Hi everyone,

You are invited to attend the next seminar from the Psychology Seminar Series on Wednesday 25 February 2026, 11:00-12:00pm on MS Teams.

Please note that the speaker is presenting remotely online.

If you are on campus that day and prefer to watch a live-stream of the seminar, this will take place in BR 3.81.

Attendance will be collated at the end of the seminar and RISE points will be allocated accordingly. 

To join the session, click here: MS Teams

Please see below for details: 

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Dr Tahani Al Dahdouh, Postdoctoral Researcher, Tampere University, Finland 

‘Waiting for a Better Time Is a Waste of Time’: Motivations of Learning Amid the Genocide in Gaza

This study, set against the backdrop of the recent genocide in Gaza (October 2023–January 2025), investigates the motivations driving university students, graduates, and academics to independently enrol in an initiative offering free access to online courses through platforms such as Coursera, edX and DataCamp. This study adopted self-determination theory as the conceptual framework. A convergent mixed-methods design was employed, and all participants in the initiative were invited to complete a brief online questionnaire incorporating the situational motivation scale and open-ended questions. A total of 503 responses were collected: 138 participants completed one or more courses, 78 indicated ongoing enrolments, 92 did not complete any courses and 195 did not specify their status. The results of the quantitative analysis highlighted that the participants were mainly driven by autonomous internal motivation, and the thematic analysis of the qualitative data further highlighted this motivation, identifying six key categories: career-related, war-related, belief-related, personality-related, social and affectional motivations. War-related and belief-related motivations set this study apart from prior work in the field. The findings provide critical insights into how educational initiatives can support learners in extreme circumstances in alignment with Sustainable Development Goal 4. Implications for education policy and practice in conflict zones, along with avenues for future research, are discussed.

Study link: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-88500-6_5 

Dr Tahani Aldahdouh is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Tampere Institute for Advanced Study, Tampere University, Finland. She is an active member of the Professional Growth and Learning (PGL) and Higher Education in Transition (HET) research groups at the Faculty of Education and Culture. She is also a member in Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE). As a Palestinian-Finnish researcher originally from Gaza, she is deeply committed to promoting education equality in fragile contexts. Her research centres on university teachers’ professional development, with a focus on the applicability of Western theories in diverse, often overlooked contexts in global academia.

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Any questions, please contact Danielle Labhardt or Matt Brooks on psychologyseminars@mmu.ac.uk.

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