Javad Ahmadi completed his degree requirements at the end of 2016 and returned to Afghanistan. His dissertation focused on capacity development and workplace learning at the Afghan Ministry of Education, Department of Planning.

During the last couple of years, in addition to working on my dissertation, I had the honor to work with American University of Afghanistan (AUAF) as the Director of Student Affairs and Assistant Professor of Education. AUAF is a young and growing institution that follows the American style of higher education. Because AUAF is a beacon of hope for Afghan youth, the Taliban attacked AUAF on Aug 24, 2016 killing several students and colleagues and wounding many more.

I also had a chance to teach a course called “Understanding Student Development in College” in the Master of Educational Leadership and Management (MELM) program, which was started by CIE as part of its activities under the University Support and Workforce Development Program (USWDP). It was a great opportunity to contribute to the CIE mission in Afghanistan.

I am planning to continue teaching at AUAF and with the USWDP master’s program, and also to conduct further research on capacity development issues. I hope my research will help improve the effectiveness of the capacity development programs in Afghanistan.[1-17]

In May of 2021, Javad published an article in the IJED on the use of instructional time in early grade reading classrooms in Herat, Afghanistan.  Later, in July 2021, Javad, along with two colleagues, published an article in the journal Cogent Education entitled Feedback loops in teacher professional development: A qualitative study in Herat Province of Afghanistan.  Based on interviews with teachers in schools in Herat, the article documents the lack of effective mechanisms to collect and analyze feedback about Teacher Professional Development activities, thereby failing to close feedback loops. [7-21]

Update from Javad

I left Afghanistan a month after the Taliban's return to power. My family and I had a long journey. First, we stayed in Pakistan for one month, then another month in a military camp in Qatar. We arrived in the US in Nov 2021 and had to live in a military camp for three months. Finally, we moved to Indiana in Feb 2022 where I joined Purdue University. However, we decided to move permanently to Toronto, Canada, as their immigration system is friendlier. The good thing is that I have been able to continue my job with Purdue. 

I was able to attend this year's CIES conference after 12 years, and it was a delight to see several UMass CIE graduates and students at the conference. [3-24]

Email: mjahmadi@gmail.com