these systems through collaborative professionalism (peer-driven learning communities) and endogenous systems leadership (distributed decision-making across local, middle, and central levels).

Recommended Citation:

Rinehart, G., Layi Chan, M., and Tyrosvoutis, G. (2025). Systems Thinking and Complexity: Comparative Insights into Karenni Teacher Professional Development Systems. TeacherFOCUS Education Consulting.

This qualitative study employs a comparative case study approach (Vavrus & Bartlett, 2022) across two contexts: Mae La Refugee Camp in Thailand and Hpa-An District in Karen State, Myanmar. Data was collected between May and July 2023 and included 60 participants representing six stakeholder groups: 18 teachers working directly in classrooms, 16 teacher trainers, 6 school leaders, 6 local education authorities, 8 organizational senior leaders, and 6 donors.

This study seeks to understand teacher profession development by employing complexity theory as a theoretical lens as it has been shown to identify elements of adaptability in dynamic settings both within teacher education (Cochran-Smith et al, 2014; Ell et al., 2019) and development and humanitarian efforts (Mitchell et al., 2022; Ramalingam & Jones, 2008). This study found that the continuity of Karen TPD was enabled through leveraging key elements of complex adaptive systems, namely: adaptation, feedback loops, emergence, and decentralization. Taken together, these bottom-up features culminated in dynamic programming that has been able to withstand contemporary challenges on both sides of the Thai-Myanmar border.

Recommended Citation: 

Tyrosvoutis, G. (2025). Adaptable by design: Comparative insights into Karen teacher professional development. TeacherFocus Education Consulting.

This ECR Special Issue brings together research on education in Myanmar's conflict-affected settings, highlighting both the challenges faced by education communities and education's transformative potential for reshaping Myanmar's political and educational future. The journal provided a unique academic platform for early career researchers and practitioners from Myanmar to contribute to education in emergencies discourse, with extensive mentorship support over eight months to help transition practitioners from writing program reports to scholarly publications. The final issue features 13 articles organized around themes including teachers, children, higher education and politics, peacebuilding, and education as resistance, representing a collaborative effort to elevate local Myanmar voices in international academic conversations.

Recommended Citation: 

Pherali, Tejendra and Chan, Min Layi and Rinehart, Gray and Zaw, Thiha and Zar, Tin and Shee, Naw Khu and Tyrosvoutis, Greg (Eds). (2025). Education and conflict review: Education in contexts of conflict and mass displacement in Myanmar. [Whole issue]. Education and Conflict Review , 5. 

This book draws critical connections between teacher education or preparation and the field of comparative and international education (CIE) showing ways in which the two fields can inform and advance one another. The chapters consider how teacher education shapes and is shaped by CIE, particularly in an era of socio-cultural upheavals, politico-economic transformations and climate or health crises affecting the human and natural world. The question at the core of the book is: in what ways can comparative and international education support a rethinking of teacher education in the wake of the social movements for equity, justice and civil liberties with ramifications for educators around the world? It includes contributions from leading academics based in Argentina, Canada, China, Columbia, Finland, Grenada, Hong Kong, Myanmar, Spain, South Africa, Turkey and the USA. The chapters cover topics ranging from equity, social justice, and the sustainable development goals to country case-studies including teacher education in Myanmar and a comparative study of teacher preparation in South Korea and the USA.

Recommended Citation:

Tyrosvoutis, G. & Rinehart, G. (2023). Shaping Comparative Education Inquiry amidst Myanmar's Protracted Emergency: Learning from Teacher Education Designed for Disruption. In Salajan, Florin D., Tavis D. Jules, and Charl Wolhuter, eds. Teacher Education Intersecting Comparative and International Education: Revisiting Research, Policy and Practice in Twin Scholarship Fields. Bloomsbury Publishing.

Teacher education in Myanmar and its borderlands, influenced by long-term conflict and disruptions, functions within both official and alternative systems. The COVID-19 pandemic heavily disrupted Myanmar's central government's approach to teacher education, but parallel systems demonstrated adaptability through decentralized and flexible strategies. These systems might provide valuable insights for teacher education in other crisis scenarios. Many researchers have emphasized the need for a deeper understanding of teacher roles and the functionality of education systems during emergencies. In light of the rising global conflict and displacement, a better comprehension of teacher education in crises becomes crucial. The COVID-19 situation has underscored the importance of learning from emergency settings, and the Myanmar context, with its history of persistent disruptions, offers invaluable lessons. This article delves into the practices of parallel teacher education providers in Myanmar, exploring their resilience during the pandemic and situating it within a broader context of ongoing conflict and challenges in the region.

Recommended Citation:

Rinehart, G. and Tyrosvoutis, G. (2023). Designed for disruption: Lessons learned from teacher education in Myanmar and its borderlands. Education and Conflict Review. 4(1), 19-28

This NORRAG Policy Insights publication on refugee teachers is born from a realisation that, while education has received increased attention in global refugee policy and programming, refugee teachers and teachers of refugees have often been overlooked. Additionally, although nationally registered teachers’ work, well-being, and professional development received overdue attention at the 2022 United Nations Transforming Education Summit and with the establishment of a High-level Panel on the Teaching Profession in 2023, the unique realities and needs of refugee teachers remain under researched, under addressed, and under funded.

On the occasion of the second Global Refugee Forum in 2023, NORRAG brought together 48 experts from its network of researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to critically reflect on the challenges facing refugee teachers to promote evidence-informed policies to help ensure that teachers are recognised for the role they play at the heart of the global refugee response. 

Representing more than 15 contexts, the 28 contributions in this publication showcase current evidence and propose policy priorities across three themes: including refugee teacher voices in policy making and practice, addressing the challenges of teachers’ work and wellbeing, and improving refugee teacher professional development. Through these themes, it is NORRAG’s vision that these compelling contributions inform debate and inspire researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to engage with and learn from refugee teachers as teachers and as transformative agents of change. 

Recommended Citation: 

Tyrosvoutis, G., Rinehart, G., Ku Paw, C., Nay Yu Paw, N., Sam San, S. (2023). Refugee teacher isolation: Over three decades of confined teacher management on the Thai-Myanmar border. In: Henderson, C. J. Refugee teachers: The heart of the global refugee response. Policy Insights #02. NORRAG.

Globally, more than 2.3 billion people, representing over 30% of the population, lack access to education in their native language. This significant number stems from governmental emphasis on establishing a 'national identity' and the value placed on a unified Language of Instruction (LoI). Analyzing a nation's LoI policy offers insights into its support for cultural pluralism, decentralization, and the promotion of indigenous culture. Furthermore, with 79.5 million individuals forcibly displaced and 258 million international migrants seeking employment opportunities elsewhere, there's an undeniable impact on educational provisions, especially in light of the diverse 7,097 documented languages spoken today.

The challenge of multilingual education is paramount in achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG4) of inclusive and equitable quality education. Susan Malone, in her 2016 keynote address, highlighted the crucial components of effective Mother Tongue-based Multilingual Education (MTBMLE) programs, emphasizing the importance of being multilingual, multiliterate, and culturally aware. However, the true effectiveness of these programs is often overshadowed by a narrow focus on students' proficiency in national languages or English. Research underscores that transitioning from a mother-tongue to a national language could take minority learners between five and seven years, underscoring the intricacies and nuances of multilingual education.

Recommended Citation:

Tyrosvoutis, G.,  Saw Shar Nay Thaw, Naw Mee Lay, Naw Paw Su Klay, Saw Nay Ta Mu, Naw Paw Htoe Ki Wah, Nan Eh Sar Klain, Th’Blay Moo, Naw Nay Yu Paw. (2021). A measuring stick, not the measuring Stick for MLE: A tool, a Karen case study, and discourse in support of MLE best practices. British Council Academic Papers.

Myanmar, with a population of 53 million, has 117 recognized languages. Over 23 million people speak one of the seven primary indigenous languages: Shan, Mon, Rakhine (Rohingya), Chin, Kachin, Karenni (Kayah), and Karen (Kayin). From January 2011 to January 2021, under a democratically elected government, government schools exclusively used the national language for instruction. This language is often unfamiliar to many ethnolinguistic minorities until they attend school. A study evaluated the proficiency of 16 teachers in multilingual education (MLE) in southeastern Myanmar and a temporary shelter on the Thai-Myanmar border. Remarkably, 94% of these ethnic and refugee teachers met the MLE competency standards, facilitating students' transition from their mother tongue to Burmese or English. This study was a collaborative effort with organizations including KECD, KNGY, KTWG, MNEC, RISE, KRC–EE, and World Education Thailand and Myanmar.

Recommended Citation:

Tyrosvoutis, G., Chan, L., Win, N., Htoo, S. E. K., Oo, K. J. B. W. L., Htun, N. N. T., ... & Mon, N. R. O. (2022). Assessing multilingual teacher competencies: A case study of indigenous teachers on the Thai–Myanmar border. Journal of Multilingual Theories and Practices, 3(2), 274-297.