Refugee-led education in transition and virtual “homemaking.”

• In Event: The digital divide and migrants’ access to education

Proposal

Relevance to CfP:
The case of this school is a window into the opportunities that living in a digital society has to offer for the future of refugee education. These spaces not only standard schools as places of learning but require us to renegotiate power dynamics between educators and displaced communities and reconsider the meaning of borders between nation-states in learning in the digital age.
Abstract:
Whereas migration has always been a part of humanity, the extent, duration, and consequences of international migration across national borders have not only increased but are more complex and challenging in the 21st century (Arar et al., 2019). Conflict-induced displacements are becoming increasingly protracted, with large numbers of children fleeing into neighboring countries that often already struggle with educating their own students and are now faced with the serious responsibilities of finding school placements, trained teachers and learning materials for thousands or millions of newcomers (Dryden-Peterson et al. 2017). The sudden arrival of numerous displaced children whose trajectory and placement are unclear often overwhelms educational systems and governments. In other cases, displaced children face discriminatory bureaucratic or linguistic barriers that make it hard for them to enroll in local schools (Garcia & Sylvan 2011). As a result, children may experience prolonged periods outside of school and miss on years of learning (Ajdukovic et al. 2019). In February 2022, Russia launched a war on Ukraine, which has led to the greatest refugee movement and displacement since WW2, with nearly a third of Ukrainians forced out of their homes, either internally displaced or seeking asylum in another country (UNHCR, 2022). An additional 900,000 people have left Russia, fleeing forced military conscription, political persecution, repressive regime and protesting the war. Against this backdrop, an online community school, “Nomadic Tardigrade,” has been founded to continue the education of children participating in concurring displacements and provide them with a sense of normality and social interactions during these difficult times.
I focus on the case of “Nomadic Tardigrade” which is an online volunteer-based school serves “children who have found themselves outside the educational system due to the ongoing Ukrainian-Russian conflict” (website). It serves as an active community of children, parents and teachers whose goal is to provide an opportunity for displaced children to continue their education in conditions in which attending a conventional school became impossible for various reasons. More than 70 volunteer teachers in “Nomadic Tardigrade” have given over 3000 lessons to over 1500 students of all ages, ranging from languages and curriculum subjects to project-based art courses.
Based on analysis of interviews, lessons, and artworks, I examine an art laboratory entitled “Home is where I am” that was taught in this school to expand the notion of “homemaking” (Fabos 2017) among displaced children existing in continuous liminality. The laboratory, a semester-long online course for children ages 6-11 from across the globe, focuses on the practice of making home through various forms of visual arts. In this study, I analyze lesson recordings, lesson plans, the children’s art projects, and interviews with the lecturer and the school director.
In this study, I focus on the concept of home (Kaiser 2010) and the practice of homemaking (Bohme 2020) and what these look like for refugee children who are analyzing and ‘practicing’ homemaking. I use Brun and Fabos’s definition of home as “a particularly significant kind of place with which, and within which, we experience strong social, psychological and emotive attachments” and utilize their differentiation between home as a place, a memory, and a process.
Discussion:
As refugee educators and researchers, we often tend to think about school curricula and the issue of compatibility between educational systems as a major challenge for displaced children in transit. The model of “Nomadic Tardigrade” suggests alternative ways of thinking about learning in a more flexible and adaptable way. Knowing that they work with children living in differenrt countries, the courses offered learning that could be useful in different contexts while also including country-specific content. Utilizing newly gained skills of the post-COVID society, and relatively high access to electronic devices among the FSU displaced people, this is an example of a project that ‘breaks past fall barriers” (Bohme 2021) and innovates in the face of crisis. Secondly, while recognized that accredited education is critically important, we see that the value of learning also lies in providing children with a frameworks which can help them regain a sense of normalcy and meaning. As one parent’s feedback on the website states “[the school] returned their children back into existence who were somehow turned off – getting them interested in something, brough them back into focus”. Attending the school helped children create connections and deal with the unknowability of the moment, while also giving the teachers, parents and other members of the displaced community the chance to support each other, spark curiousity and develop useful skills (Jordan 2024).
In this art laboratory, children were able to critically engage with and practice home-making. Building on Brun and Fabos (2015) constellation of home, Home, and HOME making, this study offers a glimpse at how a refugee community has used virtual spaces to create home while in transit and how children can be taught to practice and develop their skills of creating home. Exposing children to art on homes and journeys, sharing a wide range of types and concepts of homes, and engaging with the children through their own art and conversations, “provides children with instruments to explore, feel, and learn more about the idea of home” and create a sense of “rootedness in this state of unclarity” (Olga). Working through art, provides children with an opportunity to indirectly process and share the trauma of losing a home in a safe space. This course exemplifies the potential of using different tools for homemaking and suggests that ‘home-making’ is also a practice and that purposedly engaging with the idea of home within the community, can be a meaningful, and helpful way to support displaced children.

Author

• Manya Oriel Kagan, IIASA