Refugee Education: The Crossroads of Globalization

 

Summary

This article probes a question at the core of comparative education—how to realize the right to education for all and ensure opportunities to use that education for future participation in society. Data show how refugee children are caught between the global promise of universal human rights, the definition of citizenship rights within nation-states, and the realization of these sets of rights in everyday practices.

 
 

Key Takeaways

We offer the following practical steps and actions based on this research below (click to expand).

+ For Policymakers

INSIGHTS ACTIONS
Although increasingly able to access their right to education, refugees are without mechanisms and institutions to activate the complementary rights that would enable them to use their education in society. ➟ Extend educational priorities beyond access and toward policies around work, civic engagement, movement, and higher education that connect the right to education with participation in society.
Global refugee education policies that advocate refugees’ participation in society are ineffective when not accompanied by mechanisms or institutions in host countries that enable this participation. ➟ Work toward alignment between guiding global refugee education policies and mechanisms and institutions of enforcement and opportunity within host countries.

+ For Educators


INSIGHTS ACTIONS
The potential for education to contribute to the well-being of individual refugees, their host countries, and their conflict-affected countries of origin depends on the abilities of refugees to participate economically, politically, and socially. ➟ Advocate for initiatives and policies that allow refugees to use their education in society.
There is often a gap between the presumed possibility of “social citizenship” that comes with attending school and students’ experience in schools, where both refugees and national ethnic and linguistic minority students experience discrimination and lack of belonging. ➟ Promote refugees’ participation at the classroom and school levels, serving as examples for other teachers and leaders.
Historically, refugee education policy has focused on enabling the universal right to education. Now, it is beginning to include refugees’ participation in learning and social dimensions of school. ➟ Adopt inclusive policies in practical ways. Model ways of engaging economic, political, and social participation in classrooms and schools, including how to navigate unequal structures and rights.

+ For Researchers


FURTHER RESEARCH IS NEEDED TO EXAMINE:
  • How to enable the universal right to education in all refugee-hosting countries and facilitate refugees’ ability to use that education within their host countries;

  • The ideal and actual roles and partnerships of globalized actors such as UNHCR and national governments, particularly in negotiating tension between countries’ sovereignty and the rights of refugees.

Citation (APA): Dryden-Peterson, S. (2016). Refugee Education: The Crossroads of Globalization. Educational Researcher 45(9): 473-482.

 
Globalization & MigrationSarah Dryden-PetersonFor Researchers, Citizenship, Civic Education, Globalization