Faculty of Business Studies TMA Cover Sheet Lebanon Branch

Academic Year Course No.

FBS-PT3 FORM

2010 - 2011 T306B

Semester TMA No.

First

Second
2

I. Student Information (to be completed by the student)

Student Name Student No. E-Mail

Judith Al Badawi 080558 Joudi_2689@hotmail.com

Section No.

312

I hereby certify that the work presented in this TMA is my own and is not copied from any source. Signature Judith Al Badawi Date of Submission .. / . / 20

Allocated Marks

Questions Weight
Marks

Q1 70

Q2 10

Q3 20

Total

Allocated Marks

Criteria
Marks

Presentation

Referencing

Word Count

E-Library

Total

Student's Total Mark

I. Tutor's Comments .
Tutors Name Signature Date Returned .. / . / 20

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ARAB OPEN UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF BUSINESS STUDIES Lebanon Branch T306. Managing Complexity: a systems approach

Enhancing child education in North Lebanon

Final Project Presented by Judith Al Badawi

Supervisor: Dr. Rima Rouhana

Fall 2010
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Table of content:
Acknowledgment5 Abstract5 Ethical statement.6 Chapter 1: Tutor report Session 1: Introduction7 Session 2: Background.7 Session 3: Aim of the project..8 Session 4: Choice of system approach 4.1 Method selected.11 4.2 Soft System Method implementation.11 Session 5: list of tables: Table1. The different stakeholders and their perspectives in this situation9 Table2. The income group (Lebanese pounds) in North Lebanon.10 Table3. Student cost in State and private education by stage and type of cost (thousands of Lebanese pounds).10 Table 4. A comparison table between the conceptual model and the real world15 Session 6: list of figures: Figure 1 representing a conceptual model of the education project..14 Figure 2: A rich picture representing child education in North Lebanon..18 Figure 3: A spray diagram showing child education in North Lebanon19 Figure 4: A system map representing a system for enhancing child education in North Lebanon.20 Figure 5: An influence diagram representing a system for enhancing child education in North Lebanon.21 Figure 6: A multiple cause diagram representing the teaching technique in North Lebanon22 Figure 7: A sign graph representing the teaching technique in North Lebanon23 Figure 8: A control model representing the child education process with close loop control...24

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Chapter 2: client report Session 1: summary of the situation and propositions .....................25

Chapter 3: Project log Session 1: weekly summary...27 Chapter 4: overall summary Session 1: summary of the situation and the project log..29 Chapter 5: List of References31

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Acknowledgment:
I am heartily thankful to my Dr Rima Rouhana, whose encouragement, guidance and support from the initial to the final level enabled me to develop an understanding of the subject. We had some difficulties in doing this task, but she taught us patiently until we knew what to do. She tried and tried to teach us until we understand what we supposed to do with the project work. Plus, my friends were doing this project with me and sharing our ideas, they were helpful that when we combined and discussed together, we had this task done. And, my family that provides me with everything such as money to buy anything needed for this project. They also supported me and encouraged me to complete this task so that I will not procrastinate in doing it. Lastly, I offer my regards and blessings to all of those who supported me in any respect during the completion of the project.

Abstract:
Universal education depends not only on the establishment of the principles of compulsory and free education, but also on the condition of a sufficient number of schools, school places and equipment, teaching staff, enough geographical distribution, academic achievement and other matters relating to education services. It also depends on the practical attitude adopted by the family on the basis of its own education, its loyalty to the law, its economic resources and the priority which it affords to childrens education in general or during specific phases of the family's economic cycle. The targets are to focus on the issues of structure of education, e-learning and computerization, certification and training of teachers, curriculum and educational materials development, early childhood progress, administration and organization, and financial administration are the main aspects of the transformation process. The results in the education sector include an improved curriculum, better trained teachers, and authorization system that would ensure high quality, stability, and competitive educational opportunities for the children.

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Ethical statement:
Childhood is a unique and valuable stage in the human life cycle. The principal responsibility is to provide care and education in situations that are safe, healthy, nurturing, and responsive for each child. After seeing children on the road trying to sell cheap things to the people passing by cars or walking in the street, only to get money to eat, this issue will enforce me to talk about this situation, where each child has the right to be well treated and well educated. Our mission is to support the child in reaching their highest developmental, social and academic potential. We are committed to respect individual differences and helping children learn to live, play, and work cooperatively. We are also committed to promoting children's self-awareness, competence, self-worth, resiliency, and physical well-being. Therefore, there is a need to create and maintain a developmentally appropriate environment for learning while empowering families to participate in and enhance their childrens education. Above all, we shall not harm children. We shall not participate in practices that are emotionally damaging, physically harmful, dangerous, exploitative, or threatening to children. We shall care for and educate children in positive emotional and social environments that are cognitively stimulating and that support each child's culture, language, ethnicity, and family structure.

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Chapter 1 Introduction.
Is there really a need for every child to be educated? The honest answer to this question is: Every Child has a Right to Get Educated No Matter What Your Circumstances Are. Education is particularly important in early age. The child life success depends on how seriously he/her is involved in early learning. The aim of pre-primary education is to push children into the school environment and allow them to move from the home to school. The goal is to create a good climate for the children to communicate with others, to express his feelings and opinions, to educate their mind, while taking into account their physiological, moral and intellectual development. This is the right of each child is the world.

Background:
With the support of the USAIDs Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) and Private donors, ANERA has been highly involved in Educational Programs that tackles specific projects on Children and Adolescents. In Naher El-Bared Camp, ANERA is working to restore a community center that houses a preschool, afterschool reading room, and vocational training lab which will serve the children of families who have returned to the New Camp. The construction costs are being supported by USAIDs Office of Transition Initiatives or ANERA private donors. ANERA continues to support Lebanese NGO partners IRAP, SEF, and AlKafaat Foundation which provide special education and vocational training to disadvantaged people and youth with special needs through the scholarship program and grants from generous private donors. (Viste,2009) Much more, Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) collected by UNESCO International Bureau of Education (IBE) which provide parenting programmes which are addressed to parents and families of children less than 6 years of age. Plus, UNICEF approach on child education is based on human right approach; and the studies used by UNICEF are: advocacy, capacity building, service delivery and empowerment. This will focus on the laws governing child education and labor, on medias campaign, and accelerating training and awareness of teachers and parents much more, UNICEF will encourage policies to improve education quality and reduce failure rates in public schools. It will also support the elimination

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of gender stereotypes through equipping teachers and with skills to identify and deal with potential failure. The World Bank is continuing to support a USD 56.6 million project to enhance the capacity of the Ministry of National Education, Youth and Sport. This 5-year program, which aims to benefit 20,000 primary and secondary students through school construction and 130,000 secondary students through the introduction of new technology and in-service teacher training, will continue through 2007. (.2005 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor, 2006)

Aim of the project:

The project I will be working on as a system practitioner is Child Education in Lebanon especially in North Lebanon. The goal of my project is to enhance child education especially in north Lebanon. What pushed me to talk about this topic is seeing a child in the road working while other child is taking his right of being educated. In the North, working children are found mostly in the districts of Tripoli, Akkar and Minyeh (91-97%). And much more, the families suffer from the poverty and low-income due to large family size, social isolation, uneducated and unemployed parents that guide to remove child from school or lead to unqualified child. They focus on the ways to get money and to survive. They thought that by letting their child work, he/her will be able to survive. They only think about financial issues to stay alive and they ignore the intellectual and physiological behavior of the child. They force their daughters to stay at home to care for younger siblings and to help in domestic work, and they push the boys to work in industries, hairdressing salons and domestic workers Plus, the community suffers for lack of support services, lack of norms, poor housing and urban conditions. In addition, the schools suffer from many issues such as lack of electricity, of buildings and of excellent teachers and technological equipments. The child who goes to school is not taking their right of being well treated; there is a divergence between skills taught in schools and workplace requirements, we find rough teacher to student ratio, outdated teaching methodologies, and limited use of technology. (Child labor in Lebanon, 2010) I will be exploring various parties such as Lebanese government, UNICEF, ministry of education, teachers, parents, students, private school owners and others to support my case where the parents forgot that not educated child will affect his life in the future employment and income.

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Stakeholders Lebanese child Lebanese government

Perspectives Has the right to be well educated and well treated. Put laws against child labor, and laws to enforce child education, and give the schools policies to be followed to improve the education.

The UNICEF, the ministry of education, the ministry of social affairs.

Put laws and strategies to increase the awareness of the necessity of child education and to afford for schools and teachers new training procedures and new technological equipments.

The World Bank and local banks Media The parents The teachers Owners of schools Ministry of education

Support the ministries to reach their aims, and give the families loans that help the child to proceed in his education. Publicity to increase the awareness of people about the rights of the child. They are uneducated and oblige their child to work or they have lack of skills to improve their child life. Uneven teachers to students ratio with outdated teaching methodologies. They have lack of excellent teachers, lack of technological equipments, bad infrastructures (buildings). Providing an excellent education and preparing children for their productive roles and their social roles

Table1. The different stakeholders and their perspectives in this situation. In actual fact, education is not free, even for families who register their children in State schools. The cost of education in these schools is much lesser than in private fee-paying schools, where the amounts are high. The cost of education, according to the study of household living conditions in 1997, the average probable cost of schooling per child in Lebanon is 1,467 million Lebanese pounds. Education costs account for 13.1% of the monthly household expenditure and are the third most important item after food (33.9%) and accommodation and services (15.3%)

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Table2. The income group(Lebanese pounds) in North Lebanon

Income group (Lebanese pounds) Below 300 300-500 500-800 800-1200 1200- 1600 1600- 2400 2400- 3200 3200- 5000 5000+ unspecified total North

8.5 17 23.3 21.5 11.5 10.6 3.8 2.1 1.5 0.3 100

Source: Household living conditions in 1997. Table3. Student cost in State and private education by stage and type of cost (thousands of Lebanese pounds)
Educational stage government Other expenses 142 160 222 371 317 515 633 274 government amount 144 111 134 190 180 254 218 147 government total 287 271 356 561 497 769 851 421 private Other expenses 1 299 942 1 101 1 026 1 442 1 194 3 250 1 269 private amount 298 381 465 427 560 585 1 039 446 private total 1 597 132 1 566 1 453 1 779 4 289 4 289 1 715

Pre-primary Primary Supplementary Supplementary vocational Secondary Secondary vocational University Average

Source: Household living conditions in 1997. According to the findings of the statistical Survey of Population and Housing, the situation of study in the 0-17 age group is that 25,354 children between the ages of 6 and 18 never attended school, including 11,953 children between the ages of 6 and 11 who never attended primary school. All of these children are considered to be deprived of their right to education,

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which provides a realistic idea of the degree of this problem in Lebanon. (Committee on the Rights of the Child, 2000).

Choice of system approach: Method selected:

In order to develop the reflection on the use of the methods it is useful to present the key features of each method, in order to select the best method. The Soft System Method (SSM) and the Hard System Method (HSM) conform to a learning cycle; the SSM deals with the context as wholeness, it invites multiple perspectives on the problem context and it seeks to separate a boundary to the issue. Much more, using the SSM approach would be most appropriate because the problem is understood to be less structured, messier, unbounded, unclear and uncertain. It helps to determine whats going on and what actions can be taken to improve it. In contrast, the HSM is based on an engineering perspectives which is not universally applicable, and its root is mathematical (quantitative), and this prevents problems that cannot be quantified. Plus, it solves problems than asking why the problems arise, and the practitioner is regarded as scientific expert outside the situation; but in my case I have to be engaged with the situation to know how to solve the issues of child education. I have to mention another method which is the Viable System Model (VSM); it sets up the conditions that an organization must suit in order to enlarge its range of viability. Therefore, I wont use this model in my case, because Im talking about social issue not an organization. Finally, using the SSM approach, and doing studies and research and interviewing people will helps me to be more familiar with this case. All is needed is some attention about the problem and inspiring the community to find ways to improve the lives of those children (Bell & Chapman, 2005)

Soft System Method implementation:

For this project, I found that using the Soft System Method (SSM) approach would be most appropriate; because it helps in seeing from diverse perspectives the complexity rather than just jumping directly to conclusions . It gives a holistic view of the complex situation. Since it is ideally right for making sense of unstructured situations taking multiple perspectives and purposes into account specially when talking to stakeholders, where they have many problems inside one situation. Therefore, developing a rich picture (figure 1) of the situation and Page 11

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utilizing number of sources of information help to represent the perspective of parents, children, teachers, the government, public and private schools, and others. I placed children in the middle to realize how theyre affected by all other educational atmosphere. The parents are affected by their own backgrounds and educational level. Teachers are affected by the curriculum given to them which could be challenging at times; especially when they dont take the proper training needed to manage with the continuous changes. The government and its strategic decisions, policy as well as the economy have the highest impact on schools, students, parents and others. Plus, the introduction of the technology (IT) at schools is challenging, it enable students to become active learners and vital thinkers, based on computer labs, and giving that labs is controlled by a lack of space and high costs. After engaging more with the problem situation, I drew a spray diagram on child education (figure 2), which helped me to explore more perspectives of the stakeholders and other subjects involved. Lets start by the students who suffer of lack of education due to financial and social background. Here, the NGOs play an essential role to reduce this problem; the consultants do pilot projects with a help from the government to afford the necessity changes in school and financial conditions of the family (Factors affecting early childhood education, 2001). The surveyors should do surveys about the child and his parent to include all the diversifications (gender, economical status, social background, level of education, culture). Plus, teachers need more skills than just academic; such as interpersonal skills, social ability and child friendly performance and to be able to teach the new curriculum; here the ministry of education has to guarantee that schools and teachers meet the minimum requirement of teaching. In addition, the information on technology should be introduced in order to teach the curriculum with the desired level. (The innovative educator, 2010) Here, drawing a system map (figure 3) helps to show a system of enhancing child education, and to understanding the processes that are in use within the system and its sub systems. And the influence diagram (figure 4) represents that the Government is a key role player in the whole situation. Therefore, preparing a project implementation plan where it draws the path which project administrative will follow and it also affirms human and financial resources needed for

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implementation. Then, the relevant system are developed to root definition, to include relevant CATWOE elements, where it is considered as educational system authorized by a practical curriculum that is educated to children, of all diversifications, by well-trained and skilful teachers. CATWOE checklist: C: Customers: the Lebanese child especially in North Lebanon. A: Actors are: Lebanese government, the ministry of education, the ministry of social affairs, the World Bank and local banks, training institutions, schools owners, teachers, parents and media. T: Transformation process: Inputs: parents, child, teachers, governments, NGOs, media. Process: enforce the laws and giving money to ameliorate child education. Output: difficulties in achieving this target because the citizens in north Lebanon have their own culture and beliefs. Plus, it requires lot of money to improve the schools and bring equipments but, the results are to get modernize child and trained teachers. W: Worldview: each child has the right to be educated and to raise his intellectual, moral and psychological behavior. Plus, we are not sure about the willingness of the teachers to be trained. O: Owners: ministry of education Environmental constraints: the child is not taking his right of being well educated, this affect the future generation where they cant found good employment and a fine way to raise their kids. Plus, the willingness of teachers to get training is unpredictable, and the availability of human and financial resources is also irregular. (The perspectives of the stakeholders are mentioned in page 7).

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To clarify the use of the relevant system, the conceptual model represents a detailed extension of the root definition.

Figure 1 representing a conceptual model of the education project.

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Now we have to compare the conceptual model with the real world: Blob in conceptual model 1. Select pilot area for project implementation (North Lebanon) Exists in the real world? Yes, because most project start by pilot area comment In case of failure of the project, the pilot are is less costly. And, the implementation brings out unseen issues which can be controlled in pilot area level. The data can affect the decisions that should be made Carry forward? Yes, it is an essential step.

2. Surveying children and family to include information about their background and relations with the government and schools 3. Obtain an overview about how the curriculum should be applied 4. Specify the skills needed for teachers to be able to teach the new curriculum

Yes, especially after supporting the project

No, since the data is already exist at the ministry of education.

Yes, at the first stages where we includes different illustrations Yes, where the ministry of education is responsible of these issues 5. Obtain information Yes, the ministry of on the technology education introduced to teach introduced the curriculum IT in the schools 6. Tell the client about Yes, it is a Step outcomes between client and consultants

It is to meet the educational developments To guarantee that the teachers have the minimum skills required for teaching Necessity of Lebanon to move into modernization The consultants keep the clients well informed about the processes, and the clients take most of the decisions. The public schools dont focus too much on the training because the supply of teachers is more than the demand. But the private schools need the training due to the

Yes, where we can hire a consultant who can bring successful illustration to be introduced in the curriculum Yes, by adding more skills to teach the new curriculum, added to the degrees that the teachers already have it Yes, the new curriculum might require advanced technology. But, not all schools have IT equipments yet. Yes, the clients should be notified about the development of the project.

7. Collect prices to train teachers

Yes, but not all the teachers have an equal opportunity for training.

Yes, collecting prices is necessary to study the project, and teaching new methodologies which influence social, interpersonal and psychological skills.

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competitive market. 8. Collect prices for Yes, because IT is It is a necessity to Yes, it is important to go on with the IT equipments needed collect prices to reach project the target. 9. Prepare a project Yes, where the The plan draws the Yes, because we have to follows implementation project is to be strategies that should steps and a time frame to achieve the plan by clients applied, the plan is be needed as well as target. required. the time frame 10. Agree with the Yes, when the Agreement is needed, Yes, it is necessary so the project client on project project is and the consultant has can be carried forward. completed a purpose to do. Table 4. A comparison table between the conceptual model and the real world. Now, the debate with the stakeholders is represented by the multiple cause diagram (figure 5) which also reflects the cultural aspect of the parents, the willingness of the teachers to changes and the students level of learning capacities. Here, we must to outline the missing points, where the parents could not agree with the implementations, because they have their own beliefs and culture, and the students found the curriculum in hard and not interesting. Students at private schools spend lots of time on studying at in classes and at home; in contrast, students at public schools spend less time on studying. Therefore, a successful team is seen in the private schools. But, the NGOs try to ameliorate the public schools. Here, a sign graph represent the relationships between variables in this situation by identifying positive and negative feedback loops driving the systems behavior (figure 6). As we know, the consultants are from foreign countries, they only know about the educational systems but not about the Lebanese culture. Therefore we need to focus on the situation as a whole, so I suggest the following actions: 1) Hire local creative advisors who will study the characteristics of the local society and find its strengths and weaknesses. 2) Relocate the reason of education on societys needs. 3) Avoid using old methods with modern ones. 4) Bring knowledge from other societies to modernize our knowledge. 5) Give education to the child at early stage, or otherwise he will be shocked and surprised from the information. 6) Force the teachers to accept the new changes took through the training where their role to manage classrooms, to carry instruction, to assess performance, and to present feedback to students. Page 16

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7) Tell the parents about the advantages of the education, where well educated child lead to have a successful future where he can ameliorate his parents life. Here a control model (figure 7) can take place because the output will give me the information I need so that the next piece turns out better. In conclusion, societies are made from system where it sub-systems constitute from education, economics, members, industries they are always related and interconnected. Lebanon faces blind memorization performance measures, inappropriate graduates, unneeded study, and disintegration from the rest of the society like the industry and the culture. Many changes should be taken, and the educational part should be re-implemented with the local behavior; this process is not easy and cant be solved in the short term. As we know, the progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.

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List of figures

Figure 2: A rich picture representing child education in North Lebanon.

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Figure 3: A spray diagram showing child education in North Lebanon

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Figure 4: A system map representing a system for enhancing child education in North Lebanon

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Figure 5: An influence diagram representing a system for enhancing child education in North Lebanon

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Figure 6: A multiple cause diagram representing the teaching technique in North Lebanon

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Figure 7: A sign graph representing the teaching technique in North Lebanon

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Figure 8: A control model representing the child education process with close loop control

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Chapter 2

Client report:
To: Head / Early Child Education Division Ministry of Education Beyrouth-Lebanon 30/12/2010

I am pleased to share with you the results of the analysis I arranged out on Early Child Education in Lebanon especially in north area. I would like to start by confirming that other projects carried out by various parties are indeed a huge benefit. However, some gaps exist especially about who is proposing and doing the change. The educational system empowerment is done through using foreign advisors where he will express the character of his community and missing our culture and beliefs. Therefore, I advise you to hire local advisors to do the work because they would reflect the local community in the whole educational system, which leads to tighter link between children and their teachers, curriculum, culture and schools. To attain this, I propose the following actions: 1. Analyze and improve the situation locally. 2. Hire local experts and let them study the complex characteristics with the strength and weakness of the local society. 3. Focus on societys needs. 4. Avoid using old methods with modern technologies 5. Bring knowledge from other societies to modernize our knowledge. 6. Give education to the child at early stage, or otherwise he will be shocked and surprised from the information. 7. Force the teachers to accept the new changes took through the training. 8. Tell the parents about the advantages of the education, where well educated child lead to have a successful future where he can ameliorate his parents life. 9. Use the facilitation from banks to improve the economic life of parents to let their children go to schools; this issue is build but lots of awareness and by explaining how the banks can secure their life (funds).

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I know that we both have fear about the parents in North of Lebanon because they dont agree with my ideas, due to their own beliefs and culture. Plus, the technological equipments cant be afforded due to money requirement. In addition, we need lots of time to restructure the child behavior, and people dont understand that low education experience lead to less qualified people in the future. So I know I will be facing lots of problems while talking to these people and to convince them to change their mentality. But, I believe that well-educated children can be excellent future leaders; and what motivates me is the fact that in the modern areas so many parents believe that their children can do better and have the right to be well treated and educated. And what I expect to be done is improving the school quality; higher educational skills are achieved, improving child performance, changing the parents mentality by educating parents, increasing teachers professionalism, improving class practices and School infrastructure and making recreational activities. At the end, many changes should be taken, and the educational part should be reWith each successful step you take, you will grow implemented with the local behavior. stronger, be more skilled and more successful. Best regards, Judith Al Badawi

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Chapter 3

Project log:
Project name: Enhancing child education in North Lebanon. Begin date: December 6, 2010 Target end day: December 30, 2010 Week date Week 1 6 December Task action list Searching for good information about child education issue. It took a lot of efforts and time to look for it by using different recourses, especially because the data is not available about Lebanon over the net. I worked on my outline proposal. I gathered my outline ideas mainly from the internet and I focused my sources of information to include USAID, Save the Children, and UNICEF After collecting all the information about my mess like the concept, causes and stakeholders with their views, I assessed my data and confirmed the honesty of the information. Week 2 13 December I prepared the situation and the system of interest within this context and prepared related diagrams. I also started identifying the key roles, of stakeholders. I decide on the project title, and I made a summary about the situation. I started building an idea on the approach I intend to adopt for the project; I compare the three methods in order to decide which one fits better. I have decided to use only one method rather than linking more than one or develop a methodology. The problem situation seems to be a large mess; therefore, I decided to use the soft systems method, which is suited to fulfil my requirement. Read and check data more than one time to get the clear understanding of it and after that I tried to organize it and I attempted to write it on my own words to show my understanding and my interesting about the case. I introduced the mess and I represent the stakeholders perspectives chosen above, plus I drew the suitable diagram (rich picture and spray diagram) that make my issue very easy to understand.

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Week 3 20 December

I Spent all week finalizing my initial report, and implementing the SSM in my analysis, by presenting the CATWOE check list and the conceptual model compared by the real world. Plus, I showed the debate with the stakeholders and the implemented changes needed to solve the mess and I finished my tutor report. . I tried to limit the report to about 2000 words maximum but I think this is going to be difficult. I have got a lot of related information and it is difficult to know what to include and what to miss out. I organized my annexes and scanned the hand-drawn ones.

Week 4 27 December

It was an intensive week of work; it is the last week I had before the cut-off date for project submission. I finalized my project and I am satisfied with the outcome as a lot of effort was put into this project. I managed to cover all project parts in relation with the instructions, word count I read the final document many times before I could feel really content with all its parts. I had to rewrite some parts, such as the summary and conclusion. Plus, I wrote the client report, my overall summary and I finalized my log frame. Then I covered all project parts with the instructions, word count, the abstract, ethical statement and the acknowledgement.

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Chapter 4

Overall summary:
During the preparation of my project, enhancing child education in North Lebanon, I, as a systems practitioner, was going through a reflective practice where the activities allow me to move towards achieving the target of becoming more aware and of improving my practice. Reflective practice was adopted when I was working with an awareness of questions about the project I am preparing; I was exploring the culture of north people, the way of living, their attitude and behavior toward new transformations While preparing the project, I was learning and doing self-evaluation and examining and enhancing my self-knowledge. These features are essential of the juggling act achieved by any systems practitioner and they gave me access to epistemological awareness. Before I started working on my complexity, I started planning for it by collecting information about it, selecting data from the internet, checking the UNICEF website, thinking about how to organize my work and the methods that I will use, designing my work process, and setting a time schedule to be able to meet deadline. I was also doing the intrinsic brainstorming; or in other words my own mental practice and anticipatory thinking. By doing this I was going through the phase of reflection before action where I reduce errors and organize my work more and focus on goals. Then, I started doing the actual work on the project and started analysing the situation. Here, I faced a difficulty on arranging out the huge data I have collected; I did not know where to start and what to do with all of it. I used my existing knowledge and experience to prepare the next step. Much more, I decided that I had enough info for the initial report and to continue the research. I started to arrange my disorganized notes in relation with project. Also, at one stage I found out that I was doing the analysis with a clear goal in mind; which is a trap I was about to fall in. So after preparing my first draft, it turned to be way out of the word limit. I didnt notice that the foreign advisor is the most essential key element which could affect my situation. Therefore, it was very necessary to stop and re-think about the way I was working; Particularly, I had to redirect myself towards thinking systemically. Here I found that the vital element to solve this situation is the culture, the background and the community of north Lebanon.

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Rethinking about why I was about to fall into this trap has led me to one answer that I was trying to look for a solution that others did not think of before, and started working towards finding solutions that match that particular goal. Here, the Soft System Method was very helpful for analyzing this mess, each and every phase made me gain new insights about my chosen topic. One of the most attempts of the SSM approach is that it helps in simplifying the problem by giving the chance to know the perspective of each stakeholder while recognizing that they differ because of different values and beliefs that each has, and to determine whats going on and what actions can be taken to improve it, it deals with contexts as wholeness. When I rethought it over again, asking myself different questions all the time, I released myself from the goal-oriented behavior, and looked into the case with from a different angle. By immersing myself in this complexity, to be an aware and conscious system practitioner, I was not only thinking about the situation of interest and their approach to it but I also paid attention to my own part in a system of inquiry. This engagement between me and the complex situation, helped me to identify possible systems of interest within the situation, I began to touch the solution. These systems of interest can determine the points of conflict or why the conflict appear, which make the problem easier to be discussed and solved. This is only when I was able to continue the analysis as a real systems practitioner. All this was reflection-in-action. After I accomplished my work, I reviewed all work done and reflected on it, evaluated it and decided whether my work and practice have helped me to reach a required solution or not. This phase included representation of some parts; like the summary and conclusion, as well as the figures resorting. During this phase too, I was reflecting on previous practice experience. I tried to interpret action in terms of adopted theory, and reached a conclusion that I did prepare a good project proposal, a good analysis and I did apply a correct method during my analysis, something that was done much better than my previous efforts in previous occasions both at work and with other AOU assignments. Doing all this, I was basically reflecting on my own actions.(Armson & Ison, 2005)

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Chapter 5 References:
Armson, R, Ison, R 2005, Managing complexity: a system approach, block 1: juggling with complexity : searching for a system, The Open University. Bell, S, Chapman, J 2005, Managing complexity: a system approach, block 2: managing and learning with information system, The Open University. Child labor in Lebanon 2010, UNICEF Beirut Programmatic response to child labor, viewed 11 December 2010, http://www.unicef.org/lebanon/stop.htm Convention of the right of the child 2000, Committee on the Rights of the Child, viewed 13 December 2010, http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/3df5a7db4.html Effective philanthropy 2001, factor affecting early childhood education, viewed 19 December, 2010, www.effectivephilanthropy.com.au/.../Key%20Factors%20Affecting%20Early%20Child hood%20Develop... The innovative educator 2010, Want your child educated innovatively? Want to educate innovatively? Come to NYC Public Schools, viewed 20 December 2010 http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/2010/09/want-your-child-to-be-educated.html Viste, J 2009, American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA), educational programs, viewed 9 December 2010, http://lebanon-support.org/index.php?offset=8&page=international_org United States Department of Labor 2006, 2005 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor - Lebanon, viewed 9 December 2010, http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,USDOL,,LBN,4562d8cf2,48d748f73e,0.html

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