“Mobile Units for Refugee Education: the case of Project PRESS”, Proceedings of the EDEN Open Classroom Conference 2017 “Open Schools for Open Societies”, 20-22 October 2017, Athens. (original) (raw)
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The access to university and the continuation of education for people in refugee situation are investigated herein as from four initial questions: how did Covid-19 find society and this is cause displacement cases?; what is a refugee’s situation in the process of the world interruption of face-to-face education?; what are the conditions for refugees to migrate to virtual education?; and what are the actions and responsibilities of international organizations (IOs) concerned with education? ...
Refugee education: framework and experiences from Greece.
Cross-border Perspectives on Refugee Education Online Seminar Program, 2020
The recent refugee crisis has affected Europe and the Mediterranean region at different levels, with Greece being at the forefront of the crisis. According to UNHCR Greece, an estimated 121,500 people remain in the country since the 2015-2016 flow. Component authorities, in parallel to the efforts to organize the reception and asylum services, paid special focus on the education of the refugee children, who represent almost 36% of the total arrivals. In this process, Greece capitalized its previous experience in the field of refugee education, as it has been implementing relevant programs continuously since the 1990s. However, additional measures were required to address the current needs, so in 2016 special Ministerial decisions were issued and special preparatory classes were introduced. Nowadays, despite some positive developments made, a large number of refugee children, especially those living on the "HotSpot"islands, are not enrolled in schools. Aim of this paper is to present the current state of affairs of the refugee education in Greece: the framework, the challenges, the obstacles that hamper access, the formal and non-formal environments. Special reference will be made to the impact of the covid-19 pandemic, based on the findings of a survey addressed to educators and front-line professionals.
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Syrian refugee youth are currently facing a challenging situation in accessing educational opportunities and its availability in Greek refugee camps. Because their stays at the refugee camps are now longer, and less transient than previously, the situation has long-term implications. If the youth are not provided with an education, their ability to transition as productive members in their ultimate host country will be impacted. Notably, in Syria, the normal level of education was quite high, with a literacy rate of over 90%. This study seeks to identify how this challenge can most effectively be solved by discussing: 1) the language in which instruction should/could be taught; and 2) whether there are technological tools available to help address the situation, acknowledging that there are limited resources available in the host country and in refugee camps. In order to consider and address these issues in a real-life scenario, this study focuses on refugee camps on Lesvos. To start, this study explores how the current civil war in Syria has displaced millions of its citizens, forcing them to migrate. Many Syrians, including the youth, land on the Aegean island of Lesvos as their first point of entry into Greece from Turkey. This poses many research questions, to hopefully be answered through the process of this study. After addressing the camps’ terrible conditions and the language barriers that these Syrian refugee youth face in the camps on Lesvos, which prevents educational access, the study moves on to discuss and propose educational technology-based interventions used around the world. These are specifically targeted to refugees, and might be leveraged to improve the situation for these refugees. This study discusses the benefits and obstacles posed by using smartphones, and other technologies that may offer an effective platform to deliver education, as well as the positive effect it has on one’s psychosocial well-being. This study further explores, with the concepts of the Human Rights Theory and Technological Determinism, the question of whose responsibility it is to provide such educational access, and why refugees are being denied their right to an education. In addition, this study looks at the benefits of independence that comes from using technology, and whether using technology is merely a thin veneer covering the multitude of issues already there, or whether it provides an actual solution to the challenges present. The author collected data through six interviews with experts in this field, which demonstrated that there are multiple barriers to education in Greek camps. Language is the most frequently mentioned barrier, but each expert shared their view that, if the barriers can be overcome, technology has more benefits than adverse consequences. The study shares the experts’ views on the differences between classrooms and technological education platforms. Overall, technology would be a more sustainable resource in the long term, and is the way of the future even if face-to-face learning would be more beneficial (without regard to resource restrictions). Overall, a blended approach would be more advantageous. Based on observations made in the field and a literature review, many of the research questions posed are answered. There appear to be more education provisions on Lesvos than is reported, although the barriers found in the literature review are the same as the ones that respondents reported, with more to be included. There was no time to pilot an intervention and test it. As a result, the conclusions are based purely on comparative subjective opinion, which is often affected by individuals’ previous experiences, affecting the validity and reliability of responses. Overall, this study led to an increase in knowledge about what is currently happening on Lesvos, as well as the need for improvement for Syrian refugee youth education on the island. This study suggests a number of means to create and implement a tech-based intervention, and suggests a number of additional questions for future research.
The target audience for this is policy brief are policymakers of European governments that dealt with the refugee crisis. The paper examines solutions to how to guarantee a completely free, equitable and quality primary education for refugee children in the Aegean Islands in Greece. Issues that prevent the achievement of this objective are the shortage of formal primary school, absence of teacher training, and insufficiency of non-formal programs for the social integration of migrant children. This brief considers edtech projects that can address this kind of obstacles.
Social Cohesion and Development , 2021
The aim of the project is to create a partnership which will focus on the continuity of education for migrant and refugee children and adolescents, from the reception areas / countries to the places / countries of permanent settlement, and develop a needs-based curriculum and an in-service training program, and implement it in schools and education institutions of participant organizations, taking into consideration the local conditions and aiming at maximizing the European value along with refugees linguistic and cultural background of such interventions. The "Continugee 1st LTTA" was held as an online event, due to the COVID-19 pandemic travel restrictions. It was organised by the team of the University of Urbino Carlo Bo, coordinated by Professor Eduardo Barberis who welcomed all partners and gave the floor to the National and Kaspodistrian University of Athens team. In his short address, the Professor Napoleon Maravegias, Scientific Coordinator of the Project and the NKUA Team, referred to the problems caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in the development of the project, which fall under three categories: First, travel restrictions, urged the partners to communicate online, even at Transnational Project Meetings. Meetings in person are always preferable, especially in the beginning of such projects, because they provide partners with an opportunity to meet both scholarly and socially and discuss in depth the project issues. Second, the Pandemic hindered the financial and management processes of the project, as most employees of the financial services of the partner institutions have been working from home. This slowed down interactions between partner institutions and made coordination even more difficult. Third, refugee children were heavily affected by the Pandemic, as for many months they were taught via emergency remote teaching, in the difficult circumstances of the Camps or in their homes. This created a whole new situation for teachers, making the continuity of their education even more difficult. However, professor Maravegias pointed out the excellent cooperation of the Greek National Agency for the Erasmus+ Programme, which allowed the Project to move forward and to being implemented to the maximum level possible. In his brief address, the coordinator of the second Greek partner, Emeritus Professor, Theodoros Sakellaropoulos, President of EPEKSA Governing Board, explained the reasons that led EPEKSA to participate in this research project. First, because the theme of the project, the transnational perspective on the education of refugee children, falls within the social and educational initiatives supported by EPEKSA. In addition, the project offers EPEKSA the opportunity to EPEKSA to contribute its expertise on projects for social cohesion and intercultural development and collaborate with experts and researchers from leading European universities, contributing with a team of scientists to the development of the project, building on.
2020
This chapter explores how mobile technologies are being harnessed by organisations to support refugees and other displaced people in their learning. It considers displaced people's motivations for online and mobile learning and the associated challenges, and presents three examples of organisations that offer alternatives to the dualities of non-formal and formal education for displaced people. The cases are discussed using "Third Space" theory, particularly the notion of "hybridity" and its relationship to learner agency. Openness, partnership and co-creation are identified as key elements which, it is argued, can enable the conditions for learners to enact agency over their learning.
Designing distance learning courses for adult refugees in a transit country (Greece)
Apostolidou, A., Androulakis, G. Paper presented at the EADTU Annual Conference 2017 “The Online, Open and Flexible Higher Education Conference: Higher education for the future: accelerating and strengthening innovation”, 25-27 October 2017, Milton Keynes (U.K)., 2017
The proposed paper discusses the challenges encountered in the process of designing and implementing distance learning courses for adult refugees in Greece. The presentation is based on interdisciplinary research conducted in the framework of the project P.R.E.S.S. (Provision of Refugee Education and Support Scheme) and the consequent implementation of educational interventions, which are funded by the Hellenic Open University (Daskalaki & Androulakis, 2017). Among the various educational and awareness-raising strands of the project there is also the design of a short course and an undergraduate degree for adult refugees, by employing the approach of adapting pre-existing educational material of the Hellenic Open University. More specifically, the paper addresses issues of instructional and cultural adaptation and linguistic choices, as well as the key-concepts of mobility, diversity and engagement of participants as they relate to the contingent character of refugees' residence in Greece and their 'first' encounter with the European educational system. The introduction of innovative techniques and support tools are considered paramount in such efforts, yet the paper also problematizes the concept of massive online courses, as it is diversified by the application of specific learning design parameters which seek to meet the needs and social conditions of the specific population.