Academic Research Publications

Here is a selection of our research that forms the foundation of our work at Refugee REACH. We undertake research in partnership with schools, communities, civil society, and government institutions. Among the purposes of co-creating research is ensuring that the questions we ask are timely and relevant for the field and the findings are actionable. We hope our research supports your own work as researchers, educators, and policymakers.

We have included links both to the original sources of publication and to open access copies (the pre-publication versions, as allowed) via the Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH). If you have trouble accessing any of this research or would like to connect for discussion and feedback, please be in touch via email or social media (Sarah and REACH).

Refugee Education

Building this Research Field

Dryden-Peterson, Sarah. (2022). Right Where We Belong: How Refugees Teachers and Students are Changing the Future of Education. Harvard University Press.

Salem, Hiba and Sarah Dryden-Peterson. (2022). Protection in Refugee Education: Teachers’ Socio-Political Practices in Classrooms in Jordan. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 54(1), 75-95. .

Dryden-Peterson, Sarah. (2016). Refugee Education: The Crossroads of Globalization. Educational Researcher, 45(9), 473-482. Open Access.

Dryden-Peterson, Sarah, Elizabeth Adelman, Michelle J. Bellino, and Vidur Chopra. (2019). The Purposes of Refugee Education: Policy and Practice of Integrating Refugees into National Education Systems. Sociology of Education, 92(4), 346-366. Open Access.

See related, The Hechinger Report: How overseas work with refugees can inform emergency education measures in the U.S. during coronavirus: Education for Unknowable Futures (May 25, 2020); FreshEd with Will Brehm: Learning from Education in Emergencies (May 2020) and Futures of Refugee Education (November 2019)

Dryden-Peterson, Sarah, Negin Dahya, and Elizabeth Adelman. (2017). Pathways to educational success among refugees: Connecting local and global resources. American Educational Research Journal, 54(6), 1011-1047. Open Access.

See related, Award, Winner of the Palmer O. Johnson Memorial Award for outstanding article in a publication of the American Educational Research Association. Coverage: Dryden-Peterson Recognized for Refugee Research at AERA.

Dryden-Peterson, Sarah. (2017). Refugee Education: Education for an Unknowable Future. Curriculum Inquiry, 47(1), 14-24. Open Access.

See related, Refugees Deeply: How teachers can prepare refugee children for unknowable futures (March 2017); FreshEd with Will Brehm, Portraying refugee education (November 2017).

Dryden-Peterson, Sarah. (2015). Refugee education in countries of first asylum: Breaking open the black box of pre-resettlement experiences. Theory and Research in Education, 14(2): 131-148. Open Access.

Dryden-Peterson, Sarah. (2011). Education as Livelihood for Refugee Children: Emergency, Protracted, and Urban Experiences. In Educating Children in Conflict Zones: Research, Policy, and Practice for Systemic Change, A Tribute to Jackie Kirk pp. 85-99 (edited by In Karen Mundy and Sarah Dryden-Peterson). New York: Teachers College Press.

Dryden-Peterson, Sarah, and Hania Mariën. (2021). Refugee Rights and Realities: Education. In The Oxford Handbook on International Refugee Law, pp. 971-987 (edited by Cathryn Costello, Michelle Foster and Jane McAdam). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Yoshikawa, Hirokazu, Sarah Dryden-Peterson, Dana Burde, J. Lawrence Aber. (Forthcoming). Education for Refugee and Displaced Children. In Education: A Global Compact for A Time of Crisis (edited by Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco and Carola Suárez-Orozco). New York: Columbia University Press.

Pedagogies, Civic Education and Participation

Dryden-Peterson, Sarah. (2020). Civic Education and the Education of Refugee Students. Intercultural Education, 31(5): 592-606. Open Access.

Chopra, Vidur, and Sarah Dryden-Peterson. (2020). Borders and Belonging: Syrian youth's experiences of displacement in Lebanon. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 18(4): 449-463. Open Access.

Dryden-Peterson, Sarah. (2021). Moderated Discussion: Pedagogies of Uncertainty as Pedagogies of Belonging. Comparative Education Review, 65(2): 356-374.

See related, Learning Futures with Ron Beghetto. Refugee Education: From Uncertainty to Creative Futures. (May 2020).

Bellino, Michelle B., & Sarah Dryden-Peterson. (2018). Learning in segregated settings: Education and social integration among refugee youth in Kenya. British Journal of the Sociology of Education, 40(2): 222-238. Open Access.

Chopra, Vidur, Sarah Dryden-Peterson, Joumana Talhouk, Carmen Geha. (2021). Bridging the Gap Between Imagined and Plausible Futures: What Syrian Refugee Students Wish Their Teachers Knew. Working Paper.

See related, We See You: What Syrian Refugee Students Wish Their Teachers Knew, Refugee REACH Initiative, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, USA. (October 2021).

Dryden-Peterson, Sarah. (2018). Inclusion and Membership through Refugee Education? Tensions between Policy and Practice. In On Humanitarian and Mass Migration, pp. 218-231. (edited by Marcelo S. Soronso & Marcelo M. Suarez-Orozco). New York: University of California Press.

Mendenhall, Mary, Sarah Dryden-Peterson, Lesley Bartlett, Caroline Ndirangu, Rosemary Imonje, Daniel Gakunga, Loise Gichuhi, Grace Nyagah, Ursulla Okoth, and Mary Tangelder. (2015). Quality Education for Refugees in Kenya: Instruction in Urban Nairobi and Kakuma Refugee Camp Settings. Journal of Education in Emergencies, 1(1): 92-130.

Dryden-Peterson, Sarah. (2006). 'I find myself as someone who is in the forest': Urban Refugees as Agents of Social Chance in Kampala, Uganda. Journal of Refugee Studies, 19, 381-395. Open Access.

Dryden-Peterson, Sarah. (2019). Refugee Education: Backward Design to Enable Futures. Education and Conflict Review, 2, 49-53.

Transnational Relationships

Dryden-Peterson, Sarah, & Celia Reddick. (2019). “What I Believe Can Rescue That Nation”: Diaspora Working to Transform Education in Fragility and Conflict. Comparative Education Review, 63(2), 213-235. Open Access.

Dahya, Negin, Sarah Dryden-Peterson, Dacia Douhaibi, Olivier Arvisais. (2019). Social Support Networks, Instant Messaging, and Gender Equity in Refugee Education. Information, Communication, and Society, 22(6), 774-790.

Dahya, Negin, and Sarah Dryden-Peterson. (2016). Tracing pathways to higher education for refugees: The role of virtual support networks and mobile phones for women in refugee camps. Comparative Education, 53(2), 284-301. Open Access.

Douhaibi, Dacia, Negin Dahya, Olivier Arvisais, and Sarah Dryden-Peterson. (2020). Culture, Gender, and Technology: Mediating Teacher Training Using Text Messaging in Refugee Camps. In A Better Future: The Role of Higher Education for Displaced and Marginalized People, pp. 451-472 (edited by Jacqueline Bhabha and Wenona Giles). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Language and Literacy

Dryden-Peterson, Sarah. (2021). Toward Cognitive and Temporal Mobility: Language Considerations in Refugee Education. Modern Language Journal, 105(2): 569-608.

See related, Keynote Address, Language, Migration, and Education: Threading Past, Present, and Future-Building at the Language and Migration: Experience and Memory Symposium of Princeton University and the United Nations, May 2021.

Reddick, Celia, and Sarah Dryden-Peterson. (2021). Refugee Education and Medium of Instruction: Tensions in Theory, Policy and Practice, pp. 208-233. In Language Issues in Comparative Education II: Policy and Practice in Multilingual Education Based on Non-Dominant Languages (edited by Carolyn Benson and Kimmo Kosonen). Boston: Brill. Open Access.

See related, FreshEd with Will Brehm, Refugee Education and Language of Instruction (July 2021).

Piper, Benjamin, Vidur Chopra, Sarah Dryden-Peterson, Celia Reddick, Arbogast Oyanga. (2020). Are Refugees Learning? Early Grade Literacy Outcomes in a Refugee Camp in Kenya. Journal on Education in Emergencies, 5(2): 71-107.

See related, Journal on Education in Emergencies podcast, Behind the Pages: Are Refugee Children Learning? (2021).

Dryden-Peterson, Sarah. (2006). The Present is Local, the Future is Global? Reconciling Current and Future Livelihood Strategies in the Education of Congolese Refugees in Uganda. Refugee Survey Quarterly, 25, 81-92. Open Access.

In a non-refugee context, see, Barrera-Osorio, Felipe, de Barros Andreas, Sarah Dryden-Peterson, Nakajima Nozomi, Bethany Mulimbi, and Paola Uccelli. (2020). Levers for Learning: Relationships between school-level factors and literacy outcomes in low-income schools in Colombia. Comparative Education Review, 64(2): 269-298.

Global Policy

Adelman, Elizabeth, Vidur Chopra, and Sarah Dryden-Peterson. (2019). Including and Education Syrian Refugees in National Education Systems: The Case of Lebanon. Background paper prepared for the Arab States 2019 Global Education Monitoring Report Paper. Paris: UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report.

Dryden-Peterson, Sarah, Elizabeth Adelman, Sagra Alvarado, Katelin Anderson, Michelle J. Bellino, Ranya Brooks, Sayeda Unsa Shah Bukhari, Elizabeth Cao, Vidur Chopra, Zuhra Faizi, Ben Gulla, Dahlia Maarouf, Celia Reddick, Ben Scherrer, Elizabeth Smoake, and Elli Suzuki. (2018). Inclusion of Refugees in National Education Systems. Background paper prepared for the Global Education Monitoring Report 2019: Migration, Education, and Displacement. Paris: UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report.

Dryden-Peterson, Sarah. (2016). Policies for education in conflict and post-conflict reconstruction, pp. 189-205. In Handbook of Global Policy-Making in Education (edited by Karen Mundy, Andy Green, Bob Lingard, & Antoni Verger). Chichester, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.

Menashy, Francine, and Sarah Dryden-Peterson. (2015). The Global Partnership for Education’s Evolving Support to Fragile and Conflict-Affected States. International Journal of Educational Development, 44, 82-94. Open Access.

Dryden-Peterson, Sarah, Michelle J. Bellino, and Vidur Chopra. (2015). Conflict: Education and Youth, pp. 632-638. In International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioral Sciences (edited by James D. Wright). Oxford: Elsevier.

Dryden-Peterson, Sarah. (November 2011). Refugee Education: A Global Review. Geneva: UNHCR.

See related, UNHCR Education Strategies advised on: UNHCR Education Strategy, 2012-2016; Refugee Education 2030: A Strategy for Refugee Inclusion.

Dryden-Peterson, Sarah. (2011). The Politics of Higher Education for Refugees in a Global Movement for Basic Education. Refuge, 27(2), 10-18.

Dryden-Peterson, Sarah, and Lucy Hovil. (2004). A Remaining Hope for Durable Solutions: Local Integration of Refugees and their Hosts in the Case of Uganda. Refuge, 22, 26-38.

In Contexts of Resettlement (United States)

Dryden-Peterson, Sarah. (2015). Education of Refugees in Countries of First Asylum: What US teachers need to know about the pre-resettlement experiences of refugee children. Washington, DC: Migration Policy Institute.

See related, Public Radio International, Global Nation: Closing the borders to refugees also means shutting out children who need a better education (November 20, 2015).

Dryden-Peterson, Sarah, and Celia Reddick. (2017). ‘When I am a President of Guinea’: Resettled Refugees Traversing Education in Search of a Future. European Education, 49(1), 253-275. Open Access.

Dryden-Peterson, Sarah. (2017). Family-School Relationships in Immigrant Children’s Well-Being: The Intersection of Demographics and School Culture in the Experiences of Black African Immigrants in the United States. Race Ethnicity and Education, 21(4): 486-502. Open Access.

Dryden-Peterson, Sarah. (2010). Bridging Home: Building relationships between immigrant and long-time resident youth. Teachers College Record, 112(9), 2320-2351. Open Access.

Chopra, Vidur, and Sarah Dryden-Peterson. (2020) Higher Education in Exile: Inequalities and Opportunities, pp.84-105. In A Better Future: The Role of Higher Education for Displaced and Marginalized People (edited by Jacqueline Bhabha and Wenona Giles). Cambridge University Press.

Dryden-Peterson, Sarah. (2011). Reconciliation through relationships among teachers and sub-Saharan African families in the U.S.A., pp. 32-54. In Education and Reconciliation (edited by Julia Paulson). London: Continuum.

Peacebuilding and Conflict Mitigation through Education

Dryden-Peterson, Sarah. (2021). Keynote Address. By the State but not For the State: History Education in Settings of Forced Migration. Keynote Address, Rethinking the Curriculum in Lebanon and the Arab World: Reconciling Ideologies and Pedagogies, Beirut, Lebanon.

Mulimbi, Bethany, & Sarah Dryden-Peterson. (2019). Experiences of (Dis)Unity: Students’ negotiation of ethnic and national identities in Botswana schools. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 50(4), 404-423. Open Access.

Mulimbi, Bethany, & Sarah Dryden-Peterson. (2018). “There is still peace. There are no wars.”: Prioritizing unity over diversity in Botswana’s social studies policies and practices and the implications for positive peace. International Journal of Educational Development. 61(July): 142-154. Open Access.

Mulimbi, Bethany, & Sarah Dryden-Peterson. (2017). Responses to cultural diversity in Botswana’s schools: links between national policy, school actions and students’ civic equality. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 50(3), 364-386. Open Access.

Dryden-Peterson, Sarah, and Bethany Mulimbi. (2017). Pathways Toward Peace: Negotiating National Unity and Ethnic Diversity through Education in Botswana. Comparative Education Review, 61(1), 58-82. Open Access.

Dryden-Peterson, Sarah, and Rob Siebörger. (2006). Teachers as memory makers: Testimony in the making of a new history in South Africa. International Journal of Educational Development, 26(4), 394-403. Open Access.

Dryden-Peterson, Sarah. (2017). Learning to Live Together: Toward Pedagogies of “Dynamic Peace” (essay review). Comparative Education Review, 61:2, 441-444.

Guest Edited Journals & Edited Volume Introductions

Dryden-Peterson, Sarah, Jo Kelcey, and S. Garnett Russell. (2020). Editorial Note, Special Issue on Refugees and Education Part I. Journal on Education in Emergencies, 5(1): 5-10.

Dryden-Peterson, Sarah, Jo Kelcey, and S. Garnett Russell. (2020). Editorial Note, Special Issue on Refugees and Education Part II. Journal on Education in Emergencies, 5(2): 5-8.

Mundy, Karen, and Sarah Dryden-Peterson. (2011). Educating Children in Zones of Conflict: An Overview and Introduction, pp.1-12. In Educating Children in Conflict Zones: Research, Policy, and Practice for Systemic Change, A Tribute to Jackie Kirk (edited by In Karen Mundy and Sarah Dryden-Peterson). New York: Teachers College Press.

Bengtsson, Stephanie, and Sarah Dryden-Peterson. (2016). Introduction: Education, Fragility & Conflict. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 14:3, 327-330.

Dryden-Peterson, Sarah, and Wenona Giles. (2011). Introduction: Higher Education for Refugees. Refuge, 27:2, 3-9.

Methodologies

Dryden-Peterson, Sarah. (2020). Transitions: Researchers’ Positionality and Malleability of Site and Self Over Time. Harvard Educational Review, 90(1), 127-144.

See related, Studying Change Over Time: How Do We Make Shifts in Researcher Positionality Transparent? The Blog of Harvard Education Publishing (2020).

Online Appendix, further notes on Methodology: Dryden-Peterson, Sarah, Elizabeth Adelman, Michelle J. Bellino, and Vidur Chopra. (2019). The Purposes of Refugee Education: Policy and Practice of Integrating Refugees into National Education Systems. Sociology of Education, 92(4), 346-366.

Dryden-Peterson, Sarah. (April 2021). Keynote Address. Researching Remotely: Inquiry and Discovery Amid Pandemic. Student Research Symposium, HGSE.

Teaching Cases

Dryden-Peterson, Sarah, and Vidur Chopra. (2016). Investing in Fragile States: A Global Commitment? The Global Partnership for Education. Cambridge: Harvard Education Press.

Chopra, Vidur and Sarah Dryden-Peterson. (2015). More than words: Language as a tool to move from refugee to returnee to citizen in Burundi? Cambridge: Harvard Education Press.

Turney, Adam and Sarah Dryden-Peterson. (2016). Should Refugees Live in Cities? Cambridge: Harvard Education Press.

Bellino, Michelle J. and Sarah Dryden-Peterson. (2016). Access or quality? Decision-making on education in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya. Cambridge: Harvard Education Press.