Private encroachment through crisis-making: The privatization of education for refugees

Abstract

How has education for refugees been shaped by broader dynamics of educational privatization? This paper argues that the invoking of the ‘refugee crisis’ narrative has been a crucial force in facilitating the privatization of this sector. The urgency of crisis helps to naturalize private actors’ participation in refugees’ education as equal partners to host governments, multilateral agencies, and civil society. Consistent with Stephen Ball’s (2012) distinction between privatization in and of education, the privatization of refugee education also advances through two dimensions: the creation of a new space – a new ‘market’ – for private actors, and the infusion of market and business principles such as ‘innovation’ into all aspects of education. The crisis narrative has created a new ‘horizon of taken-for-granted’ (Hall, 1993), where it is simply natural that private actors must participate in the assumption of the traditional responsibilities of the state in providing education for refugees.

Reconsidering partnerships in education in emergencies

“…A strong body of scholarship offers country-level analyses of crisis and schooling (Akar & van Ommering, 2018;Hamadeh, 2019;Taskin & Erdemli, 2018;Pherali, 2011;Zakharia, 2013). And scholars have begun to study the emerging roles of private actors in education crisis response, often criticizing private sector activities through uncovering the impacts of profit-oriented motivations (Jabbar, 2017;Le, 2019;Verger et al, 2016;Williamson & Hogan, 2020;.…”

Globalization, privatization, marginalization: Mapping and assessing connections and consequences in/through education

“…Within this context, refugee education beganstarting in the 2010s-to receive additional attention as well because the international community recognized the need to provide education to the refugee youth of the world, of which there were 6 million as of 2016. Finally, Le (2019) suggests that the profile of education for refugees in humanitarian and emergency situations has "benefitted from the 'leave no one behind' spirit of the 2020 [Sustainable Development] Agenda" (p. 5).…”

“…The resulting platform, known as Notably, beyond privatization "through" such processes, it stands out that privatization and political-economic globalization are manifesting "in" the provision of education services to refugee populations. Le (2019) draws on extant research to reveal, for example, that "nearly half of private actors involved in Syrian refugee education are supporting a wide range of educational technology projects, from digitalizing textbooks to providing educational apps" (p. 12). Separately, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is working with Facebook to provide internet access to refugees worldwide, even though refugees might not have access to other basic services.…”

“…For example, the network of the Chicago Boys was instrumental in bringing about neoliberal educational reform in Chile, but their rise and ability to be influential was dependent on the structures of U.S. foreign aid (which funded their study at the University of Chicago) and the military dictatorship that put them in positions of power. More recently, while private actors have made incursions into the world of refugee education, this has been facilitated by, for example, the structures of the United Nations and the World Economic Forum, both of which have served as spaces in and through which networks of political and private actors have collaborated to privatize refugee education, as Hang Le (2019) describes. In New Zealand, Oldham and Crawford-Garrett (2019) show that the Teach for All network operates within the structure of the beliefs of the middle class.…”

Syrian Refugee Middle School Students’ Perceptions of the History Subjects Taught in Social Studies Lessons

“…Considering that the Syrian refugee children have been traumatized by the violence they were subjected to, schools can serve as areas that can help refugee children escape from various threats (such as violence, abuse, child labor, child marriage) and help them return to normal and routine life after trauma. This fact is reason enough for the world to invest more resources in providing quality education to refugees (Gümüşten, 2017;Kiwan, 2021;Le, 2019). In addition, schools are an important factor in terms of social cohesion and integration of refugee children (Kağnıcı, 2017).…”