Measuring Holistic Learning Outcomes for the Forcibly Displaced Children: Mauritania and Mexico

• In Event: Philosophical, ethical, and practical questions for education

Proposal

The global refugee crisis has become increasingly severe and prolonged in recent years. By 2024, the number of forcibly displaced people worldwide has exceeded 120 million , with 40% of these individuals being children under the age of 18 . While efforts to gather data on the learning crisis in middle- and low-income countries have expanded, there are still very few studies that measure the academic and non-academic skills of forcibly displaced children. Where program evaluations exist in forcibly displaced context, out-of-school forcibly displaced children have been excluded. Although these limited studies provide valuable insights, a lack of comprehensive and systematic understanding of learning outcomes for forcibly displaced children remains.

The study "Measuring Holistic Learning Outcomes for Forcibly Displaced Children" represents the first attempt by the UNHCR Education to establish a baseline on the learning outcomes of refugee children, contributing to a stronger evidence base in displacement contexts. This study measures the holistic learning proficiency – numeracy, literacy, socio-emotional skills, and executive functioning, of displaced students in two different settings, Mexico and Mauritania. The study targeted 400 students in the Mbera refugee camp where in the South-eastern part of Mauritania bordering with Mali. In Mexico, and 400 refugees and asylum seeker children in Mexico were assessed in three locations on the North and Southern borders.

The study aims to support a broader goal of ensuring that forcibly displaced children have access to quality education. It seeks to inform program and policy interventions, benefit academics working on refugee education, and engage the general public interested in these issues.
Research questions:
1. Are forcibly displaced and refugee children who are accessing education acquiring basic academic and non-academic skills?
• How do learning outcomes of displaced and refugee children compare to the outcomes of host country children?
• Are there differences in basic academic and non-academic skill between in school and out of school forcibly displaced children?

2. What are the necessary conditions to ensure that forcibly displaced children can access quality education?
• Where forcibly displaced children demonstrate academic and non-academic skills, how have these been acquired? What actors and processes are in place that have supported their learning?

Research Design: The study employs a mixed-method approach, combining both quantitative and qualitative methods to gather comprehensive primary and secondary data. The sampling strategy, data collection methods, and evaluation instruments are designed to measure both academic learning and non-academic skills. The Holistic Assessment of Learning and Development Outcomes (HALDO) tool as well as Focused Group Discussions for teachers students and parents, were used for quantitative and qualitative data collection, respectively. HALDO was developed by Save the Children to support practitioners’ understanding of children’s (4-12 years) development in four domains: literacy, numeracy, social and emotional learning (SEL), and executive functioning (EF). The assessment focuses on a wider age range than other available assessments to account for varied skills in emergencies.

The study is currently on-going and expect to be finalized by December 2024.

Author

• Emiko Naka, UNHCR