Organizer: Ruth Naylor, Education Development Trust
Discussant: Lyndsay Bird
Overview of the session:
This symposium will bring together academics, practitioners and government authorities to reflect on the current status of education for refugees and IDPs, with a focus on overcoming the challenges of ensuring long term access to quality education. It will consider the current evidence base, the gaps and discuss a way forward for research on education for forcibly displaced populations.
Presentation 1: What do we know about teaching refugees and IDPs? State of the global evidence and evidence gaps
Ruth Naylor, Education Development Trust
This introductory presentation will frame the session and will draw on the recently published topic guide on Education for Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons which was designed to support DFID advisors, education specialists, and other partners working on providing education for refugees and Internally Displaced People (IDPs). It provides a global overview of forced displacement and education, and describes the state of research, policy, and practice in refugee and IDP education. This state-of-the-art review looks at opportunities and challenges in access to and the quality of education for both refugees and IDPs. It identifies and explores examples of best practice and innovations, whilst noting the lack of a robust evidence base on what works.
Presentation 2: Perspectives of IDP teachers in DRC
Cyril Brandt, University of Amsterdam
Very little is known about internally displaced teachers. This presentation explores the predicaments of teachers who return to their villages and re-open schools after multiple forced displacements. It draws on qualitative ethnographic research in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It draws connections to literature on teachers in other long term conflicts (Aceh/Indonesia, Peru and Nepal). The presentation considers the employment conditions of teachers; teachers’ role as state agents and their relation to the militias; and the non-pedagogic functions that teachers carry out (willingly or unwillingly). It sheds light on inherent ambivalences of redeploying teachers in a conflict where teachers are structurally neglected but expected to comply with the state’s demands.
Presentation 3: Capacity development in planning for displaced populations
MoE, Ethiopia
This presentation by an Ethiopian MoE representative will focus on the challenges and strategies used to plan education for displaced populations in Ethiopia. Based on a new long-term collaboration agreement between the MoE and international partners, officials at both district and camp levels will work together with national and international organizations to enhance their capacities to effectively plan for refugee populations. This capacity development initiative will focus on reinforcing skills, knowledge and tools for planning, from need analysis to programming and monitoring and evaluation.
Presentation 4: Taking the research agenda forward and building an evidence base
Chris Berry, DFID and Leonora MacEwen, IIEP
DFID will provide an overview of their current and planned research into education in conflict and protracted crisis. Much of this is in its early stages, but some emerging learning from the Humanitarian Education accelerator and the Girls Education Challenge Fund may be available for discussion. In addition, UNESCO-IIEP will be conducting research on the management of teachers of refugees. This 3-year research programme aims to provide governments with a variety of evidence-based policy choices and practices on providing teachers for refugees. The descriptive studies will look at policies, programmes and practices in teacher management in refugee settings in six countries. More specifically, the research will examine how governments are currently engaged in the management of the recruitment and deployment, certification, professional development and incentives of teachers of refugees. The scope and methodological tools will be described during this presentation.
