Designing for Social Justice: A Decolonial Exploration of How to Develop EdTech for Refugees

Abstract

This paper reflects on the lived experiences of young refugees located in Pakistan and Rwanda when interacting with education technology (EdTech) during and following displacement. We offer a broad decolonial commentary on issues related to the design and development of EdTech initiatives for refugees, noting some of the historical trends prevalent in the education and emergencies sector. We are guided by questions such as: Why EdTech to start with? Who designs the products? Where are they designed? How are they designed? And, which power dynamics are at play during the design process? From this, we draw on qualitative data generated through three focus groups, where we explore young refugees’ experiences of EdTech. The focus group included a creative element inviting participants to imagine what a liberatory EdTech practice would look like. We aim to illustrate the practical implications of design choices taken by EdTech developers and, from this, recommend a set of justice-centred design principles for developers of EdTech in refugee contexts. These insights relate specifically to the experiences of refugees in Rwanda and Pakistan, though we also discuss the implications of these learnings for other contexts.

Methodological Insights for Decolonising Research and EdTech

“…Barnes et al [39] note that EdTech can be seen as an arms race in which neo-and postcolonial Western companies compete to create resources that they can export into Global South contexts with little or no local, cultural, linguistic, societal, or community contextualisation, which Mazari et al [40] show leads to responses that are "colonial at best", and instead call for the development of socially just and decolonised EdTech using the principles for digital development (https://digitalprinciples.org/ accessed on 12 May 2024) developed by the Digital Impact Alliance (2017; 2024). Drawing on two key projects with refugees in Rwanda and Pakistan, Barnes et al also show the importance of "designing 'with' rather than 'for' refugees as they navigate their educational journeys post-displacement" (p. 13) (this approach resonates strongly with Richard Heeks' formulation of ICT4D2.0 [41]).…”