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Session Submission Summary

Pathways for Learning in Conflict and Protracted Crisis Settings: Assessing the Drivers of Holistic Learning in Conflict Settings

Sun, March 29, 4:30 to 5:45pm, Hilton, Floor: Ballroom Level - Tower 2, Franciscan B

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

Around the world, more than 234 million school-aged children are living amid conflict and crisis, and their learning trajectories remain largely undocumented and poorly understood (Education Cannot Wait, 2025). Existing studies overwhelmingly focus on access and enrollment, with limited attention to the quality, continuity, and coherence of education or the holistic outcomes that children achieve, such as literacy, numeracy, social-emotional learning (SEL), and wellbeing. Even less is known about how these trajectories differ by gender, displacement status, disability, and socio-economic status, despite these being critical equity dimensions.

The Pathways for Learning in Conflict and Protracted Crisis Study responds directly to these evidence gaps. Conducted across Jordan, Bangladesh (Cox’s Bazar), Myanmar, and South Sudan, the study investigates how children’s learning and wellbeing are shaped by the complex interactions between conflict and crisis dynamics, education system provisions, and the drivers of access, quality, continuity, and system level coherence for learning. Using a longitudinal, mixed-methods, multi-country design, it represents one of the first systematic attempts to map children’s pathways of learning and development across diverse conflict-affected contexts. Additionally, we include another study with similar data and consistent analysis from Tsangaya centers in Northeast Nigeria.

This symposium brings together country-specific studies under a comparative lens. Each paper explores how local education systems attempt to deliver learning opportunities to displaced and marginalized children in highly fragile environments, while the panel discussion highlights cross-cutting themes, policy implications, and contributions to global debates on education in emergencies.

The study is grounded in the ERICC (Education Research in Conflict and Crisis) conceptual framework (Kim et al., 2023; 2024), which identifies four interdependent drivers of learning and development:
Access – opportunities and capacity to participate in education.
Quality – resources, relationships, pedagogical practices, and instructional conditions that enable meaningful learning.
Continuity – sustained exposure to education that allows progression across grades and levels.
Coherence – alignment of policies, financing, data, and instructional components across systems and school types to support access, quality, continuity of education, and ultimately, holistic learning.

In fragile and crisis-affected contexts, these drivers interact with children’s lived experiences of conflict and displacement, creating fragmented and unequal learning pathways. Our study examines how variations in access, quality, continuity, and coherence contribute to differences in literacy, numeracy, SEL, and wellbeing outcomes for children.

Research Design
The symposium papers draw on the first wave of a two-year, longitudinal, mixed-methods study across four countries. Each case study is shaped by local consultations to ensure contextual relevance and features the following characteristics:
Comparative case study approach: Countries selected for their diverse crises (forced displacement, armed conflict, economic collapse, environmental shocks) and different education governance arrangements.
Multi-level data: Children (nested within classrooms, teachers, and schools) sampled across public, NGO-managed, religious, and community-based provisions.
Longitudinal cohorts: Two age groups (around 5th and 8th grade) followed over time to capture growth trajectories.
Mixed methods: Learning assessments, teacher and headteacher surveys, classroom observations, and qualitative interviews and focus groups with students, caregivers, and educators.

The country studies provide an opportunity to compare how diverse education systems aim to promote learning in the face of crisis, and to analyze patterns and inequities across diverse geographical, political and school settings.

The panel will make four contributions to scholarship and practice:
Documenting holistic outcomes in crisis contexts – providing data on literacy, numeracy, SEL, and wellbeing outcomes for displaced and marginalized children.
Illuminating systemic drivers of learning – linking classroom-level quality and continuity to broader political economy factors such as financing, teacher management, and coordination across humanitarian and development actors.
Comparative insights on refugee and IDP inclusion – contrasting models of integration (Jordan), parallel provisions (Bangladesh, Myanmar), and fragmented governance (South Sudan).
Policy relevance for sustainable responses – identifying which education provisions and interventions (teacher development, gender equity, peacebuilding, disaster preparedness) are most likely to support learning and wellbeing.

The symposium will feature four country papers: A team from the Queen Rania Foundation in Jordan will discuss “Navigating polycrisis and refugee inclusion through double-shift schools, camp-based provisions, and non-formal programs”. A team from the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh will discuss “Education for Rohingya refugees in NGO-managed Myanmar curriculum schools and religious madrasas”. A team from InEd in Myanmar will discuss “Parallel education systems in ethnic areas and monastic schools amid ongoing armed conflict and political repression”. Finally, a team from OtherWise in South Sudan will discuss “Fragmented schooling options (public, religious, community-based, camp-based) in a context of prolonged violence, displacement, and climate shocks”. A panel chair will introduce the symposium’s unifying framework and research questions. Each presenter will deliver their country case, followed by a discussion by Professor Caine Rolleston from University College London, and Dr. Silvia Diazgranados, Director of Research in Education at the International Rescue Committee and co-Director of the ERICC project, who will draw out comparative themes, highlight policy implications, and invite interactive discussion with the audience.

Significance

The symposium speaks directly to pressing debates in education in emergencies (EiE) and comparative and international education. It advances the field in three ways:

Empirical: We systematically document children’s learning and wellbeing trajectories across four diverse conflict settings.

Conceptual: We apply and refine the ERICC framework on drivers of learning in crisis contexts.

Policy/practice: We identify interventions and system arrangements that can better secure learning for marginalized children, while interrogating common assumptions about refugee inclusion, quality provision, and coherence across humanitarian and development actors.

The symposium will provide timely evidence and nuanced insights to inform both academic debates and practical responses in times of conflict and protracted crisis.

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