In this qualitative research article, we examine the feasibility and perceptions of a remote early learning program and the Ahlan Simsim Families parenting program in hard-to-access areas of Lebanon. Our research targets Syrian refugee families dealing with the economic aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the resulting social tensions and a recovering education system. We explore the experiences of teachers, facilitators, and caregivers in order to identify the key factors that contributed to the two programs' success. Data from 71 postintervention interviews and 9 focus groups conducted in July 2022 and January 2023 reveal that remote programs are viable in contexts with limited in-person access. Despite some challenges, both teachers and caregivers demonstrated their adaptability and commitment. Flexible programming that accommodated family schedules proved essential. The caregivers' engagement was driven by their recognition of the programs' value and embracing of play-based learning. Using Weisner's (2002) ecocultural framework, the study challenges the notion that education programs must align with family routines. It presents evidence from the Ahlan Simsim intervention that this program can have a positive effect, even in the absence of established daily routines. The study highlights the importance of program design, teacher training, and collaboration in meeting families' diverse needs, which has implications for creating flexible, engaging, remote early childhood education programs.

In Right Where We Belong: How Refugee Teachers and Students Are Changing the Future of Education, Sarah Dryden-Peterson draws from ethnographic case study research and in-depth interviews to offer a comprehensive analysis of the education challenges refugee youth face globally, as well as solutions for policymakers and practitioners. In her review of Dryden-Peterson's book, Farzanah Darwish highlights the power and potential of refugee-led education programs, which offer critical opportunities for both teachers and students in conflict-affected countries to drive local solutions. Darwish suggests that readers in the field of education in emergencies will be interested in the book's exploration of how innovative and flexible forms of education that are grounded in mental health support, community involvement, and culturally relevant curricula can support the unique needs of refugee communities.

Many efforts are under way around the world to make children aware of their cultural heritage, as stated in the 2018-2021 strategy of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO 2017). One reason children should have awareness of their heritage is that, in combination with a sense of place, it can play an important role in their process of identity-building (Crocetti et al. 2024; Ashworth and Graham 2017; Spiridon, Kosic, and Tuci 2014). Education can be an important way to involve children in their local cultural heritage, but education systems in unstable and conflict-affected areas are repeatedly under pressure, due to the ongoing tension and violence that endanger cultural heritage (Gallagher et al. 2018; UNHCR 2016). In this field note, I argue that a place-based education project to increase children's awareness of the significance of cultural heritage and of their sense of place may be a promising approach to take in conflict-affected areas. I demonstrate this thesis through the Cultural Heritage and Education-Jericho project, which was carried out in the West Bank, Palestine, in December 2021. In this field note, I describe the project's intention, explain how the project team customized the place-based educational approach to the specific circumstances, and discuss the constraints that emerged from the pilot.

Since the early 2000s, the Ethiopian government and global actors in education in emergencies have made significant investments in training refugees to become primary school teachers who deliver education to refugees in Ethiopia. These investments include an incentive teacher training initiative in the country's refugee-hosting regions. This initiative was enhanced in 2018, when the Ethiopian government, supported by global education funding, began offering scholarships to refugees so they could study at teacher training colleges to become qualified primary school teachers. The initiative has faced major challenges in recruiting participants, particularly female refugees. In February and March 2020, a team of 22 researchers conducted a situational needs assessment at 14 refugee camps in Ethiopia. The assessment included focus groups, surveys, and semistructured interviews that were used to collect data from 685 participants. We identified three initiative-specific barriers and four associated structural barriers that were hindering the participation of female refugees. Initiative-specific issues included poor recruitment, a lack of awareness of the initiative among female refugees, and delays in training and scholarships due to funding shortfalls. Structural barriers included the low incentive payment, a shortage of national teachers, limited opportunities for career progression, and a scarcity of eligible refugee girls. My aim in this article is to increase female refugees' participation in the initiative and improve retention rates for both trainees and teachers by providing evidence-based and participant-driven recommendations to address these barriers.

In their Editorial Note accompanying JEiE Volume 10, Number 1, Samantha Colón, Nathan Thompson, and Dana Burde highlight the important contributions the authors featured in this issue make to education in emergencies scholarship and practice. In the research articles section, the contributing authors apply diverse, rigorous methodologies to practical questions in the education in emergencies field that relate to the opportunities and challenges of refining and scaling play-based learning; to the issues surrounding access to capacity-building initiatives for refugee teachers and for parents and caregivers in remote settings; and to the dynamics of intergroup contact, inclusion, and social hierarchy that are reflected in diverse learning spaces. The field notes section offers critical reflections on two adaptable, modular education in emergencies interventions: one is a place-based learning program centered on cultural heritage and young peoples' sense of belonging, and the other is a teacher wellbeing program based on building social-emotional competencies. Finally, the three book reviews featured in this issue highlight themes of belonging and connection to place, especially in the refugee experience, as well as stories of students and their communities being enabled to claim their agency, power, and a stake in a better future.

In this article, we investigate understandings and practices of learning through play (LtP) in refugee and host-country contexts in Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Uganda. This is an area in which international donors have increased their investments in recent years. We used a positive deviance approach to select 12 best practice preprimary and primary schools. We used ethnographic methods to study these schools for 14-20 days in order to learn from their existing play-based teaching and learning practices. Our findings draw from the research team's observations, visually stimulated interviews, and focus group discussions with 205 teachers, parents, and headteachers, and 160 students. The findings reveal that most of these education stakeholders (teachers, students, and parents) understood play and formal learning to be mutually exclusive but also recognized the developmental benefits of play. The findings also describe various LtP and LtP-adjacent learning activities, such as guided play and games, storytelling and role-play, energizers, and structured playful learning. The factors found to be critical to the school-based implementation of LtP include supportive policies, school leadership, and parental support, professional development and support for teachers, and addressing schools' capacity and structural limitations. Based on these findings, we recommend that LtP proponents frame LtP as connected to active learning methods in terms of definition, conceptualization, and advocacy for its integration into policy frameworks. We built on the extant constructivist pedagogy and play literature to develop a typology of classroom-based LtP activities with the aim of encouraging policymakers, practitioners, and researchers to strengthen education systems' ability to provide targeted support for teachers that will enable them to gradually increase their implementation of quality LtP practices across typology zones.

Although thousands of Iraqi refugees who worked with the Allied Forces during the Iraq war have been resettled in the United States, little is known about their experiences. In the aggregate, they are a well-educated, multilingual subset of refugees who aspire to earn college and higher education degrees. In this article, I draw from a series of interviews conducted between 2011 and 2018 with 13 of these Iraqi refugees. My aim is to more fully understand and document their college-going experiences in the US. Framed by notions of deservingness and coloniality in education, this study is driven by two questions: In what ways and by whom are Iraqi refugees with Special Immigrant Visas positioned with regard to deservingness and worthiness in higher education? How do they position themselves? I explore how notions and discourses of deservingness, and their practical and political application, affect the resettlement experiences of these Iraqi refugees. The findings indicate that, because of their Special Immigrant Visa designation and their work with the Allied Forces, these refugees are positioned, and position themselves, not only as deserving but sometimes as being owed a college education. The study offers insights into the long-term effects crisis has on the education of those who are far removed, both geographically and temporally, from a crisis-affected area where they once lived.

In his review of Laboratories of Learning: Social Movements, Education, and Knowledge-Making in the Global South by Mario Novelli, Birgül Kutan, Patrick Kane, Adnan Celik, Tejendra Pherali, and Saranel Benjamin, João Souto-Maior highlights the authors' in-depth qualitative analysis of how social movements create spaces for learning, knowledge creation, and social transformation. Souto-Maior points out the unique contribution this book makes to the education in emergencies field through its discussion of the microlevel processes that shape social movements. Based on the authors' participatory action research, this book is a meaningful methodological addition to the education in emergencies field for scholars and practitioners who are interested in forging meaningful relationships with individuals and organizations directly engaged in social change.

In Citizen Identity Formation of Domestic Students and Syrian Refugee Youth in Jordan: Centering Student Voice and Arab-Islamic Ontologies, Patricia K. Kubow explores constructions of citizen identity and sense of belonging through focus groups with Jordanian students and Syrian refugees who attend double-shift public schools in Amman, Jordan. In her review of Kubow's book, Ozen Guven highlights how Syrian and Jordanian students construct their Arab-Islamic identities in the context of school interactions, and in parallel with the school curriculum. She also points out the challenges Syrian students face as they negotiate multiple identities and navigate feelings of inclusion in the context of the Jordanian education system. Guven highlights the book's contribution to the education in emergencies literature, namely, that it reflects the broader global policy shift toward refugee inclusion in host-country education systems. She concludes that the book is a rich new source for scholars studying citizenship education.