The Future of Education

The migration surge of the last decades is shaping a more multicultural world. The reasons behind leaving home country are not always the economic difficulties but also the situations of emergency such as wars and dictatorships. The resulting societal changes imply new cultural needs as for the case of the education of refugees. However, the knowledge about this subject is scarce due to the fact that the refugees issue has been mainly treated as an administrative problem of immigration control. Nevertheless, this specific class of learners shows specific learning needs and problems, due to its particular migration path. In fact, forced migration can be associated with trauma and violence, which are factors that can hinder the learning process. In this study, we discuss the results of an ethnography work that takes into consideration the teachers’ perception over refugee students learning difficulties. From the experiences of teachers based in Italy and in Jordan, we analyse the implications that the forced migration has in the refugees learning. We first show how the living context can influence the refugee education, differentiating between the Italian and the Jordanian case. Secondly, we discuss the refugee learning difficulties. These are directly linked with the refugee condition, as they are caused by their past experiences and present situation. The conclusions call the attention for the need of further research and specific training in the field of refugee education.

Keywords: Refugees, education, learning, forced migration, Italy, Jordan.

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