In recent years, higher education in refugee contexts has begun to receive increasing attention within the humanitarian-development sector. Resource constraints, coupled with the technology and innovation zeitgeist in international development drives, have helped to create a higher education space where courses in refugee camps are typically…

Drawing on observations and interviews with teachers and students enrolled in a camp secondary school, this article documents how youth aspirations are constructed, supported and constrained in the context of a limited opportunity structure. Data demonstrate that schools enforce cultural scripts of meritocracy, along with assurances that hard work…

In this qualitative study, I investigated the ways in which refugee youth in Kakuma Refugee Camp in northwestern Kenya perceive the extent to which the camp schools have provided them with educational capabilities that can enable them to reach their aspirations and goals, within the difficult conditions under which they live and learn about the…

In this paper, we studied the implementation of a course on global history as a blended section of a massive open online course (MOOC) and the learning challenges faced by the students in three crisis contexts: Azraq refugee camp (Jordan), Kakuma refugee camp (Kenya), and Amman urban refugee center (Jordan). The results showed that poor Internet…

Theories of change (ToCs) are underutilized in programming and evaluation and seldom analyzed with regard to the challenges and opportunities they present, especially in conflict-affected contexts. We reflect on the use of ToCs in UNICEF's Peacebuilding, Education, and Advocacy program, using four studies we carried out in Ethiopia and Dadaab…

This article explores the impact of global policy shifts toward 'national integration' on schooling for refugee youth in Kenya. Based on interviews and classroom observations in Kakuma Refugee Camp, we theorize that integration manifests in a multidirectional, hierarchical manner as few refugees integrate "up" into government schools,…

While there is growing attention to language as a central issue in education for refugees, this policy area still appears to be dominated by an apolitical, technical, and instrumentalist perspective. Through a comparison of language-in-education policies in two refugee camp contexts, Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya and the refugee camps along the…

The concepts of 'leadership' and 'inclusion' continue to attract much attention in educational discourses; however, not many studies have explored their connection in schools serving conflict-affected communities where displacement and fragmentation of families risks the access, participation and achievement of many young people in education. This…

"UNESCO believes that education is a human right for all throughout life and that access must be matched by quality." While this statement is a worthy ideal, it does not meet the needs of all populations, especially our most vulnerable. The refugee crisis has opened up new channels for education to find its place among the supports given…

An unprecedented 65.6 million persons are forcibly displaced (e.g., refugees, asylum-seekers, IDPs). Half are youth. Hope is often the feeling that sustains youth through intolerable conditions. Basic education in protracted areas is seen as a protective factor that nurtures hope and psychosocial wellbeing in the lives of children and youth. This…

In this UniCollaboration plenary session, Barbara Moser-Mercer speaks on setting up education classrooms in refugee camps with University of Geneva students. She starts off with a video which speaks to the virtual exchange idea and how students from the University of Geneva are working together with students in Macau and how that could be…

History has much to offer education in emergencies scholars and practitioners. Most research in this field comprises qualitative case studies and, to a lesser extent, quantitative experimental studies, both of which tend to focus on either the impact of interventions or whether education processes or structures are a cause or effect of conflict. I…

In this paper, we explore the role of online social networks in the cultivation of pathways to higher education for refugees, particularly for women. We compare supports garnered in local and offline settings to those accrued through online social networks and examine the differences between women and men. The paper draws on complementary original…

This volume explores the shared expectations that education is a panacea for the difficulties that refugees and their receiving countries face. This book investigates the ways in which education is both a dream solution as well as a contested landscape for refugee families and students. Using comparative, cross-national perspectives across five…