Visiting academic Dilara Özel Sen presents her work
Visiting academic Dilara Özel Sen presents her work
Clippings, Social Sciences Hub, UNESCO RILA
Date: Tuesday 03 December 2024
Time: 15:30 - 16:30
Venue: St Andrew's Building room 517a
Category: Public lectures, Academic events
Speaker: Dilara Özel Sen
Website: www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/unesco/events/
All welcome to join this presentation by visiting Academic Dilara Özel Sen, who will be talking about her Ph.D. research. She conducted a needs analysis at a refugee-receiving school in Turkey to understand the unique challenges and educational needs of refugee students. Based on these insights, she adapted UNESCO’s Learning to Live Together peace education program specifically for fourth-grade students. This adaptation involved creating a culturally and contextually relevant 13-session program aimed at fostering empathy, mutual respect, and conflict resolution skills among refugee and local students. She then implemented this program in a pilot study, assessing its impact and potential as a supportive educational tool for promoting peaceful coexistence in diverse classroom environments. During her stay in Glasgow (November 2024 - July 2025) she will be working on an extension of this programme, aimed at younger pupils.
Dilara Özel Sen, Ph.D. is a psychological counsellor and researcher specialising in refugee adaptation and peace education. She earned her degree in Guidance and Psychological Counselling from Boğaziçi University, followed by a master’s and Ph.D. in Educational Sciences at Middle East Technical University (METU), where she also served as a research assistant for almost nine years. As a TÜBİTAK postdoctoral fellow, she is adapting a peace education program for primary students in refugee-receiving schools. Dilara has been a visiting researcher at Humboldt University and Koç University’s Migration Research Center. She also advocates for researcher mental health, founding a support group in Turkey. She is currently a visiting academic with the UNESCO Chair in Refugee Integration through Education, Languages and the Arts at the University of Glasgow.