48
B. Moser-Mercer et al.
shops that leverage the potential of the arts—dance, movement, applied drama,
storytelling, and creative writing—to allow learners to be creative and to unleash
their creative potential to co-design their learning environment and amplify the
knowledge acquired through higher education opportunities through sharing it with
the entire refugee community. It is also future-proofed, by allowing for reallocation
of space—the Kakuma InZone Student Café hosts student discussion groups,
community performances, and learning groups—and can expand to other parts
of the camp, since the Café is geographically separate from the InZone Learning
Hub. The design is flexible, adapting to complementary pedagogical approaches
and enabling both individual and collaborative learning; it is enterprising, in that
each space can support different learning activities; and most of all, it is supportive,
continuously encouraging learners to creatively use their wider learning space and
thereby encouraging all HE refugee learners to develop their potential to the fullest.
The concept of an HE space in fragile contexts thus covers and enables the entire
range of learning possibilities. It begins with structured spaces for traditional faceto-face teaching, online and blended learning in the InZone Learning Hub, where
learners can either work individually or collaboratively with or without tutor support and thus with more or less pedagogical structure. It encompasses debates in
the InZone Café, operated by Ethiopian refugee learners who ensure that traditional
coffee ceremonies are passed on to learners in exile. It extends all the way to less structured learning spaces, such as the French library, and ultimately includes the home
environment. Learning is therefore not confined to a specific location or to a specific
environment. Rather, learning happens in a range of contexts, some of which are
more structured than others. Incidental and formal learning are both equally encouraged. The HE space transitions easily across contexts, as do refugee learners, who
often hold multiple jobs in order to eke out a living in the camp. Most importantly,
though, the Kakuma InZone Higher Education Space is always open to redesign
and configurable to the needs of different higher education programming. It is open
for collaboration with other higher education providers in the camp. Consequently, it
contributes to establishing a community of higher education learners, who are equipping themselves with twenty-first-century skills and thereby contributing to making
their communities conflict-resilient as they actively search for peaceful alternatives
to the wars they have left behind. Most importantly, the Kakuma InZone Higher
Education Space is refugee managed through a team of refugee learners and InZone
alumni, rather than through an implementing partner, as is traditional in humanitarian
and development projects. Skills and competencies acquired through higher education thus support employability and secure livelihoods, thereby empowering refugees
to design and redesign the learning space in careful synergy with their community.
B. Moser-Mercer et al.
shops that leverage the potential of the arts—dance, movement, applied drama,
storytelling, and creative writing—to allow learners to be creative and to unleash
their creative potential to co-design their learning environment and amplify the
knowledge acquired through higher education opportunities through sharing it with
the entire refugee community. It is also future-proofed, by allowing for reallocation
of space—the Kakuma InZone Student Café hosts student discussion groups,
community performances, and learning groups—and can expand to other parts
of the camp, since the Café is geographically separate from the InZone Learning
Hub. The design is flexible, adapting to complementary pedagogical approaches
and enabling both individual and collaborative learning; it is enterprising, in that
each space can support different learning activities; and most of all, it is supportive,
continuously encouraging learners to creatively use their wider learning space and
thereby encouraging all HE refugee learners to develop their potential to the fullest.
The concept of an HE space in fragile contexts thus covers and enables the entire
range of learning possibilities. It begins with structured spaces for traditional faceto-face teaching, online and blended learning in the InZone Learning Hub, where
learners can either work individually or collaboratively with or without tutor support and thus with more or less pedagogical structure. It encompasses debates in
the InZone Café, operated by Ethiopian refugee learners who ensure that traditional
coffee ceremonies are passed on to learners in exile. It extends all the way to less structured learning spaces, such as the French library, and ultimately includes the home
environment. Learning is therefore not confined to a specific location or to a specific
environment. Rather, learning happens in a range of contexts, some of which are
more structured than others. Incidental and formal learning are both equally encouraged. The HE space transitions easily across contexts, as do refugee learners, who
often hold multiple jobs in order to eke out a living in the camp. Most importantly,
though, the Kakuma InZone Higher Education Space is always open to redesign
and configurable to the needs of different higher education programming. It is open
for collaboration with other higher education providers in the camp. Consequently, it
contributes to establishing a community of higher education learners, who are equipping themselves with twenty-first-century skills and thereby contributing to making
their communities conflict-resilient as they actively search for peaceful alternatives
to the wars they have left behind. Most importantly, the Kakuma InZone Higher
Education Space is refugee managed through a team of refugee learners and InZone
alumni, rather than through an implementing partner, as is traditional in humanitarian
and development projects. Skills and competencies acquired through higher education thus support employability and secure livelihoods, thereby empowering refugees
to design and redesign the learning space in careful synergy with their community.