Prof. Dr. Magnus Treiber presented from his academic professionalisation and from the ethnographic perspective on study programs of Social Work ethnographic Research. According to his intervention, focusing on poverty and class differences, migration and cultural diversity ethnographic research allowed in-depths-insights beyond a distanced view from above. Post-colonial and feminist critique rightfully attacked classical anthropology's positivist empiricism and entanglement with colonial power and administration, leading to heated debate, considerable theoretical innovation, highlighted ethical reflection and new forms of thinking and writing. Ethnographic methodology has developed much since then; today, it does not only promise substantial insights into the social and cultural life of people, but offers much to the academic education of students, young professionals and scholars in various disciplines - not least to social work.

Prof. Dr. Christine Huth-Hildebrandt presented the findings of a LOSWAC study in which the curricula of the lebanese and the jordanian Social Work study programmes were compared with each other. With this, overlaps and differences could be identified which showed on the one hand main emphasis of the localisation of Social Work study programmes amongst arab universities, and on the other hand specific topics and contents which seems to be mainly relevant in this one certain university, where the respective topic is taught. She highlighted the importance of considering the content of the different qualification levels by interlocking theory and practice together. She also emphasized taking into consideration the teaching methods and teaching style and the competencies of acquisitions. She concluded her presentation with consideration of learning strategies and styles. 

Prof. Dr. Rania Mansour presented her study around the Social Work as a major in the Arab countries.Her paper aims to describe the Arab academia  perspective towards social work as a major, as well as specify the identity of the social work at bachelor, masters and PHD  level within the arab context:  is it a BA adopted by arts or BS adopted by sciences. In addition, This paper highlights the titles of the faculties, departments, divisions and programs that enclose social work speciality among Arab countries.

Prof. Dr. Hmoud Al-Olimat discusses in his paper the legal status of social work as a profession in the Arab World, and on what level of recognition it achieved.  A thorough search was conducted utilizing legal databases, and relevant government sites, and contacting experts in the field. Results of our search show that few of the Arab Countries have issued laws, by-laws or acts to the effect of recognizing and organizing social work as a profession. Some countries consider social work among the health profession, namely Saudi Arabia, and few countries issue specific legal recognition to social work (Emirates, and Morocco).  Most of these developments are relatively new and developing. While these developments are important and very welcomed, yet the legal recognition of social work in most of the Arab Countries is still lacking. He concluded his presentation by recommending a joint work of local and international partners to collectively advocate the development of some kind of a model legal instrument recognizing social work as a profession and to promote its adoption in a format that suits the legal systems of various Arab Countries.

Stefanie Witter opened this second block by focusing on the digitalization boost amongst universities, what this means to social work education, and how digitalization aspects are linked to localisation considerations: The Corona crisis forces social work education all over the world to foster its digitalization process. The fast change from a physical learning environment to a digital one implies enormous challenges to all universities, educators and learners since there is no blueprint or evaluated guideline to follow. However, such challenges can also be opportunities for developing sustainable digital learning strategies. According to Ms Witter, taking these opportunities means to evaluate how strategies can be suitable for students and appropriate to the social work situation on site. Therefore, we all would need to include aspects of localisation and contextualisation in such developments, while being aware that a virtual learning environment enables the access of a broader target group to our education programmes. MS Witter points out that keeping a balance between globalization and localisation will be one of the greatest challenges in the digitalization process.

Dr. Mahasin Saleh continued the in this block with her presentation about innovative virtual Community in Social Work field training during Covid 19: The presentation described the International Innovative Virtual Community Social Work Field Training for MSW Community Concentration Students that Dr. Mahasin Saleh, Associate Professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies (DI), has developed and is offering. She explained how she established a Cemetery Digitization Community Volunteer project to digitally document the existence of Palestinian cemeteries, including each of the tombstones. This important social justice project seeks to preserve and honor the memory of Palestinian ancestors and the existence of Palestinian people because it is known that Israel desecrates and destroys Palestinian cemeteries. Through Dr. Saleh’s Field Training, DI MSW Students could develop technical training on cemetery digitizing in Arabic for volunteers on the ground in Palestine as well as providing other assistance on this project. The students could also learn and apply a variety of skills and competencies. Also, they have the opportunity to cooperate with volunteers in Palestine and stand in solidarity with them to preserve these priceless records and honor and respect their ancestors. Dr. Saleh also referred to Dr. Ferdoos Al-Issa, Assistant Professor of Social Work and Chair of the Social Sciences Department at Bethlehem University, who is a key partner on this project.

Dr. Said Al Dhafri was the third presenter of this panel and linked the discussions about the digitalization at universities to the relevant matter of how students can be motivated for online learning within his presentation by elaborating about a this regarding study: The study examined Omani students’ online learning motivation during COVID 19. Because of the ongoing pandemic of COVID 19, universities worldwide depend on online learning as their main instruction means to fulfill their teaching requirements. In Oman, this shift produced a lot of challenges because it represented a very new approach to learning for most students. Therefore, students’ motivation was challenged and students varied in terms of their success in online learning. The current study formulates a theoretical framework to understand students’ motivation and test part of this framework with a sample of Omani university students. According to Mr. Dhafri, the researchers can now discuss based on the results of the study, several applications on how to motivate students for online learning.

Last, but not least, Dr. Ayat Nashwan continued the thoughts about the students by presenting a social experiment about the experiences and personal reflections upon the online teaching in Jordan: Her presentation was about the reflection of a social experiment that took place in one of the social work classes at Yarmouk University. 30 students from one class participated in a brainstorming activity. They were asked to mention all positive and negative changes in the teaching of social work in light of distance learning. The survey was conducted via Google Form through which students were asked to choose the 5 most important changes from each negative and positive category. 140 respondents from the students of social work classes filled out the survey and then the data were transformed into metadata with proportions and represented by Pie Chart figures.

Prof. Dr. David Cecil and Prof. Dr. Rachel Hagues examined the status of social work in Lebanon in fall 2019, as social workers responded to the refugee crisis in a country that boasts the highest per capita refugee population in the world (UNHCR, 2020a). The presentation reports resulted from a mixed methods study. A structured interview guide and brief ordinal instrument were used with 47 (N=47) participants in both individual and small focus group interviews. Examined topics include professional roles, refugee needs, social work coping and faith, and recommendations for trainers and educators. Results included perceptions of overall effectiveness (e.g., resources and benefits to refugees), stress and coping variables, and connection of faith/religion to refugee work. The presented research added evidence that can be used to reinforce the valiant ongoing efforts to advocate for both recognition and of social work as a profession as well as an investment in all social work efforts to serve vulnerable populations in Lebanon, specifically refugees.

Prof. Dr. Hannah Reich argued that in present times of the global crises affecting the whole world, Social Work is about to change its face and has to integrate new theories, perspectives and instruments into its repertoire to overcome the global and local trials. The Social Worker on the ground  is facing high challenges to handle contradictory imperative, working in inhuman structures or even without them, and has to act wisely in ethical difficult and emotionally charged contexts. In this paper, Dr. Hannah wanted to argue that for the Social Work curricula development to foster a professional attitude, it is meaningful to learn from the curricula development in the fields of conflict transformation and of mindfulness training. It is useful to make use of some of their models, simplifying reality in ways, which allow for analyses, decision and action as well as to learn from some of their practical training models to enhance the resilience of Social Workers, their ambiguity tolerance, emotional intelligence, flexibility and an out of the box thinking, needed in crises.

Da’ad Nazzal emphasized in her presentation on the importance of Higher education in advancing refugee’s integration into the host societies, and developing their skills for entry into the labor market, and also to reconstruct their countries of origin after the conflict. She also added that however, only 3% of refugee youth around the world have access to higher education (UNCHR 2018). Refugees in host countries face systematic hurdles that hinder the continuous learning process. Therefore, providing refugees with a high quality of education enables them to acquire useful experience, achieve self-sufficiency and support their families and relatives. This proposed research’s goal is to obtain more understanding on how higher educational opportunities and challenges facing refugees influence the integration process of refugees in host countries. Those opportunities should be inter- and transculturally characterized in order to create a smooth access to universities in host countries. In addition, they are to function by integrating the metrics destined to inform and empower both refugees and universities. These metrics will then help coordinate the provision of high-quality education and successful integration in the host country. Concretely, Daad intended research project will be a combination of two methods: firstly, the qualitative narrative interview with refugees (story telling) and secondly, a content analysis by compiling an analysis of different indicators and metrics of quality.

Dr. Bernhard Streitwieser briefly discussed his comparative studies of support for refugee student access to higher education in Germany and the United StatesHe then presented his new study on “Educational Pathways for Refugee Students,” which compared higher education interventions for refugee students in Germany and Lebanon in order to understanding how refugees go from acquiring education through non-formal educational training into formal higher education in accredited, degree granting institutions. The findings indicated that much progress is yet to be made in numerous areas. These include paying more attention to psychosocial and cultural challenges, and academic and non-academic needs that students of refugee background have; better integrating their goals into education and training; and conducting rigorous follow up studies on interventions to ensure their sustainability.

Khawla Obeidat elaborated on the EDU-SYRIA that is a host of projects that chronologically extended over the last five years and is still going, 2015 and further. The projects are EU funded via MADAD in response to the Syrian crisis. Hence, the primary beneficiaries are Syrian refugees and underprivileged Jordanian youths. The ultimate objective of the projects is to improve the livelihood of those beneficiaries by providing them with higher education opportunities through a cluster of scholarships that are granted every cohort of high school graduates since 2015. The series of projects are managed by the German Jordanian University. A consortium of higher education academic institutions was established in the first wave and expanded in the following ones. For instance, in the current wave of the project, the fourth in the series, there were five higher education universities, four associate national NGOs, and two international NGOs. Building a coalition was a very successful strategy in achieving the primary goals of MADAD funds, subsequently, instead of having conflicting and competitive agendas of different stakeholders, a more collaborative harmonious non-replicate work is praised.

Dr. Ahmad Thabet Helal presented an article identifying the Impact of integrating refugees in the higher education system as a variable in enhancing the international academic universities ranking in the Arab environment. He highlighted the importance of  global rankings of universities, that have become a worldwide phenomenon and have attracted the attention of many stakeholders inside and outside higher education.  He referred to the well known ranker names in the world. He suggested some strategies for helping social workers in this area. Universities and other higher education institutions have a critical role in helping society achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through their research, learning and teaching, campus operations and leadership.  

Dr. Enakshi Sengupta emphasized in her presentation on the importance of educating refugees in the host countries. She explained that Education is perhaps the most important factor for socio-economic mobility and for overcoming disadvantages in society. Yet, the concept of social investment may not be fully understood by the host countries where education for the refugee population is often neglected, barring a few ad-hoc efforts by some local or international aid agencies. The need for educating the refugee and IDP population is needed from the perspective of building peace and stability in the countries of origin of refugees, where they are ultimately expected to return back after their prolonged stay in the host countries. When they eventually return to their country of origin, the education and skills they acquire in other countries will be needed to transform their war-ravaged country where civilization has hitherto suffered a setback. Host countries are facing severe constraints as they are struggling to provide decent opportunities in education for newly arriving refugees and IDP’s and integrating them into mainstream education. This paper discusses a case study on entrepreneurial education of an eight-module programme under the Resilient Economy through Agricultural Livelihoods (REAL) program to create market driven livelihood opportunities for vulnerable IDPs / Refugees in Kurdistan region of Iraq by combining skill development training with financial and market support to promising value chains to stimulate local markets and creating employment opportunities. The Program was supported and funded by the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, a bureau within the United States Department of State.

The panel was designed first to pay tribute to the victims of the Beirut Blast. As everyone knows, shortly after 6 PM, on August 4, a massive explosion hit the Beirut port, killing more than 200 people and leaving thousands injured and homeless in addition to a severe damage on the infrastructure. All this happened in an already fragile context of civil unrest, harsh socio-economic situation and a pandemic. As expected and once more the Lebanese Government showed a failure in the response to this crisis with no immediate relief action being taken.Yet, the active civil society has been there putting all efforts in an ad-hoc way to provide the necessary relief for the affected people.

Hence, the importance of this panel to shed the lights on the Social Work interventions that have been done during the Blast. In an attempt to bring knowledge to the field and to document the practise based intervention and how it was localised to the context of Lebanon. Hoping that this panel will be an eye opener for more research in this field.

Nassim Zouweini presented an interactive google earth presentation about his personal experience as a survivor and a volunteer in response to the Beirut Blast on 04. August.The presentation included details about the path that he followed a few minutes before the blast occurred, with a  clear identification of landmarks and places.

Tarek Hobeika presented his volunteering experience during the Beirut Blast. The explosion was a turning point for him; he went to the devastated area on the same day, on a personal level, he helped everyone that he could help back then, then he  went back on the second day, and again and again, people were really under a terrible shock, they were not able to understand what happened so everyone present next to them were really something huge for them to maintain their mental health and to be able to understand what happened. Then lots of groups were gathered together, from and on the streets, and started to take action on the ground. The vibes were so beautiful seeing all those youth with their big heart aiming for a better Lebanon and a better tomorrow helping their community with all they have. 

Tarek elaborated on his personal experience, he joined basecamp team, basecamp is one of the best ideas that have been made after the blast, and it was about a gather between 4 NGO’s, mentechreen, baytna baytak, embrace Lebanon and mouwaten lebnene. Each NGO has their role to cope with the most damaged area, the heart of Beirut city, Gemayzeh, Mar Mikhael, Geitawi. Minteshreen: political orientation and goals, mouwaten lebnene for food dispatching and hygiene products, embrace Lebanon for mental health and baytna baytak took the initiative for the reconstruction part, their very first idea before the explosion was to find houses for the medical team in the hospital who was in direct contact with the covid cases to be able to sleep alone away from their parents and surrounding and to be close to their work, then after the explosion they took the initiative for the construction and renovating all the severely damaged houses. At first this initiative started by collecting data and dispatching groups of volunteers to different regions that they divided them into small clusters then they digitized the data then filtering it to different departments like food, medical, cloth, and construction. After a few days the construction phase began, all the engineering team joined forces to help everyone, the tasks were huge, receiving calls and having people coming in camp, filtering the data by server damages and most needed people for support and help. 

John Achckar as a cofounder of Rise Up Lebanon, walked us in his presentation through this  initiative that works on mitigating the impact of the 4th of August blast and helping with the implementation of a sustainable and inclusive recovery strategy for Micro and Small businesses.Their aim is to raise funds to support the most vulnerable micro and small businesses (up to 4-6 employees) affected by the explosion. We are talking about the small bakeries, grocery stores, hairdressers, small retailers and traders, etc. to repair their only source of income and become operational again as soon as possible.

Mohammad Diab highlighted in his panel the Offrejoie NGO experience in dealing with the Lebanon crisis since the midst of the civil war in Lebanon in 1985 up until now during the Beirut Blast.​ Offrejoie started as a group of young Red Cross volunteers who worked together to help the injured during the Lebanese Civil War. They started with children’s camps during the conflict by bringing groups of children from different social classes and backgrounds together to accept each members’ differences. Those camps have continued their healing work since 1985, and when those children grew up, they carried the values of Love, Respect and Forgiveness that they had learned at the camps and became a movement of young citizens from all the different communities and regions in Lebanon. ​​What began as a group of enthusiastic volunteers in 1985 has developed into a voluntary movement across Lebanon with a footprint in France in 1986 and a sister group in Iraq established in 2012 to share and promote its vision and experience.​ On August 4, Offrejoie responded quickly by assessing the damages of the blast in the areas closest to the sea port, setting up an emergency rehabilitation program in three of the most severely affected neighborhoods: Karantina, Mar Mikhael and Khandak el Ghamik. Rehabilitation works are still taking place in more than 67 buildings and 352 apartments in Karantina, Mar Mikhael and Khandak el Ghamik, aiming to assist more than 350 families to return to their normal lives in dignity and safety before winter.

Hiyam Kahi panel tackled the ethical considerations that Social Workers have to be aware of while intervening in emergency situation.Due to the difficult days everyone is going through, Social Workers and others are confronting many social, economic, living, and psychological problems and difficulties. The needs are high and complex, and the possibilities are low and scattered. Social Workers have to give emphasis on the professional approach to reality, and commit to the principles and ethics of Social Work. In times of crises, Social work must respect human dignity, privacy and freedom to make the right decision. Social Worker must adhere to the professionalism and quality of our work.

Fida’a Hussein started the discussion in this panel by shedding light on the importance of language. Because, Language as part of a culture, is the essential means of communication between people. Translation is the cornerstone of communication between two cultures by means of their language. She gave an introduction to the topics in her panel by differentiating between Translation and Localization. The former is ‘Rendering the meaning of a text into another language in the way that the author intended the text.’Newmark (1995). The latter is the process of adapting a product or service to a specific locale. Translation is only one of several elements in the localization process. Then, she moved to talk about the shifts of focus in Translation Studies and their link to Sociology. The dynamic shift from a linguistic approach to translation to a functional and cultural approach started to view translation as a more complicated process formulated not only by a source text and a target text, but also by the participants shaping this formulation. One of the most famous frameworks borrowed from sociology to study the sociology of translators is Pierre Bourdieu’s. The study of Capital proposed by Bourdieu includes, the economic capital that relates mainly to money, the social capital that relates to networks and relations, the cultural capital that relates to skills, and knowledge of translators. Examining Perri Bourride’s forms of Capital on volunteer translators working in or for the Middle and East North Africa (MENA) region will attempt to understand the forms of Capital volunteer translators seek to accumulate when they work on content allocated to or in the Arab countries.

The Second speaker in this panel Dr. Mohammad Bataineh discussed, and presented the advances in translation technologies that have significantly changed the task of the translator and pressured both practitioners and trainers to cope with the current and future demands of the translation industry. The current world pandemic of Covid-19 has also put translation stakeholders at stake in the sense that several translation agencies have shifted to online work. This has further emphasized the importance of translation technologies and cloud-based platforms. His presentation discusses the notion of translation cloud technologies and how such technologies can enhance and facilitate the work of translators in the context of social work. To this end, his paper discusses cloud-based translation environment tools, translation memory and terminology tools, and explores how they can be implemented to enhance the work of individuals and teams of translators working in the field of social work. The paper concludes by providing recommendations and best practices related to the use of translation technologies to enhance the training of both translators and social work students. 

The third speaker in this panel, Dr.Somia Qudah, moved the discussion to another important issue in the field of Translation related to the work in the communities. Translation is one vehicle for localisation; community interpreting and translation plays a role in the delivery of localised interventions at grassroots. Nevertheless, the lack of professional identity, institutionalised professional community or specialisation in community interpreting and translation in Jordan can hinder the quality of the provided services. Translation and interpreting in mental health clinics is in the same vein; new health clinics run by international organizations with English-speaking therapists emerged in response to the immediate need of the humanitarian context, thus the demand for such services has increased. Given that communication lies at the heart of therapy, well-trained translators and interpreters can bridge the linguistic and cultural gaps between patients and therapists. Needless to say, the development of such training in linguistic and non-linguistic competencies requires collaboration between different stakeholders, such as psychologists and social workers. Her contribution presents the different training models delivered during 2019-2020 that work towards professionalising mental health translation and interpreting in Jordan.