
Schooling for Refugee Children
A social justice perspective informed by children from Syria
Eleanore Hargreaves (Author), Brian Lally (Author), Bassel Akar (Author), Jumana Al-Waeli (Author), Jasmine Costello (Author)
Schooling for Refugee Children is a collaboration between five authors who explore their interactions with refugee children displaced from Syria to the Lebanese borders and London. Through a programme of carefully tailored research activities, they analyse the children’s representations of their personal journeys and current circumstances, especially with regard to ongoing schooling. The children’s experiences are expressed through their own words and drawings, disrupting the stereotype of children as ‘receivers’ rather than empowered actors, and challenging traditional solutions for improving schooling. Throughout, the children are eloquent about their schooling in the context of displacement. Their views and illustrations depict a keen awareness of social justice issues, including on the distribution of wealth, recognition of status and representation of voice. These are framed by the authors within Nancy Fraser’s concept of social justice as parity-of-participation. In this way, the book brings to light important representations of some empowering experiences lived through by refugee children from Syria, as well as their thoughts on what has helped their learning and what can be done better. The children’s need for care and a sense of belonging in their schools and new communities is given particular emphasis throughout the book, represented by one child, who simply requested, ‘Add some more love!’
Praise for Schooling for Refugee Children
‘this book demonstrates… that creating a community of love and care can have a transformative impact in refugee children’s rehabilitation and representation in education.’
British Journal of Educational Studies
List of figures and tables
Abbreviations
Authors’ note on pictures of children’s writing
Foreword
Sarah Dryden-Peterson
Acknowledgements
1 Purposes of representing children’s experiences
2 Social justice in displaced children’s schooling: Children representing experiences
3 Primary schooling and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals
4 Vulnerable displaced Syrian children’s representations: Case study 1 5 Representations of Syrian refugee children in an Inner London school: Case study 2
6 Fighting to keep Syrian refugee children in North Lebanon learning during school closures: Case study 3
7 Refugee children’s experiences during closures, crises and COVID
8 Transforming mainstream education to empower displaced children
References
Index
DOI: 10.14324/111.9781800086838
Number of illustrations: 48
Publication date: 07 May 2024
PDF ISBN: 9781800086838
EPUB ISBN: 9781800086845
Hardback ISBN: 9781800086814
Paperback ISBN: 9781800086821
Eleanore Hargreaves (Author) 
Eleanore Hargreaves is Professor of Learning and Pedagogy at the UCL Institute of Education, where she is Academic Head of Research in the Department of Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment. Her research and teaching focus on hearing the perspectives of children in schooling to promote social justice and wellbeing in schooling globally. With a background in Islamic History, she has worked extensively with disadvantaged children in the SWANA region including in Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan. Her book Children’s Experiences of Classrooms (Sage, 2017) inspired ideas related to the current book.
Brian Lally (Author)
Brian Lally is an educator and researcher with extensive experience in teaching, education leadership and safeguarding/child protection, as well as training for teachers and school leaders. He has particular expertise within conflict-affected, fragile and economically deprived contexts, working at local, regional and national levels in a range of countries. His most recent focus has been with community-led NGOs supporting refugee children and young adults in Lebanon, Uganda, Turkey and northern Syria through non-formal education provision, schools, vocational training and in facilitating access to higher education. His doctoral research with Kingston University builds on his experience in education in emergencies.
Bassel Akar (Author) 
Bassel Akar has served as an Associate Professor of Education (2009-2023) and Director of the Center for Applied Research in Education (2014-2023) at Notre Dame University–Louaize, Lebanon. He is now Research Fellow at Centro de Estudos Africanos, Universidade do Porto. His research on education in fragile contexts has focused on low and middle income conflict-affected countries, especially Lebanon, Jordan, Yemen, Iraq, Iraqi Kurdistan and Egypt. Studies have examined education for social and human development through citizenship, history and early childhood education; provisions of education for young people made vulnerable by war and crises; and ethical and inclusive methods of inquiry for highly vulnerable populations.
Jumana Al-Waeli (Author) 
Jumana Al-Waeli is a postdoctoral research fellow at Ulster University and an associate fellow and PhD candidate at UCL Institute of Education. Her current work examines the political economy of education and peacebuilding in conflict affected contexts through a lens of social justice. Jumana’s doctoral research investigated the learning of Syrian refugee students in the UK in relation to social justice. Jumana has been a trainer, lecturer and teacher for more than 19 years, delivering workshops on Research and Education in relation to conflict and peacebuilding, as well as teaching in Higher Education and international schools in the UK, Syria, and Kurdistan-Iraq.
Jasmine Costello (Author)
Jasmine Costello is a project manager at Student Achievement Partners where she designs resources and professional learning for teachers that centre on marginalised perspectives and seeks to increase equitable educational opportunities in the US. She was previously an elementary teacher at the School District of Philadelphia and has worked in school-based non-profit management roles. She is delighted to be involved with this project and to learn from the incredible researchers, teachers and students at the MAPS schools.
‘this book demonstrates… that creating a community of love and care can have a transformative impact in refugee children’s rehabilitation and representation in education.’
British Journal of Educational Studies
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