Unpacking the Industry of Refugee Education and Research: Towards Equitable Theory and Practice

The Bilateral Research Chair sits between the Centre for Lebanese Studies, Lebanon and the University of Cambridge, UK. The Chair aims to strengthen and widen research opportunities for early career scholars and researchers focused on education in emergency and conflict; foster dialogue and collaborations between research institutions in the global north and south around equitable and critical education in conflict-affected societies; and create platforms for dialogue between scholars, policy-makers, and practitioners locally, regionally and internationally around education of refugee and vulnerable children in conflict-affected societies.

Education of refugee children and Education in Emergency has come under the spotlight over the past 20 years while gaining greater momentum with the Syrian crisis. Lebanon currently hosts one million Syrian refugees while suffering a chronic economic crisis. It has also been the ground of vibrant and evolving educational policies and provisions aimed at widening access to schooling for Syrian refugees whilst strengthening the national educational systems. Through a ‘policy ethnography’ (Dubois, 2009), the study analyses the evolution of the education response, the rationales and interests of the different local and international parties including UN agencies and donors and impact on the schooling outcomes of refugees and host communities. The research aims to provide much needed evidence that can inform our thinking and understanding around effective and sustainable education policies and provisions in contexts of emergency and conflict.

This programme is funded by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and forms one part of a wider Education Research in Conflict and Protracted Crisis (ERICC) programme.

ERICC is a six-year programme (2021-2027) with the objective of delivering and maximising uptake of new, operationally- and policy-relevant evidence on “what works” to deliver education to children affected by conflict and protracted crises.

The Bilateral Research Chairs will help to develop networks, mobility and exchange between institutions and will play an active role in developing the research capacity, profile and sustainability of the institutions involved and their future researchers. Delivering programmes of institutional strengthening, they will address the challenges of building research and institutional strength in areas of conflict and crisis. As a part of this work, they will also link with the main ERICC research consortium, led by the International Rescue Committee UK.

Bilateral Research Chair: Dr Maha Shuayb, University of Cambridge, UK and the Centre for Lebanese Studies, Lebanon