Borderless Higher Education for Refugees: Lessons from the Dadaab Refugee Camps

✍ Scribed by Wenona Giles; Lorrie Miller (editors)

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2021
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 249
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Higher education is increasingly recognized as crucial for the livelihoods of refugees and displaced populations caught in emergencies and protracted crises, to enable them to engage in contemporary, knowledge-based, global society. This book tells the story of the Borderless Higher Education for Refugees (BHER) project which delivers tuition-free university degree programs into two of the largest protracted refugee camps in the world, Dadaab and Kakuma in Kenya. Combining a human rights approaches, critical humanitarianism and a concern with gender relations and intersecting inequalities, the book proposes that higher education can provide refugees with the possibility of staying put or returning home with dignity. Written by academics based in Canada, Kenya, Somalia and the USA, as well as NGO workers and students from the camps the book demonstrates how North-South and South-South collaborations are possible and indeed productive.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover page
Halftitle page
Series page
Title page
Copyright page
Contents
Illustrations
Contributors
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Our Approach in This Book
The BHER Project and University Programs
The Dadaab and Kakuma Camp Context
The Book: Self-Reflection and Response
Part One Putting a Project into Action
1 Historical and Political Contestations in the Dadaab Refugee Camps and North-Eastern Kenya
Contested Terrains
New Beginnings: Two Sides of a Story
Conclusion
2 Gender Disparities in University Access in the Kenyan Kakuma Camps
Methods and Methodology
The Camp Context
Gender Disparities and Barriers to Access and Retention in University Programmes
‘Higher education has driven us into choosing career pathways’ (Namarome, Ugandan woman student): The Benefi ts of Higher Education for Women, Their Families and Communities
Conclusion
3 The Challenges of Reciprocity and Relative Autonomy in North/South Partnerships
What We Know about North/South University Partnerships
Funding Assumptions and Reciprocity Challenges
Financial Arrangements and Institutional Autonomy
Student Access, Inclusion and Accommodation
A Shifting Social and Political Landscape
Personal Commitments and the Creation of a Collegial Community
Conclusion
4 Development of a Community Health Education Degree Programme through a North-South Collaboration: Lessons Learned
Introduction
Reflection on Our Positionalities
Theoretical Foundations
Successes
Completion of the Collaborative Research
Development of the BSc CHEd Degree Programme
Challenges
Financial Issues
Communication Issues
Security Issues
Reflection on Our Success
Key Lessons Learned and Conclusions
Part Two Students and Teachers: Inside the BHER Supported Classroom
5 Refugees Respond: Using Digital Tools, Networks and ‘Production Pedagogies’ to Envision Possible Futures
Framing our Conversation: Course Contexts, Tools and Theories
Outcomes from Our Conversational Inquiry
6 Technology and Flexibility: The Online Learning Experience of Teaching Assistants and their Students in the Dadaab Refugee Camps
The Students and Teaching Assistants
Education in Conflict and Crisis
Experimenting with Innovative Communication Tools
Flexible Approaches to Learning
Conclusion
7 Out of Bounds: The BHER Bones of Teaching Geography Across Borders
Geography and the BHER Project: Opportunities and Challenges of Internationalizing Education
Lessons Learned
Conclusion
8 Academic Philanthropy and Pedagogies of Resilience
Administrative Assumptions about Dadaab
Lorrie Miller Reflecting on Working from Vancouver
Elizabeth Jordan on Teaching Science and Special Needs Courses in Dadaab
Espen Stranger-Johannessen on Collaborative Student Learning in Dadaab
Kimberly Baker on Relationships with and in Dadaab
Rita L. Irwin on Learning from Dadaab
Graham W. Lea on Teaching and Time in Dadaab
Samson Madera Nashon’s Concluding Thoughts
Conclusion
9 Refugee Students’ Experience of Accessing English Language Learning in Dadaab, Kenya
Dahabo Ibrahim’s Language Journey
Seraphin Kimonyo’s Language Journey
Context Matters
Language is Power
Concluding Remarks
10 A Gallery to Rethink and (Re)place the Anthropocene: Framing from A Place-based Borderless Higher Education
The Course: Place and Learning
(Re)placing Anthropocene
A Gallery of Possibilities
The Projects
Place-based Borderless Higher Education: A Gallery to Rethink and (Re)place the Anthropocene
Afterword
Notes
References
Index