Under Review

Refugee-led education in transition and virtual “homemaking”. Special Issue: Voices of the Forcibly Displaced: Transition, Resettlement and Education. Cultural and Pedagogical Inquiry.

Whereas migration has always been a part of humanity, the extent, duration, and consequences of international migration across national borders have not only increased but are more complex and challenging in the 21st century (Arar et al., 2019). Conflict-induced displacements are becoming increasingly protracted, with large numbers of children fleeing into neighboring countries that often already struggle with educating their own students and are now faced with the serious responsibilities of finding school placements, trained teachers and learning materials for thousands or millions of newcomers (Dryden-Peterson et al. 2017). The sudden arrival of numerous displaced children whose trajectory and placement are unclear often overwhelms educational systems and governments. In other cases, displaced children face discriminatory bureaucratic or linguistic barriers that make it hard for them to enroll in local schools (Garcia & Sylvan 2011). As a result, children may experience prolonged periods outside of school and miss on years of learning (Ajdukovic et al. 2019). In February 2022, Russia launched a war on Ukraine, which has led to the greatest refugee movement and displacement since WW2, with nearly a third of Ukrainians forced out of their homes, either internally displaced or seeking asylum in another country (UNHCR, 2022). An additional 900,000 people have left Russia, fleeing forced military conscription, political persecution, repressive regime and protesting the war. Against this backdrop, an online community school, “Nomadic Tardigrade,” has been founded to continue the education of children participating in concurring displacements and provide them with a sense of normality and social interactions during these difficult times. Based on analysis of interviews, lessons, and artworks,  I examine an art laboratory entitled “Home, where I” that was taught in this school to expand the notion of “homemaking” (Fabos 2017) among displaced children existing in continuous liminality.

“Do no harm: Singling out Marginalized Pupils in Anthropology of  Educational Research”

This chapter delves into the experiences of refugee children integrating into Kampala classrooms, underlining methodological insights gleaned from fieldwork. It is based on condensed ethnographic work in three primary schools in  Kampala, Uganda and includes participatory observations, semi-structured interviews with refugee pupils (65), parents (18), teachers (24), and refugee organisations (4) and participatory arts-based methods. By reflectively examining my own complicity in the construction of different categories, deemed worthy of research and reactions to my presence in the field, I unveil grassroots enactment of different refugee-related narratives. The study shows the nuanced effects of self-reliance policies and aid discourse on local dynamics, legal boundaries, notions of deservingness and exclusion, and the interplay between legal status and school dynamics. While international organisations view refugees as vulnerable, Uganda's self-reliance expectation clashes with this. This dynamic influences how refugee children perceive themselves and are perceived by others within schools. Unlike in the Global North, where refugee access to opportunities is limited, Uganda's open-door policy and lack of infrastructure create a reliance on targeted aid, shaping power dynamics within communities and schools. The study highlights the conflicting integration narratives present in Uganda: government emphasis on self-reliance vs. international organisations' support for refugees. 

“What evidence-based interventions have been helpful in reducing violence and improving safety in schools located in conflict and protracted crisis settings?” [IRC study]

The present study aims to contribute to our understanding of what contributes to  promoting safety, mitigating violence and enhancing children’s well-being in schools located in conflict and protracted crisis settings. Analyzing a rigorous body of evidence collected by the Education Research in Conflict and Protracted Crisis (ERICC) program and other databases, we map the evidence of school-based research, to look at interventions aimed at reducing different forms of violence in school settings and create a more supportive and safe environment. Out of  138 studies focusing on school safety and violence, we identify 44 high-quality, evidence-based evaluations of interventions and meta-analyses implemented in conflict-affected schools. We review these interventions focusing primarily on reducing violence and promoting schools safety through mental health, socio-emotional learning, and child-friendly safe spaces, and consider the ways they help mitigate different forms of violence by teachers and between peers. Looking at their impact, fidelity, and cost-effectiveness we see that while there is a lot of research on the barriers to safety in schools, there is a limited evidence-based evaluation on the impact, sustainability and cost-effectiveness of these interventions for violence reduction in schools.  Existing gaps that emerged from the literature, reveal that while there is an emphasis on mental health interventions, there is limited evidence on school-based interventions that focus on violence reduction and school safety in conflict and crisis contexts. We end by providing some evidence-based best practices in this field and potential areas for further research.

B. Herman, Kagan, M. M. Aurec. “The Real History”: Teaching the 1971 Liberation War in Bangladesh.

This chapter examines how educators in Bangladesh teach narratives of the 1971 Liberation War as presented in national social studies textbooks. Since independence, textbooks have been critical sites of contestation, undergoing politically motivated revisions with each new regime. This study explores how teachers navigate these complex dynamics and reconcile competing narratives in the classroom. Based on six months of fieldwork, including over 30 school visits across six of Bangladesh’s eight divisions and more than 60 semi-structured interviews with teachers and administrators, we assess the strategies teachers use to teach these politically contested narratives. Four key themes emerge from the analysis: teaching by the book, teaching “real history,” teaching politicization, and teaching how to comply. These themes reveal how educators balance presenting accurate historical narratives with adhering to political pressures, while ensuring educational quality and success for their students. This work contributes to the literature by illuminating the gaps between curriculum design and classroom implementation, highlighting the unique strategies educators use to navigate these challenges in a politically charged environment.

Kagan, M. & H. Pinson. School Choice in Uncertainty: Temporariness and Liminality of Ukrainian Refugee Mothers.

This qualitative study focuses on the educational choices of Ukrainian refugee parents, primarily mothers, who fled to Israel in the months following the Russian invasion. Comparing the educational choices of 22 parents, those who can claim citizenship based on their Jewish ancestry (classified as ‘returnees’); and those who received extended temporary tourist visa (classified as ‘fugitives’), the study shows the layered conditions that contribute to educational decision-making. The research participants share a similar background and have all fled the same country abruptly. Like other refugee parents, they face an acute sense of uncertainty, not knowing when and if they will be able to return home. However, there are vast differences in their experiences upon arriving to Israel, as the degree of temporariness they experience is mitigated by their legal status. Parents were highly focused on education as a future-making process, but the precariousness of their legal status dictated their ability to exhibit educational agency and make their own school choices. We focus on three main pillars shaping these Ukrainian parents’ educational choices: the centrality of education for Ukrainian parents, their educational agency, and how liminal legality and notions of temporariness shape educational expectations and future trajectories. 

Gez, Y., Claire Medard, M. Kagan et al., Lessons from a collaborative workshop on the afterlives of development intervention in Western Kenya.

The article draws on a collective qualitative research approach known as ECRIS (Enquête collective rapide d’identification des conflits et des groupes stratégiques)[1], building on its core interpretative dimension and interdisciplinary exchanges as pioneered by development anthropologists Jean Pierre Olivier de Sardan and Thomas Bierschenk (1997; 1994). In particular, we share our reflections following a research field training focused on the remains of a Finnish-Kenyan water-infrastructure collaboration called Kefinco (early 1980s to mid-1990s). For almost two weeks, we—this article’s authors—participated in a variation on ECRIS, true to the spirit of exploration and flexibility that gave rise to the approach. Our research interactions concentrated on ethnography, with special attention to questions of positionality vis-à-vis the field and vis-à-vis others within our highly heterogeneous team. At the same time, the workshop made use of multi-scalar epistemologies and data points. Encompassing diverse points of view, we were challenged to resist the temptation of single-story simplifications. Written from a methodological perspective, the article draws from our team’s respective experiences and fieldwork, including reflexive, on-site informal discussions and daily debriefings. In addition, after the workshop, all participants agreed to compose an essay in response to the open question, “What struck me in particular about the workshop experience?”[2] These individual essays—some of which were ethnographic in nature, others evaluative, yet others conceptual—were then used as the basis for the co-authorship of this article.

[1] English: Rapid Collective Investigation for the Identification of Conflicts and Strategic Groups.

[2] Out of 28 participants, 26 contributed essays and 2 participants did not contribute essays but assumed a greater role in analyzing the data and preparing this contribution.

Work in progress

How do non-citizen children claim space? A comparative place-based methodological exploration
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), of the 117.3  million displaced people worldwide,  47 million are children and youth, many of whom live in urban areas. Understanding the lived experiences and barriers to education for displaced children, most of whom will be living outside their country of birth for protracted periods, has never been more pressing. While scholars and policy-makers attempt to understand best practices and their influence on children’s well-being, educational trajectories and social integration, the differences between contexts make it difficult to compare the experiences across different case studies. This has often led comparative scholars to focus either on the implementation of a specific policy or legacy of a specific tradition (e.g., colonialist, feminist) or to choose several particular variables, which inevitably means that complexities are lost and critical issues may be overlooked (Brown and Schwisfurth 2024). Spatial analysis allows us to look at the social production of space at local scales (Vavrus 2015, 138) and consider context through space. Employing Massey’s framework of looking at how trajectories interact in space allows us to look at “power geometries, " investigate school-community interactions, and open up the context complexities (Dunne et al. 2021). Based on three case studies in urban centers in Kampala, Uganda, Tel Aviv, Israel and Philadelphia, United States, this paper argues that this framework allows us to focus on locally relevant ‘burning’ educational questions for displaced children while allowing for comparative analysis. Through the integration of school ethnography, in-depth neighborhood analysis, and GIS mapping techniques, the research examines how refugee and migrant children experience integration within the intersecting local histories, geographies of migration, and educational landscapes of their specific localities. The study explores the diverse perceptions of migration, belonging, and locality that shape children’s experiences in school and neighborhood spaces, highlighting the role of historical and contemporary migration contexts in shaping educational access, social mobility, and well-being. By linking these lived experiences to broader “everyday geographies” (Mankiw, 2015), the paper offers a nuanced understanding of how place, identity, and education intersect while expanding the analytical lens beyond legal migration frameworks and school boundaries. The transnational comparison reveals critical insights into how educational and social integration processes vary across national and historical contexts, offering a new perspective on comparative children’s geographies and migration studies.

Collective Responsibility: Cultivating Inclusive Classrooms for Refugee Children through Ubuntu-inspired educational practices
This article presents findings from an ethnographic study focusing on the inclusion of refugee children in three refugee-hosting primary schools in Kampala, Uganda. I draw on classroom participatory observations and fieldnotes from several months of ethnographic work to help unravel the intricate interplay of local integration policy, pedagogy, and societal perceptions of migration and childhood in shaping the lived experiences of refugee children. The analysis delves into the impact of convergent pedagogical practices and cultural values on refugee children's sense of belonging and well-being in the classroom. While acknowledging the broader influence of increasingly nationalistic and anti-migratory global discourse on refugee children's school experiences (McIntyre & Abrams, 2021), this article contends that local definitions of belonging, membership, and well-being also wield significant influence. Specifically, the study explores how Ugandan teachers employ a blend of convergent Western and traditional Ubuntu-inspired, whole-class pedagogy to create an instructional environment that diminishes differences between children but also underscores mutual support, solidarity, and responsibility. This research exemplifies alternative conceptualizations of refugee inclusion originating from the Global South, emphasizing a paradigm centered on collective responsibility, diverging from approaches that frame refugees as individuals undertaking (or resisting) integration efforts.

Leveraging Vulnerability? Refugee Status and Advocating for Belonging in Kampala Public Schools
Uganda's government maintains an open-door policy for refugees but promotes self-reliance once they arrive, creating ambiguities and contradictions in refugee-related discourse. Without government aid, organizations, communities, and individuals bear the social and economic pressures of hosting refugees. In Kampala, where a growing number of self-settled refugees intensifies existing community challenges, debates arise over prioritizing the needs of refugees versus those of the wider population. Within host communities, institutions, NGOs, and among refugees themselves, two contrasting images emerge: refugees as vulnerable versus self-reliant. Some institutions advocate for refugees by emphasizing their vulnerability and need for special assistance, while others espouse imaginaries of refugee resourcefulness and privilege, thereby rejecting the need for aid. These discourses are closely tied to broader questions of deservingness and the city's ongoing social and economic challenges. This article focuses on schools in Kampala that host refugee children, exploring how school administrators, teachers, refugee parents, and children themselves invoke these narratives of vulnerability or self-reliance, and how these perceptions shape refugees' self-identity., The examination of these discourses provides rare insights into how institutions, communities and refugees themselves experience and interpret the economic and social outcomes of government policies based on both open-door and self-reliance.