Books on the topic 'Informal learning processes'

If the adage ‘You live and learn’ reflects any truth, then the vast majority of living and learning must take place informally. This can range from unintentional and nonconscious processes such as enculturation, to intentional and conscious self-teaching. While the study of informal learning in music has tended to focus on popular and other vernacular musicians, this chapter adopts a wider approach, considering the perspectives of a range of musicians across several musical contexts, styles and genres. The authors review key sources of knowledge, skills and abilities relevant to these musicians and to their performance, and consider examples of how informal learning practices are valued in underpinning their work. They also examine the characteristics and prevalence of informal learning, how it interfaces with other practices, and how research in the field of informal music learning may serve to promote and champion a richer perspective on the learning of music for the benefit of all learners, intentional or not.

This article discusses how learning and teaching in music are shaped by processes outside the individual, not least because of the influences of group membership (allied to age and gender), performance expectations and practices, and professional and institutional cultures. The process of individual induction into the characteristics of a particular musical culture by teachers and institutions influences the formation of identities in music, for better or for worse, at least in terms of dominant models within the culture. Indeed, the development of music teachers themselves can be seen within an activity system, i.e. the teacher's understanding of their role is developed both by informal personal reflection of the experience of performance and their own learning, and, more systematically, through their own induction process by attendance at a specialist, pedagogically focused institution.

Chapter 8 offers a summary of the findings discussed in earlier chapters and directions for future research. The chapter first reiterates the argument that institutional memory develops in international organizations (IOs) from elites’ reliance on informal processes, such as networks, because formal learning infrastructure can disincentivize reporting. The chapter then identifies the book’s theoretical and empirical contributions to scholarship on IOs, organizational learning and organizational change. Subsequent sections proceed to discuss how the book’s argument can be applied to explain institutional memory in other IOs beyond NATO. The chapter then presents a series of policy recommendations to strengthen institutional memory. Examples include realigning incentives in the institutional design of organizations’ formal learning infrastructure and means of supporting existing informal learning processes. The chapter then provides concluding remarks about the importance of transnational interpersonal networks for protecting IOs’ institutional memory of the past to prevent future failures.

Chapter 7 explains why NATO’s institutional memory continues to develop in the way that it does – despite formal learning processes being underutilized. Findings in this chapter draw on the author’s survey-based interviews with 120 NATO elites. The chapter begins by arguing that NATO’s organizational culture locks-in elites’ preference for relying on informal processes and avoiding formal processes. Key characteristics of NATO’s culture posed challenges for identifying and reporting strategic errors. The organization’s norm of consensus made formal agreements on past strategic errors difficult. Moreover, NATO’s focus on reaction over retrospection and a broader culture of blame aversion provided elites with little incentive to break the tradition of reliance on informal processes for memory development. Elites described feeling continuous pressure to react to the crisis at hand and treat past crises as unique – leaving little reason to invest in learning from past failures.

Musicians are continually ‘in the making’, tapping into their own creative resources while deriving inspiration from teachers, friends, family members and listeners. Amateur and professional performers alike tend not to follow fixed routes in developing a creative voice; instead, their artistic journeys are personal, often without foreseeable goals. The imperative to assess and reassess one’s musical knowledge, understanding and aspirations is nevertheless a central feature of life as a performer. Musicians in the Making explores the creative development of musicians in both formal and informal learning contexts. It promotes a novel view of creativity, emphasizing its location within creative processes rather than understanding it as an innate quality. It argues that such processes may be learned and refined, and furthermore that collaboration and interaction within group contexts carry significant potential to inform and catalyze creative experiences and outcomes. The book also traces and models the ways in which creative processes evolve over time. Performers, music teachers and researchers will find the rich body of material assembled here engaging and enlightening. The book’s three parts focus in turn on ‘Creative learning in context’, ‘Creative processes’ and ‘Creative dialogue and reflection’. In addition to sixteen extended chapters written by leading experts in the field, the volume includes ten ‘Insights’ by internationally prominent performers, performance teachers and others.

An ongoing controversy persists regarding the extent of individual variability in musical potential and the extent to which observable differences in acquiring musical skills result from social contexts that facilitate learning, genetic factors, or interactions between the two. This article outlines key elements of these debates and considers how ‘musical potential’ has been assessed. It argues that what children are born withenablesrather thanconstrainswhat they will eventually be able to achieve. While a range of generalized abilities may come into play when learning music, a host of environmental and personal catalysts work in combination with teaching and learning processes to develop particular types of talent. These talents form the basis of the many professional, amateur, and informal forms of meaningful engagement that individuals can have with music.

Chapter 2 describes what institutional memory is and provides an overview of the book’s theoretical argument. The chapter begins by conceptualizing institutional memory. The subsequent section introduces the book’s theoretical argument, which builds on assumptions from rationalist institutionalist theories. Depending on an IO’s design, formal learning infrastructure can inadvertently deter IO elites from sharing their knowledge about strategic errors. Elites respond by choosing instead to socially construct memory through three informal processes: transnational interpersonal networks, private documentation and socializing during crisis management exercises. The chapter then identifies key premises of the book’s argument. These four premises concern the impact of the design of formal learning processes, elites’ built-in incentives to share, the role of an active secretariat and sources that motivate elites to act. The chapter concludes by identifying predictions, based on the book’s argument and by describing conditions under which the argument should hold.

In crisis management operations, strategic errors can cost lives. Some international organizations (IOs) learn from these failures, whereas, others tend to repeat them. Given high rates of turnover and shorter job contracts, how do IOs such as NATO retain any knowledge about past errors? Institutional memory enhances prospects for reforms that can prevent future failures. The book provides an explanation for how and why IOs develop institutional memory in international crisis management. Evidence indicates that the design of an IO’s learning infrastructure (e.g. lessons learned offices and databases) can inadvertently disincentivize IO elites from using it to share knowledge about strategic errors. Under such conditions, IO elites - high-level civilian and military officials - view reporting to be risky. In response, they prefer to contribute to institutional memory through the creation and use of informal processes such as transnational interpersonal networks, private documentation and conversations during crisis management exercises. The result is an institutional memory that remains vulnerable to turnover since critical knowledge is highly dependent on a handful of individuals. The book draws on the author’s interviews and a survey experiment with 120 NATO elites, including assistant secretary generals, military representatives and ambassadors. Cases of NATO crisis management in Afghanistan, Libya and Ukraine serve to further illustrate the development of institutional memory. Findings challenge existing organizational learning scholarship by indicating that formal learning processes alone are insufficient to ensure learning occurs. The book also offers policymakers a set of recommendations for strengthening the learning capacity of IOs.

This book examines the politics of the learning crisis in the global South, where learning outcomes have stagnated or worsened, despite progress towards Universal Primary Education since the 1990s. Comparative analysis of education reform in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Ghana, Rwanda, South Africa, and Uganda highlights systemic failure on the frontline of education service delivery, driven by deeper crises of policymaking and implementation: few governments try to raise educational standards with any conviction, and education bureaucracies are unable to deliver even those learning reforms that get through the policy process. Introductory chapters develop a theoretical framework within which to examine the critical features of the politics of education. Case study chapters demonstrate that political settlements, or the balance of power between contending social groups, shape the extent to which elites commit to adopting and implementing reforms aimed at improving learning outcomes, and the nature this influence takes. Informal politics and power relations can generate incentives that undermine rather than support elite commitment to development, politicizing the provision of education. Tracing reform processes from their policy origins down to the frontline, it seems that successful schools emerged as localized solutions to specific solutions, often against the grain of dysfunctional sectoral arrangements and the national-level political settlement, but with local political backing. The book concludes with discussion of the need for more politically attuned approaches that focus on building coalitions for change and supporting ‘best-fit’ types of problem-solving fixes, rather than calling for systemic change.

Grounded in a research-based, conceptual model called Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK), the essential premise of Music Learning Today: Digital Pedagogy for Creating, Performing, and Responding to Music is that music educators and their students can benefit through use of technology as a tool to support learning in the three musical processes—creating, performing, and responding to music. Insights on how technology can be used to advantage in both traditional and emerging learning environments are provided, and research-based pedagogical approaches that align technologies with specific curricular outcomes are described. Importantly, the book advocates that the decision on whether or not to utilize technology for learning, and the specific technology that might be best suited for a particular learning context, should begin with a consideration of curricular outcomes (music subject matter). This is in sharp contrast to most other books on music technology that are technocentric, organized around specific software applications and hardware. The book also recognizes that knowing how to effectively use the technological tools to maximize learning (pedagogy) is a crucial aspect of the teaching-learning process. Drawing on the research and promising practices literature in music education and related fields, pedagogical approaches that are aligned with curricular outcomes and specific technologies are suggested. It is not a “how to” book per se, but rather a text informed by the latest research, theories of learning, and documented best practices, with the goal of helping teachers develop the ability to understand the dynamics of effectively using technology for music learning.

These Guidelines are one of the results of the four-year research project “Open Online Learning for Digital and Networked Society” (2017-2021). The project objective was to enable university teachers to design open and online learning through open and online learning curriculum and environment applying learning analytics as a metacognitive tool and creating open and online learning assessment and recognition practices, responding to the needs of digital and networked society. The research of the project resulted in 10 scientific publications and 2 studies prepared by Vytautas Magnus university Institute of Innovative Studies research team in collaboration with their international research partners from Germany, Spain and Portugal. The final stage of the research attempted creating open and online learning assessment and recognition practices, responding to the learner needs in contemporary digital and networked society. The need for open learning recognition has been increasing during the recent decade while the developments of open learning related to the Covid 19 pandemics have dramatically increased the need for systematic and high-quality assessment and recognition of learning acquired online. The given time also relates to the increased need to offer micro-credentials to learners, as well as a rising need for universities to prepare for micro-credentialization and issue new digital credentials to learners who are regular students, as well as adult learners joining for single courses. The increased need of all labour - market participants for frequent and fast renewal of competences requires a well working and easy to use system of open learning assessment and recognition. For learners, it is critical that the micro-credentials are well linked to national and European qualification frameworks, as well as European digital credential infrastructures (e.g., Europass and similar). For employers, it is important to receive requested quality information that is encrypted in the metadata of the credential. While for universities, there is the need to properly prepare institutional digital infrastructure, organizational procedures, descriptions of open learning opportunities and virtual learning environments to share, import and export the meta-data easily and seamlessly through European Digital Hub service infrastructures, as well as ensure that academic and administrative staff has digital competencies to design, issue and recognise open learning through digital and micro-credentials. The first chapter of the Guidelines provides a background view of the European Qualification Framework and National Qualification frameworks for the further system of gaining, stacking and modelling further qualifications through open online learning. The second chapter suggests the review of current European policy papers and consultations on the establishment of micro-credentials in European higher education. The findings of the report of micro-credentials higher education consultation group “European Approach to Micro-credentials” is shortly introduced, as well as important policy discussions taking place. Responding to the Rome Bologna Comunique 2020, where the ministers responsible for higher education agreed to support lifelong learning through issuing micro-credentials, a joint endeavour of DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion and DG Research and Innovation resulted in one of the most important political documents highlighting the potential of micro-credentials towards economic, social and education innovations. The consultation group of experts from the Member States defined the approach to micro-credentials to facilitate their validation, recognition and portability, as well as to foster a larger uptake to support individual learning in any subject area and at any stage of life or career. The Consultation Group also suggested further urgent topics to be discussed, including the storage, data exchange, portability, and data standards of micro-credentials and proposed EU Standard of constitutive elements of micro-credentials. The third chapter is devoted to the institutional readiness to issue and to recognize digital and micro-credentials. Universities need strategic decisions and procedures ready to be enacted for assessment of open learning and issuing micro-credentials. The administrative and academic staff needs to be aware and confident to follow these procedures while keeping the quality assurance procedures in place, as well. The process needs to include increasing teacher awareness in the processes of open learning assessment and the role of micro-credentials for the competitiveness of lifelong learners in general. When the strategic documents and procedures to assess open learning are in place and the staff is ready and well aware of the processes, the description of the courses and the virtual learning environment needs to be prepared to provide the necessary metadata for the assessment of open learning and issuing of micro-credentials. Different innovation-driven projects offer solutions: OEPass developed a pilot Learning Passport, based on European Diploma Supplement, MicroHE developed a portal Credentify for displaying, verifying and sharing micro-credential data. Credentify platform is using Blockchain technology and is developed to comply with European Qualifications Framework. Institutions, willing to join Credentify platform, should make strategic discussions to apply micro-credential metadata standards. The ECCOE project building on outcomes of OEPass and MicroHE offers an all-encompassing set of quality descriptors for credentials and the descriptions of learning opportunities in higher education. The third chapter also describes the requirements for university structures to interact with the Europass digital credentials infrastructure. In 2020, European Commission launched a new Europass platform with Digital Credential Infrastructure in place. Higher education institutions issuing micro-credentials linked to Europass digital credentials infrastructure may offer added value for the learners and can increase reliability and fraud-resistant information for the employers. However, before using Europass Digital Credentials, universities should fulfil the necessary preconditions that include obtaining a qualified electronic seal, installing additional software and preparing the necessary data templates. Moreover, the virtual learning environment needs to be prepared to export learning outcomes to a digital credential, maintaining and securing learner authentication. Open learning opportunity descriptions also need to be adjusted to transfer and match information for the credential meta-data. The Fourth chapter illustrates how digital badges as a type of micro-credentials in open online learning assessment may be used in higher education to create added value for the learners and employers. An adequately provided metadata allows using digital badges as a valuable tool for recognition in all learning settings, including formal, non-formal and informal.

Health Impact Assessment (HIA) is a policy-support instrument and approach that seeks to assess the health impacts of projects, programmes and policies on population health. The ultimate goal of HIA is to systematically predict health impacts and subsequently inform the intersectoral decision- and policy-making processes of these impacts. This resource examines how the process of integrating HIA with policy can take place. Introductory chapters outline the HIA process and provide a conceptual foundation for the book. Then, drawing from experiences of HIA practice and research globally, country-specific experiences are presented to examine HIA's relationship with the policy process. Throughout, checklists and learning points are provided to assist in the understanding of the concepts and examples discussed.

Learning is an important concept in the study of public policy and covers a range of actions where evidence is used to shape and improve decisions, including using science to inform responses to problems; adjusting policy based on successes and failures; and forming new beliefs about salient issues, their causes, and appropriate solutions. Network concepts are central to theoretical treatments of learning. Three assumptions are often made about networks and their role in learning processes: (1) most policy networks exhibit segregation, in the sense that network ties tend to exist among actors with shared traits, such as belief systems or institutional affiliations; (2) segregated networks inhibit policy learning; and (3) network segregation is a result of homophily. This chapter reviews the rich literature underlying each of these propositions and shows that the relationships between networks and learning are more complex than often assumed.

This chapter is a retrospective view of some of the key topics from the text. The concept of deliberate practice introduced earlier is extended to deliberate learning. Steps to assure deliberate learning, including setting high goals and making a plan to reach them, focusing on the fundamentals, sharing one’s work for input from colleagues, managing time and staying on task, and developing a firm work ethic, are outlined. Transforming the myth of talent into the habit of hard work is reviewed and encouraged. The reader-student is asked to carefully consider how he or she will build and project the desired identity and roles as a musician and a pedagogue in a suitable community of practice. Probing questions are asked about the reader-student’s growth process and advances in understanding many key concepts and processes that inform the work of becoming a musician-pedagogue.

Music education takes place in many contexts, both formal and informal. Be it in a school or music studio, while making music with friends or family, or even while travelling in a car, walking through a shopping mall or watching television, our myriad sonic experiences accumulate from the earliest months of life to foster our facility for making sense of the sound worlds in which we live. The Oxford Handbook of Music Education, which comprises of two volumes, offers an overview of the many facets of musical experience, behavior, and development in relation to this diverse variety of contexts. In this first volume, articles discuss a range of key issues and concepts associated with music learning and teaching. The volume then focuses on these processes as they take place during childhood, from infancy through adolescence and primarily in the school-age years. Exploring how children across the globe learn and make music, and the skills and attributes gained when they do so, these articles examine the means through which music educators can best meet young people's musical needs. The second volume of the set brings the exploration beyond the classroom and into later life. Whether they are used individually or in tandem, the two volumes of this text update and redefine the discipline, and show how individuals across the world learn, enjoy, and share the power and uniqueness of music.

A Clinician’s Guide to Learning Disabilities provides succinct descriptions of the various types of learning disabilities that affect educational achievement, illustrated with numerous case studies. Clear descriptions of educational assessment best practices and score reporting simplify the interpretation of psychoeducational reports. An entire chapter on historical context and legal framework describes obligatory supports for students with learning disabilities in all settings. Chapters on preschool assessment and the transition to post–high-school college and career expand the scope of the book beyond the school years. Clinicians who work in nonschool settings view learning disorders through the lens of DSM-5. They may be surprised at IDEA requirements and how the law works to identify and serve students with learning disabilities. Clinicians may not be aware that DSM-5 is not familiar in the school setting and that their diagnoses and recommendations may not have their intended effect. Through detailed examination of relevant special education requirements and procedures, this text addresses and clarifies the confusion that clinicians and families often experience about the lack of diagnostic congruence and differing terminology between DSM-5 and IDEA. No other book describes learning disorders and the psychoeducational evaluation process for mental health clinicians who work with these children and adolescents. A chapter on referral and collaboration will inform clinicians who seek deeper educational knowledge about their clients to better guide students and their families.

The chapter discusses the centrality of music making to the lives of young people, framing teenagers’ out-of-school music making and attendant identity realization as leisure activities. It presents arguments for including in school music classrooms the music that students enjoy outside of school. It describes Musical Futures, an approach to informal music learning developed from understanding how popular musicians learn and adopting these practices for the music classroom. Citing examples of nationwide research on Musical Futures from secondary schools in England, the chapter balances benefits and challenges of adopting the approach, and considers implications of a focus in school on the process rather than the product of music making. The authors argue that framing and aspiring to music making as leisure through this particular pedagogical approach could stand to benefit students, teachers, schools, and society.

Implementation science can be incorporated within genomics precision medicine research across the cancer care continuum. Cancer is at the forefront of precision medicine. To move the field forward, the use of implementation science frameworks, theories, models, strategies, and outcome measures is essential so that we can consistently explore how precision medicine discoveries are optimally integrated into care delivery systems. Learning health care systems are model systems for adoption, uptake, and sustainability of precision medicine throughout the cancer care continuum, with both systematic processes in place for research to inform practice, and capacity for a multilevel research agenda, including the utilization of implementation strategies across and among multiple levels. This chapter explores precision medicine across the cancer care continuum and describes implementation science challenges and opportunities.

Using a developmental perspective, the authors offer a new, integrated model for supporting people with intellectual disability (ID). This concept builds upon recent advances in attachment-informed approaches, by drawing upon a broader understanding of the social, emotional, and cognitive competencies of people with ID, which is grounded in developmental neuroscience and psychology. The book explores in detail how challenging behaviour and mental health difficulties in people with ID arise when their basic emotional needs are not being met by those in the environment. Using individually tailored interventions, which complement existing models of care, practitioners can help to facilitate maturational processes and reduce behavior that is challenging to others. As a result, the ‘fit’ of a person within his or her individual environment can be improved. Case examples throughout the book illuminate how this approach works by targeting interventions towards the person’s stage of emotional development. This book will be of interest to a wide range of professionals working with people with ID, including: clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, occupational therapists, learning disability nurses, speech and language therapists, and teachers in special education settings, as well as parents and caregivers.

A neural networks approach to the development of joint attention can inform the study of the nature of human social cognition, learning, and symbolic thought process. Joint attention development involves increments in the capacity to engage in simultaneous or parallel processing of information about one’s own attention and the attention of other people. Infant practice with joint attention is both a consequence and an organizer of a distributed and integrated brain network involving frontal and parietal cortical systems. In this chapter I discuss two hypotheses that stem from this model. One is that activation of this distributed network during coordinated attention enhances the depth of information processing and encoding beginning in the first year of life. I also propose that with development joint attention becomes internalized as the capacity to socially coordinate mental attention to internal representations. As this occurs the executive joint attention network makes vital contributions to the development of human social cognition and symbolic thinking.

This book presents computational interaction as an approach to explaining and enhancing the interaction between humans and information technology. Computational interaction applies abstraction, automation, and analysis to inform our understanding of the structure of interaction and also to inform the design of the software that drives new and exciting human-computer interfaces. The methods of computational interaction allow, for example, designers to identify user interfaces that are optimal against some objective criteria. They also allow software engineers to build interactive systems that adapt their behaviour to better suit individual capacities and preferences. Embedded in an iterative design process, computational interaction has the potential to complement human strengths and provide methods for generating inspiring and elegant designs. Computational interaction does not exclude the messy and complicated behaviour of humans, rather it embraces it by, for example, using models that are sensitive to uncertainty and that capture subtle variations between individual users. It also promotes the idea that there are many aspects of interaction that can be augmented by algorithms. This book introduces computational interaction design to the reader by exploring a wide range of computational interaction techniques, strategies and methods. It explains how techniques such as optimisation, economic modelling, machine learning, control theory, formal methods, cognitive models and statistical language processing can be used to model interaction and design more expressive, efficient and versatile interaction.

Group psychotherapy has become a standard practice in community settings, prisons, and to a lesser degree in jails. While simple process groups may still play a limited role in some settings, the field of group therapy has evolved substantially, with some significant work adapting evidence-based therapies for use in correctional settings, or designing them de novo. Logistics and support of group therapy are critical core elements for successful implementation in jails or prisons. These elements include appropriate training and supervision of group facilitators, a structured approach to patient selection and pre-group interviewing, and appropriate support for cultural and language diversity. The specifics of group member confidentiality and development of groups for patients with severe mental illness, intellectual, or learning disabilities are particularly important in this context. Some of the unique challenges of correctional settings include the need for design of treatment modalities for those in maximum security and restricted housing environments. Gender-specific and trauma-informed care are important treatment options still in evolution for the incarcerated population. Implementation of evidence-based, manual-guided treatment in corrections is challenging but achievable with adequate planning and support. Integration of the recovery model, reentry planning groups, and other special purpose groups are becoming more common. This chapter presents the range of evidence based practices and best practices in use, and discusses issues of appropriate patient selection, therapist training required, sustainability, and outcomes.

This GSoD In Focus Special Brief provides an overview of the state of democracy in Asia and the Pacific at the end of 2019, prior to the outbreak of the pandemic, and assesses some of the preliminary impacts that the pandemic has had on democracy in the region in 2020. Key fact and findings include: • Prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, countries across Asia and the Pacific faced a range of democratic challenges. Chief among these were continuing political fragility, violent conflict, recurrent military interference in the political sphere, enduring hybridity, deepening autocratization, creeping ethnonationalism, advancing populist leadership, democratic backsliding, shrinking civic space, the spread of disinformation, and weakened checks and balances. The crisis conditions engendered by the pandemic risk further entrenching and/or intensifying the negative democratic trends observable in the region prior to the COVID-19 outbreak. • Across the region, governments have been using the conditions created by the pandemic to expand executive power and restrict individual rights. Aspects of democratic practice that have been significantly impacted by anti-pandemic measures include the exercise of fundamental rights (notably freedom of assembly and free speech). Some countries have also seen deepened religious polarization and discrimination. Women, vulnerable groups, and ethnic and religious minorities have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic and discriminated against in the enforcement of lockdowns. There have been disruptions of electoral processes, increased state surveillance in some countries, and increased influence of the military. This is particularly concerning in new, fragile or backsliding democracies, which risk further eroding their already fragile democratic bases. • As in other regions, however, the pandemic has also led to a range of innovations and changes in the way democratic actors, such as parliaments, political parties, electoral commissions, civil society organizations and courts, conduct their work. In a number of countries, for example, government ministries, electoral commissions, legislators, health officials and civil society have developed innovative new online tools for keeping the public informed about national efforts to combat the pandemic. And some legislatures are figuring out new ways to hold government to account in the absence of real-time parliamentary meetings. • The consideration of political regime type in debates around ways of containing the pandemic also assumes particular relevance in Asia and the Pacific, a region that houses high-performing democracies, such as New Zealand and the Republic of Korea (South Korea), a mid-range performer (Taiwan), and also non-democratic regimes, such as China, Singapore and Viet Nam—all of which have, as of December 2020, among the lowest per capita deaths from COVID-19 in the world. While these countries have all so far managed to contain the virus with fewer fatalities than in the rest of the world, the authoritarian regimes have done so at a high human rights cost, whereas the democracies have done so while adhering to democratic principles, proving that the pandemic can effectively be fought through democratic means and does not necessarily require a trade off between public health and democracy. • The massive disruption induced by the pandemic can be an unparalleled opportunity for democratic learning, change and renovation in the region. Strengthening democratic institutions and processes across the region needs to go hand in hand with curbing the pandemic. Rebuilding societies and economic structures in its aftermath will likewise require strong, sustainable and healthy democracies, capable of tackling the gargantuan challenges ahead. The review of the state of democracy during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 uses qualitative analysis and data of events and trends in the region collected through International IDEA’s Global Monitor of COVID-19’s Impact on Democracy and Human Rights, an initiative co-funded by the European Union.

The study is funded by Doha International Family Institute (DIFI), a member of Qatar Foundation, and is a collaboration between the Muslim Resource Centre for Social Support and Integration of London, Ontario; University of Guelph, Ontario; and University of Calgary, Alberta, all located in Canada; and the Doha International Family Institute, Qatar. The study received research ethics approval from the University of Guelph and the University of Calgary. This study aims to assess the impact of pre- and post-migration on marital relationships and family dynamics for Arab refugee families resettled in Canada. The study also examines the role of professional service providers in supporting these Arab refugee families. The unique experiences of Arab families displaced from their countries due to war and political conflict, and the various hardships experienced during their stay in transit countries, impact their family relations and interactions within the nuclear family context and their interconnectedness with their extended families. Furthermore, these families encounter various challenges within their resettlement process that interrupt their integration. Understanding the impact of traumatic experiences within the pre-migration journey as well as the impact of post-migration stressors on recently settled Arab refugee families in Canada provides insight into the shift in spousal and family relationships. Refugee research studies that focus on the impact of pre-migration trauma and displacement, the migration journey, and post-migration settlement on family relationships are scarce. Since the majority of global refugees in recent years come from Arab regions, mainly Syria, as a result of armed conflicts, this study is focused on the unique experiences of Arab refugee families fleeing conflict zones. The Canadian role in recently resettling a large influx of Arab refugees and assisting them to successfully integrate has not been without challenges. Traumatic pre-migration experiences as a result of being subjected to and/or witnessing violence, separation from and loss of family members, and loss of property and social status coupled with experiences of hardships in transit countries have a profound impact on families and their integration. Refugees are subjected to individual and collective traumatic experiences associated with cultural or ethnic disconnection, mental health struggles, and discrimination and racism. These experiences have been shown to impact family interactions. Arab refugee families have different definitions of “family” and “home” from Eurocentric conceptualizations which are grounded in individualistic worldviews. The discrepancy between collectivism and individualism is mainly recognized by collectivist newcomers as challenges in the areas of gender norms, expectations regarding parenting and the physical discipline of children, and diverse aspects of the family’s daily life. For this study, we interviewed 30 adults, all Arab refugees (14 Syrian and 16 Iraqi – 17 males, 13 females) residing in London, Ontario, Canada for a period of time ranging from six months to seven years. The study participants were married couples with and without children. During the semi-structured interviews, the participants were asked to reflect on their family life during pre-migration – in the country of origin before and during the war and in the transit country – and post-migration in Canada. The inter - views were conducted in Arabic, audio-recorded, and transcribed. We also conducted one focus group with seven service providers from diverse sectors in London, Ontario who work with Arab refugee families. The study used the underlying principles of constructivist grounded theory methodology to guide interviewing and a thematic analysis was performed. MAXQDA software was used to facilitate coding and the identification of key themes within the transcribed interviews. We also conducted a thematic analysis of the focus group transcription. The thematic analysis of the individual interviews identified four key themes: • Gender role changes influence spousal relationships; • Traumatic experiences bring suffering and resilience to family well-being; • Levels of marital conflict are higher following post-migration settlement; • Post-migration experiences challenge family values. The outcome of the thematic analysis of the service provider focus group identified three key themes: • The complex needs of newly arrived Arab refugee families; • Gaps in the services available to Arab refugee families; • Key aspects of training for cultural competencies. The key themes from the individual interviews demonstrate: (i) the dramatic sociocul - tural changes associated with migration that particularly emphasize different gender norms; (ii) the impact of trauma and the refugee experience itself on family relation - ships and personal well-being; (iii) the unique and complex aspects of the family journey; and (iv) how valued aspects of cultural and religious values and traditions are linked in complex ways for these Arab refugee families. These outcomes are consist - ent with previous studies. The study finds that women were strongly involved in supporting their spouses in every aspect of family life and tried to maintain their spouses’ tolerance towards stressors. The struggles of husbands to fulfill their roles as the providers and protec - tors throughout the migratory journey were evident. Some parents experienced role shifts that they understood to be due to the unstable conditions in which they were living but these changes were considered to be temporary. Despite the diversity of refugee family experiences, they shared some commonalities in how they experi - enced changes that were frightening for families, as well as some that enhanced safety and stability. These latter changes related to safety were welcomed by these fami - lies. Some of these families reported that they sought professional help, while others dealt with changes by becoming more distant in their marital relationship. The risk of violence increased as the result of trauma, integration stressors, and escalation in marital issues. These outcomes illustrate the importance of taking into consideration the complexity of the integration process in light of post-trauma and post-migration changes and the timespan each family needs to adjust and integrate. Moreover, these families expressed hope for a better future for their children and stated that they were willing to accept change for the sake of their children as well. At the same time, these parents voiced the significance of preserving their cultural and religious values and beliefs. The service providers identified gaps in service provision to refugee families in some key areas. These included the unpreparedness of professionals and insufficiency of the resources available for newcomer families from all levels of government. This was particularly relevant in the context of meeting the needs of the large influx of Syrian refugees who were resettled in Canada within the period of November 2015 to January 2017. Furthermore, language skills and addressing trauma needs were found to require more than one year to address. The service providers identified that a longer time span of government assistance for these families was necessary. In terms of training, the service providers pinpointed the value of learning more about culturally appropriate interventions and receiving professional development to enhance their work with refugee families. In light of these findings, we recommend an increased use of culturally integrative interventions and programs to provide both formal and informal support for families within their communities. Furthermore, future research that examines the impact of culturally-based training, cultural brokers, and various culturally integrative practices will contribute to understanding best practices. These findings with regard to refugee family relationships and experiences are exploratory in their nature and support future research that extends understanding in the area of spousal relationships, inter - generational stressors during adolescence, and parenting/gender role changes.