Quality Education

Young Peruvian boy practices reading while sitting at a desk. Photo: Elizabeth Adelman

What are levers for inclusive and quality education for refugees?

Over one half of children globally who are out of school live in conflict settings. Yet quality education is an essential component for securing a future for refugee children. REACH identifies ways to strengthen and build refugees’ “unknowable futures.” This work is relevant not only for refugees but for other young people globally who face similar, even if less extreme, uncertainties in the face of rapid globalization and technological change.

cornflower blue sq.png — Are Refugee Children Learning? Early Grade Literacy in a Refugee Camp in Kenya

by Benjamin Piper, Sarah Dryden-Peterson, Vidur Chopra, Celia Reddick, and Arbogast Oyanga

Research article

Are Refugee Children Learning? Early Grade Literacy in a Refugee Camp in Kenya by Benjamin Piper, Sarah Dryden-Peterson, Vidur Chopra, Celia Reddick, and Arbogast Oyanga (2020) in The Journal on Education in Emergencies.

In the first literacy census in a refugee camp, the authors assessed all the schools providing lower primary education to refugee children in Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya. The outcomes for these students were concerningly low, even lower than for those of disadvantaged children in the host community, Turkana County. Literacy outcomes differed among the refugee children, depending on their country of origin, the language of instruction used at the school in Kenya, the languages spoken at home, and the children’s self-professed expectation of a return to their country of origin.

policy engagement

Refugee Education: Backward Design to Enable Futures by Sarah Dryden-Peterson (2019) in Education and Conflict Review.

This short paper explores the use of backward design as a way to conceptualize refugee education policy and practice. Drawing on examples of classroom and research experiences, it proposes a planning template aimed at enabling refugee education policy and practice to facilitate the futures that refugee young people imagine and aim to create.

Curriculum

Tío Emilio’s Story written by Hania Mariën (2019). A curriculum for students ages 10-14.

Tío Emilio’s Story is a narrative of one individual’s pursuit of education during a time of conflict in Nicaragua. It offers students an insight into life in Nicaragua from 1967-1990, as experienced by one child on Isla Ometepe and touches upon issues of poverty, armed violence, and leaving home, as well as that of resilience and persistence. At its core, however, it is about learning to be a child. Educators and students are encouraged to learn with and from Tío Emilio and critically engage with Nicaraguan history, the United States’ involvement in the country, and to think about how conflict and military regimes can impact education.

Additional Resources

All Resources

Sarah Dryden-Peterson on TVO’s The Agenda with Steve Paikin

Video | What would it take to ensure that all refugee young people have access to learning that enables them to feel a sense of belonging? Refugee REACH founder and director Sarah Dryden-Peterson joined Steve Paikin on TVO’s The Agenda to discuss her book “Right Where We Belong: How Refugee Teachers and Students Are Changing the Future of Education,” and to explore this question.

Refugee Education: Power, Purposes, and Pedagogies Across Contexts

Video | Refugee REACH director Sarah Dryden-Peterson delivers a lecture titled Refugee Education: Power, Purposes, and Pedagogies Across Contexts, hosted by NYU’s Global TIES for Children.

FreshEd Podcast on Refugee Education and Language of Instruction

Podcast | Celia Reddick and Sarah Dryden-Peterson discuss language of instruction in refugee education on the FreshEd podcast, hosted by Will Brehm.

Doing Research Amid Pandemic

Video | Refugee REACH director Sarah Dryden-Peterson and students Esther Elonga, Martha Franco, Orelia Jonathan, and Kristia Wantchekon discuss how experiences of uncertainty affect the research design process amid multiple pandemics of Covid-19 and racism.

Creating Change in Real Time

Insight | Student leaders and educators in Refugee REACH director Sarah Dryden-Peterson's new module at HGSE, Education in Uncertainty, share how they were able to connect their studies to practice and respond to emerging needs of their local communities and build supports during Covid-19.

In Focus: Mary Winters

Interview | Mary Winters, an HGSE alumna and now Programme Specialist with the LEGO Foundation, shares what it’s been like to put her classroom learning into practice, how she uses research in her work, and what keeps her going.

Social Support Networks, Instant Messaging, and Gender Equity in Refugee Education

Research | This article finds that peer-to-peer group chats expand transnational learning opportunities and possibilities for instructional innovations, community engagement, and conversations about gender equity in refugee education.

Quality Education for Refugees in Kenya: Instruction in Urban Nairobi and Kakuma Refugee Camp Settings

Research | This article examines the quality of education available to refugees in both urban and refugee camp settings in Kenya, with a particular focus on teacher pedagogy.

The Educational Experiences of Refugee Children in Countries of First Asylum

Report | This policy report explores the educational histories of young refugee children in first-asylum countries, and identifies elements of these that are relevant to post-resettlement education in the United States.

Abdul

Children’s Book | This resource details the personal account of Abdul, an Afghani child whose schooling was interrupted by armed conflict, but who never gave up in his pursuit for education.