Everyday Resistance Through Education: Refugee Experiences in Malaysia

• In Event: Refugee Resistance and Radical Pedagogies: Community in Diaspora

Abstract

Refugee youth in Malaysia face multiple barriers to accessing formal education. The Malaysian government denies refugee children entry into public schools, and quality education provided by alternative learning centers remains limited. This exclusion is compounded by the lack of legal recognition for refugees, leaving many to navigate multiple forms of precarity. As such, education for refugee youth is inherently intertwined with struggles for freedom (hooks, 1994). To understand and imagine what education for freedom might look like in this context, we must examine how and where refugee youth seek and receive education. This paper addresses the guiding question: What do refugee youth in Malaysia consider to be meaningful and valuable education, both inside and outside of the classroom? Drawing on the voices of my interlocutors, I share how their epistemologies emerge as powerful sites of resistance and meaning-making.

Author

• Shiila Au Yong, Syracuse University