Towards a Model for Integrating Informal and Formal Learning for Children in Refugee Camps: The Example of the Lesbos School for Peace

Ephrat Huss,Smadar Ben Asher,Eitan Shahar,Tsvia Walden

doi:10.3390/socsci10030111

Ephrat Huss, Smadar Ben Asher + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci10030111

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Abstract

The aim of this paper is to describe a unique, bottom-up model for building a school based on humanistic intercultural values in a post-disaster/refugee area. We think that this model will be of use in similar contexts. This single-case study can teach us about the needs of refugee children, as well as provide strategies to reach these needs with limited resources in additional similar contexts. Additionally, this paper will outline a qualitative arts-based methodology to understand and to evaluate refugee children’s lived experience of in-detention camp schools. Our field site is an afternoon school for refugee children operated and maintained by volunteers and refugee teachers. The methodology is a participatory case study using arts-based research, interviews, and observation of a school built for refugee camp children in Lesbos. Participants in this study included the whole school, from children to teachers, to volunteers and managers. The research design was used to inform the school itself, and to outline the key components found to be meaningful in making the school a positive experience. These components could be emulated by similar educational projects and used to evaluate them on an ongoing basis.

Highlights

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The images described intense conflicts between the different ethnicities in the school, including both teachers and students. This included intense efforts to negotiate conflicts in the school on all levels. This theme connects to the first theme, the creation of a safe setting, invested in a ‘home’ that enables the staff and children to put an active focus on relationships, and on problem solving through dialogue, rather than the violence characterizing the refugee camps
The subjects studied were hard to teach because the level of the children constantly changed and there were no text books, yet the situation of formal learning provided so much pride

Summary

Objectives

The aim of this paper is to describe a unique, bottom-up model for building a school based on humanistic intercultural values in a post-disaster/refugee area

Methods

Results

Conclusion