Everyday Agency in Syrian Refugee Schools: A Case for Engaging in Critical Refugee Studies

• In Event: Claiming Space, Occupying Belonging: Immigrants and Refugees Contesting Otherness in Education

Abstract

There are over one million Syrian refugees in Lebanon, with half of these school-aged children. Despite international and governmental efforts, the majority of Syrians in Lebanon remain out of school, in part because of a policy context that discriminates against refugee children in public schools and simultaneously claims a lack of resources for their education.

A number of rapid assessments and situation analyses have been undertaken by humanitarian actors to identify key obstacles to enrollment and retention. This study seeks to provide deeper meaning to the issues identified by previous surveys by centering the work of Syrian educators within a complex and challenging policy context. It asks: (1) What are the obstacles and challenges faced by refugee children and youth in the context of their education in Lebanon? (2) What roles do Syrian teachers play in supporting them in their educational processes? (3) How do teachers make meaning of their experiences in schools and within the broader policy context?

The study brings postcolonial theory in conversation with refugee studies, and particularly the body of research on refugee education, to expand on the notion of critical refugee studies (Espiritu, 2006). By centering refugees as agentive beings in their spaces of displacement, I seek to uncover the “unequal and uneven forces of cultural representation” (Bhabha, 1994, p. 171) in research on refugee education, while “resist[ing] the attempt at holistic forms of social explanation” (p. 173). Brun (2001) suggests a reterritorialization of the relationship between people and places, such that the present lives of displaced people are emphasized, including attitudes from host communities, the policy context, and livelihood opportunities. Others have called for a greater degree of disciplinary reflexivity (Chimni, 2009) and critical analysis in and of refugee studies (Cameron, 2014).

In a similar vein, this vertical case study (Vavrus & Bartlett, 2009) draws on observational and interview-based data to uncover local-specific phenomena in relation to multiple interconnected units of analysis at the global, national, and sub-national levels. I present data collected between 2015 and 2017 at three non-formal schools in which Syrian refugee teachers were teaching Syrian children in Lebanon. I consider how teachers made meaning of their experiences and describe some of the creative practices that they have undertaken to bypass obstacles and to mitigate the impact of the broader social and political context on students and their learning.

When research centers refugee educational actors, a story emerges of people acting within the constraints of a new place, navigating structural and social barriers and confronting challenges with a clarity of purpose and attitude to improve their situation and that of their students. As agents of the educational process, refugee teachers have much to inform humanitarian actors and public schools about every day agency and improvisation that defies mainstream policy and planning and yet aligns with the imperative for change in community-centered ways. Thus, engaging in critical refugee studies has the potential to illuminate the ways in which refugee teachers claim educational spaces and contest otherness in their spaces of displacement.

Author

• Zeena Zakharia, University of Massachusetts - Boston