Educating in emergency contexts: Schooling, curriculum, and innovation

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

If education in emergency situations today is a field well located in the humanitarian domain, as well as in activities forming part of international development cooperation, it is still an emerging field for educational research everywhere in the world. For this reason, it seemed important to us to encourage its consolidation, particularly through empirical, comparative and international research. Reflection on the different underlying theoretical approaches is essential, particularly to the extent that they may fit into different approaches (emancipatory, participatory, liberal, etc.), which is important to recognize and understand.

Encouraging the development of empirical research in the field of education in emergencies (EiE) is justified by a lack of reliable information, but also by the variable nature of emergency situations. Some of them continue, new ones appear, and all of them have in common a great instability. In addition, research needs to grant access to the life stories of the students, the subjective experiences of actors from the world of education in emergency situations (project leaders, teachers, pupils, parents, etc.), which have an impact on the outcomes in terms of academic learning, but also in terms of competences, critical spirit, emancipation, etc. It also seems important to us to encourage the development of longitudinal research for a better understanding of the processes affecting students living in an emergency or crisis situation. This research format allows the manner in which interventions concerning EiE influence a school career affected by crises, changes of location, and even lesson disruptions. Other methodological approaches may allow analyses of EiE to be completed: participative approaches would enable a greater place for daily reality, for opinions, for experiences of the population targeted by EiE or those actors concerned by its implementation; quantitative approaches would allow the collection and updating of reliable data concerning the schooling of students in emergency situations. These different approaches would allow projects falling within the field of EiE to be founded on the outcomes of recent research, while reflecting what is taking place in the field.

As for comparison, it allows solutions tried out in different contexts to be equated and, in this way, to identify strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities. It is important that comparative and international analyses be inspired by the existing structures, such as the INEE Minimum Standards, so as: (1) to guarantee a viewpoint covering the different dimensions, such as the involvement of local communities in the implementation of EiE; and (2) to facilitate an international and reproducible comparison. Moreover, this does not relieve the researchers from critically analysing any available resources. These international comparisons can be carried out for the benefit of refugee students to the extent that they can thereafter be major resources in choosing solutions conforming to different crises and emergency situations. The comparative approaches, as well as the distribution of research, would also have the merit of highlighting local innovations and new projects, which have not necessarily been made known on a major scale, but whose relevance could be useful to other students.

Finally, to make EiE truly global requires increased visibility and participation on the part of researchers and actors from the southern world. At present, they are sometimes present in the context of unequal partnerships but are not yet represented at all levels of EiE. If initiatives were to take steps in this direction, it is vital to encourage the active participation of all actors.

This panel, based on selected articles published in a special issue of UNESCO journal Prospects, brings together established and emerging scholars to discuss these important issues mentioned above. A special focus of the panel will be on the choice of the teaching language and curricular guidelines, as well as educational alternatives and possibilities for innovation offered by the field of EiE.

Sub Unit

• General Pool

Chair

• Abdeljalil Akkari, University of Geneva

Individual Presentations

• Development challenges in challenging contexts: A 3-stage curriculum framework design approach for Education in Emergencies - Martin Johnson, Cambridge University Press & Assessment

• Meaningful higher education in Kakuma Refugee Camp: A case study of why context and contextualization matter - Paul O'Keeffe, Maynooth University

• Pedagogical challenges in integrating refugee students in the global North - Myriam Radhouane, University of Geneva

Discussants

• Yao Ydo, IBE-UNESCO

• Rola Koubeissy, Université de Montréal