Hosting and Teaching Refugees in a Long-Term Refugee Camp as an Act of Kindness

• In Event: Fairmont Roundtable Session Two
  In Roundtable Session: Pedagogies and Praxes of Transformation: Envisioning Agency and Embracing Community-Based Knowledges (Table 1)

Abstract

This paper reports part of the analysis of a narrative inquiry of non-refugee (national) teachers’
perspectives and experiences of hosting, teaching and living in a long-term refugee camp in
Kenya. These perspectives and experiences were elicited and thematically interpreted. The study found, among other things that Dadaab is perceived as place for national teachers to deploy their humanitarian services as embedded within the Utu (African philosophy of being human) principles (Somjee, 2014, Gachanga, 2008), National teachers nurtures incentive teachers as a means of symbiotic survival, Teachers as key partners in mitigating school dropouts, Teachers ignite students’ desire to leave the camp “open prison”. All these acts culminates in what I theorize as “hosting and teaching as act of kindness.”

Author

• Philip Kimani Karangu, The University of British Columbia - Vancouver
  Presenting Author