Professional Development and Learning in Lebanon
Strengthening Teacher Leadership and Communities of Practice in Lebanon’s Education in Emergencies Context
Throughout 2025, the Center for Professional Learning (CPL) worked in close collaboration with Education in Emergencies (EiE) stakeholders — specifically educators and partners in Lebanon — to co-create multilingual, open educational resources (OERs) tailored to the realities of teaching and learning in crisis-affected settings. Lebanon’s protracted economic crisis, compounded by regional instability and the ongoing pressures of hosting a large refugee population, has placed extraordinary strain on the education system. Teachers are often working with limited resources, disrupted schooling, and minimal opportunities for sustained professional learning or peer support.
In response, this project focused on developing introductory courses and micro-credentials centered on Communities of Practice (CoPs) and teacher leadership — recognized enablers of resilience, collaboration, and instructional quality in EiE contexts. Working alongside Lebanese educators and EiE practitioners, the project team co-researched, co-curated, and co-built the courses to ensure they were contextually relevant, linguistically accessible, and grounded in the lived experiences of teachers navigating crisis conditions. In parallel, CPL engaged interested partners across Lebanon and the broader EiE ecosystem to shape and test the materials during a pilot phase, strengthening their applicability across diverse emergency settings.
Following the pilot, participant surveys and facilitated focus groups provided critical feedback on course content, structure, and usability. These insights informed targeted revisions, strengthening both pedagogical clarity and practical relevance. The finalized courses were then integrated into CE International’s professional learning catalog, expanding access to flexible, low-cost learning opportunities that support teacher leadership and peer-driven professional growth. This project demonstrates how co-created, open learning models can strengthen educator capacity in fragile contexts—supporting not only individual teachers, but the collective systems of learning and collaboration that are essential for sustaining education during crisis and recovery.
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Resource Guides
Available in Arabic, English, and French, this guidance document details the processes and outcomes of the Quality Holistic Professional Learning in Lebanon (QHPLL) Project, which involved over 1,100 teachers across Lebanon and established more than 30 Communities of Practice (CoPs) in all eight of the country’s governorates. It underscores the success of interactive sessions on open educational resources (OERs) and holistic pedagogies, as well as the development of a teacher leadership framework and evaluation rubric. Additionally, it highlights the strong relationships formed among educators within communities of practice providing reflective learning spaces that allow teachers to reflect, share practical resources and strategies, and cultivate lifelong learning and leadership identities. Despite regional challenges, the initiatives, experiences, resources, and strategies outlined in the document establish a foundation for the creation of resilient teacher-led networks with significant potential for sustained growth and long-term impact on Lebanon’s education system, as well as on private, semi-private, INGO-led, and community-based schools.
