Refugee children’s experiences of education in countries of first asylum

Abstract

This chapter begins to build conceptual and empirical understandings of educational experiences of refugee children in countries of first asylum, before they are resettled to countries such as the USA, Canada, Australia, the UK, and others. Conceptually, the analysis emphasises the relevance of conflict conditions to the structures of refugee education and the types of educational experiences refugee children have pre-resettlement. It discusses that, rather than starting anew upon arrival in a resettlement country, most contemporary refugee children have experienced education in countries of first asylum, which are in most cases low-income countries. From analysis of classroom observation data and interview data from teachers and refugee children, three themes emerge of the educational experiences of refugees in countries of first asylum: language barriers; pedagogy; and discrimination in school settings. The chapter identifies the problem of teacher-centred pedagogy in the educational experiences of refugee children in countries of first asylum.