When pondering the question of how mobile devices can be used in developing nations, I wondered, what about students without a nation? I decided to look at how mobile devices can be used to support the education of refugees in refugee camps.
In 2017, researchers from the Brookings Institution in Washington DC looked at how mobile devices were used as education tools by students and teachers in Kakuma and Dadaab refugee camps in Kenya.
The Kakuma Refugee Camp
The Kakuma camp is located in Northwest Kenya and at the time of the article, housed approximately 200, 000 refugees from 20 different countries (Dryden-Peterson, Dahya, & Douhaibi, 2017).
Kakuma Refugee Camp. Image source: https://www.unhcr.org/ke/kakuma-refugee-camp
Teaching and learning in the Kakuma camp has many challenges and obstacles for teacher and student alike. "
There are over 150-300 students in each class, 10 students must share a single book, students come from many linguistic backgrounds, and many students are over aged due to years of missed schooling. Teachers in both primary and secondary schools are often refugees who have graduated from camp secondary schools and have not had access to further education or training. (Dryden-Peterson, Dahya, & Douhaibi, 2017)
The Dadaab Refugee Complex
The Dadaab refugee complex consisting of three neighbouring refugee camps. There were over 200, 000 registered refugees registered in the camps in July 2020 (UNHRC, (n.d)).
In the Brookings article, the researchers looked at how students and teachers in Dadaab used mobile phones to support their teaching and learning. Students used Facebook groups to get input from peers about their schoolwork. They also used social media to support each other through various challenges such as being the first girl in the family to go to school (Dryden-Peterson, Dahya, & Douhaibi, 2017).
Many of the teachers that the researchers spoke to used mobil devices as a way to enhance their teaching by connecting with other teachers. They used social media to share information, support one another, and problem solve issues that they had in common (Dryden-Peterson, Dahya, & Douhaibi, 2017).
Both teachers and students agreed that virtual programs can enhance education, but it is the in-person relationships that really make things work. Face-to-face relationships can develop into productive virtual networks, but virtual does not replace the important face-to-face relationships (Dryden-Peterson, Dahya, & Douhaibi, 2017).
I was really struck in the Brookings article how the mobil technology was more about enhancing human connection than about the technology itself. Students using the technology to connect with their peers and teachers, and teachers using the technology to connect with their peers and students.
An aside...
The graphic novel When Stars Are Scattered is set it the Dadaab refugee complex and illustrates the complexities of the education in a refugee camp.
Works Cited
Dryden-Peterson, S, Dahya, N, & Douhaibi, D. (2017, March 14). How teachers use mobile phones as education tools in refugee camps. Brookings. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/education-plus-development/2017/03/14/how-teachers-use-mobile-phones-as-education-tools-in-refugee-camps/
UNHCR The UN Refugee Agency. (n.d.). Dadaab Refugee Complex. Retrieved on June 17, 2022 from: https://www.unhcr.org/ke/dadaab-refugee-complex
UNHCR The UN Refugee Agency. (n.d.). Kakuma Refugee Camp and Kalobeyei Integrated Settlement. Retrieved on June 17, 2022 from: https://www.unhcr.org/ke/kakuma-refugee-camp
I am going to have to read When Stars are Scattered once the final project is done. Last semester someone suggested the Breadwinner series which really opened my eyes to the experience of children living in crisis situations. It is so heartbreaking. I am glad that technology is making education a bit easier for kids and teachers in refugee camps. I could not imagine teaching without any training, but I guess when there is no other option, you pass down the knowledge that you have.
ReplyDeleteI read the Breadwinner novels when they first came out and found them to be excellent books. I think fiction can be a great way to introduce us to worlds different from our own and add a human element to issues that can seem so far away.
DeleteI really enjoy biographies and I can recommend What is the What by Dave Eggers (the life story of Valentino Achak Deng, a Lost Boy from Sudan, who ends up in the US after escaping the civil war and living in a refugee camp. Dave Eggers is a great writer anyways.) and Lopez Lomong, US Olympic runner's autobiography, Running for my Life. Lomong was in Kakuna for years, and the kids, who did not receive much schooling, played soccer all day. But they only had one homemade ball, so the younger kids had to run a race around the camp, and only the fastest kids were allowed to join the older kids' team. Lomong later calculated that he ran an equivalent of a half marathon daily as a little kid, then played soccer till it got dark - no surprise he became one of the most decorated high school runners in the States when he ended up there in his teenage years! Details unimaginable for us make his book a very engaging reading, like how he spent the first night in his American adoptive parents house with the lights on in his new bedroom, simply, because he didn't know how to use a light switch. ( I hope I didn't get all the details wrong, I read the books years ago.)
ReplyDeleteI really hope that education in these camps like Kakuna and Dadaab has changed since these people grew up there, because the picture looked pretty hopeless. They were not receiving an education, the adults were not allowed to leave the camps and work - there was no hope or goals for the future for them.
Gabriella, thanks for the book recommendations; they sound excellent!
Delete
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the direction you explored in this post. Access to information, ideas and education can be a lifeline for those who have become displaced. Thank you for bringing this to our attention. “When the Stars are Scattered” is a great read! The middle school students I work with have really enjoyed it and it has given us a good starting point for some important conversations.
Thanks Darcy :)
Delete