About us.

TASC (Teachers as Agents of Social Change) is a growing movement of educators who believe that their role goes beyond academia, to include being Catalysts and Agents of Change.

Students spend a considerable part of their intellectually active times with the teachers. It is then necessary for the teachers to develop the personal and professional qualities enabling them to constructively guide their students.

Those teachers have very diverse initial trainings in their records, while continuous training remain fluctuant and depends on the policy of their institutions of practice, as well as on the proactivity of each teacher. Both initial and continuous teacher trainings are focused on knowledge and on the practical skills needed for the teaching of the subject matters.

Very rare trainings are focused on the values and ethics that should sustain the work of all teachers, across the subject matters.

TASC took on the role of accompanying teachers holistically in their role as Agents of Social Change, addressing the dealing with the wounds of their past, the trust building with colleagues within and outside their institutions of practice, and the civic role they are meant to play.

Our Approach

The three dimensions

We accompany mixed groups of teachers from various backgrounds and schools through the following journey:

  1. Dealing with the wounds of each teacher’s history
    Intrapersonal dimension
  2. Trust-building
    Interpersonal dimension
  3. Building common initiatives
    Social outreach dimension

The Four-Modul-Program

In parallel with the above strategy through circles of trust and reflection, the teachers have a complete curriculum to equip them with the necessary skills for their role as civic agents. The curriculum includes the following components with all their tools:

  1. Active Citizenship as a practical concept, translating into an attitude that every educator is expected to transmit to his/her students.
  2. Virtuous Leadership that needs to be passed on to students as future leaders.
  3. Mediation as a necessary life skill and an asset in a diverse society
  4. Pedagogy of Integration that equips teachers with the skill of integrating “Active Citizenship; Virtuous Leadership and Mediation approach” within all subject matters and school activities.

Center for TASC

Hosting Place

To make all of the above possible, TASC idea needed a hosting place: a safe space for trust circles and civic training for teachers-agents of social change. The place had to be located outside the education institutions, allowing the mixture between teachers from various schools and backgrounds.

Strategic location

Therefore, TASC is now located in a part of a residential apartment near the National Museum at the center point between the eastern and the western parts of Beirut: a strategic location at the eastern entrance of the Capital for visitors from Mount-Lebanon and from the Beqaa governorates; it is also at the midway between the northern and southern coastline of Lebanon.

6 months of renovation

The renovation and equipment of the center was made possible in the midst of the financial collapse in Lebanon, thanks to the support of the people who believed in TASC. They up-scaled the efforts of the founder who used her savings and time to finance and personally supervise every detail of the renovation. This effort resulted in accomplishing the work by minimal costs, over 6 months of continuous presence.

The whole work was blessed as it was accomplished right before the start of electricity shortages and before the exponential rise in the price of fuel and in all prices of goods.

What's next

Trainings

In the current academic year 2023-2024, TASC’s work will focus on teachers from a further 10 schools.

Participating teachers will go through all 4 modules and be invited to follow up.

This work with teachers will be guided by the IofC manual for the Trust Building Program.

We expect more than 800 teachers to attend the Four-Modul-Program.

Continue Cooperation

Together with Nafda, the work will be expanded to 60 schools and could reach 100 schools in a few months.

We expect to meet more than 120 representatives of schools.

Upscaling fundraising

To enable these activities a substantial funding is needed to pay for trainers, the travel costs and to facilitate the center in Beirut for the follow-up of the Four-Module-Program.

Other costs like the municipal tax, the constructed property tax need to be covered to allow a sustainable use of the place by TASC.