42
B. Moser-Mercer et al.
Education fosters innovation and entrepreneurial skills that are important for
employability, economic activity, and job creation—elements that are critical for
stability during times of reconstruction and for longer term sustainable development. If refugees and internally displaced persons receive a quality education while
in exile, they are more likely to develop the necessary skills to make use of the existing economic, social, and political systems in their host communities as well as upon
returning home.
4.2 Background
Over the years, InZone—a Higher Education in Emergencies (HEiE) actor whose
mission is to design, develop and scientifically validate HEiE models that respect
humanitarian principles—has identified key HEiE challenges: access to education,
quality of educational programs, relevance of programs, and management of programs in the field and remotely.
During an initial mapping exercise of higher education providers active in the
refugee education space, quantitative data was collected using an online questionnaire
and disaggregated. This data presented a snapshot of existing programs in terms of
several key features, such as size, graduation rates, funding, scholarship availability,
accreditation, types of courses, degrees and fields of study, learning spaces, and
use of technology. In the second phase of the research, in-depth interviews were
conducted with educators responsible for running a number of such higher education
programs. Interviews were analyzed using computer-assisted qualitative data analysis
(CAQDAS) programs and a series of inductive codes and constructs which emerged
holistically from the data (cf. Bryman 2004; Corbin and Strauss 2007; Merriam
2009).
Cross-cutting themes that emerged during this mapping exercise included cultural dimensions, intellectual and learning cultures, the development of twentyfirst-century skills, peer-to-peer and collaborative learning, pedagogical models that
integrate ICT and connectivity, responsible partnerships, information sharing and
communication, leveraging refugees’ skills and ingenuity, and preventing brain and
knowledge drain.
When designing programs for fragile contexts, most HEiE providers have aimed
to facilitate equal access to programs. Nevertheless, a series of physical, intellectual, financial and legal factors have hampered this access, including insufficient
infrastructure and connectivity, the length and cost of travel to the learning center,
insecurity, a lack of ICT skills, language barriers, religious and cultural factors, course
costs, and a lack of needed legal documentation, particularly education credentials, to
access higher education. Providers have adopted a wide range of innovative solutions
to surmount these challenges.
Though HEiE programs attempt to survey the contexts in which they will be
operating before launching their programs, it generally takes several editions of a
course to develop approaches which dovetail with the reality on the ground. HEiE
B. Moser-Mercer et al.
Education fosters innovation and entrepreneurial skills that are important for
employability, economic activity, and job creation—elements that are critical for
stability during times of reconstruction and for longer term sustainable development. If refugees and internally displaced persons receive a quality education while
in exile, they are more likely to develop the necessary skills to make use of the existing economic, social, and political systems in their host communities as well as upon
returning home.
4.2 Background
Over the years, InZone—a Higher Education in Emergencies (HEiE) actor whose
mission is to design, develop and scientifically validate HEiE models that respect
humanitarian principles—has identified key HEiE challenges: access to education,
quality of educational programs, relevance of programs, and management of programs in the field and remotely.
During an initial mapping exercise of higher education providers active in the
refugee education space, quantitative data was collected using an online questionnaire
and disaggregated. This data presented a snapshot of existing programs in terms of
several key features, such as size, graduation rates, funding, scholarship availability,
accreditation, types of courses, degrees and fields of study, learning spaces, and
use of technology. In the second phase of the research, in-depth interviews were
conducted with educators responsible for running a number of such higher education
programs. Interviews were analyzed using computer-assisted qualitative data analysis
(CAQDAS) programs and a series of inductive codes and constructs which emerged
holistically from the data (cf. Bryman 2004; Corbin and Strauss 2007; Merriam
2009).
Cross-cutting themes that emerged during this mapping exercise included cultural dimensions, intellectual and learning cultures, the development of twentyfirst-century skills, peer-to-peer and collaborative learning, pedagogical models that
integrate ICT and connectivity, responsible partnerships, information sharing and
communication, leveraging refugees’ skills and ingenuity, and preventing brain and
knowledge drain.
When designing programs for fragile contexts, most HEiE providers have aimed
to facilitate equal access to programs. Nevertheless, a series of physical, intellectual, financial and legal factors have hampered this access, including insufficient
infrastructure and connectivity, the length and cost of travel to the learning center,
insecurity, a lack of ICT skills, language barriers, religious and cultural factors, course
costs, and a lack of needed legal documentation, particularly education credentials, to
access higher education. Providers have adopted a wide range of innovative solutions
to surmount these challenges.
Though HEiE programs attempt to survey the contexts in which they will be
operating before launching their programs, it generally takes several editions of a
course to develop approaches which dovetail with the reality on the ground. HEiE