Compounded Exclusion: Education for Disabled Refugees in Sub-Saharan Africa
International conventions acknowledge the right of refugees and of disabled people to access quality inclusive education. Both groups struggle to assert this right, particularly in the Global South, where educational access may be hindered by system constraints, resource limitations and negative att...
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doaj-1b59434cb8214e69b4c708d377ce12f82020-11-25T03:10:42ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Education2504-284X2020-05-01510.3389/feduc.2020.00047531400Compounded Exclusion: Education for Disabled Refugees in Sub-Saharan AfricaElizabeth Walton0Elizabeth Walton1Joanna McIntyre2Salome Joy Awidi3Nicole De Wet-Billings4Kerryn Dixon5Roda Madziva6David Monk7Chamunogwa Nyoni8Juliet Thondhlana9Volker Wedekind10Volker Wedekind11School of Education, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United KingdomSchool of Education, Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South AfricaSchool of Education, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United KingdomSchool of Education, Department of Adult Basic Education and Training, University of South Africa, Pretoria, South AfricaSchool of Social Sciences, Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South AfricaSchool of Education, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, AustraliaSchool of Sociology and Social Policy, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United KingdomDepartment of Curriculum Development, Faculty of Education and Humanities, Gulu University, Gulu, UgandaDepartment of Social Work, Bindura University of Science Education, Bindura, ZimbabweSchool of Education, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United KingdomSchool of Education, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United KingdomSchool of Education, Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South AfricaInternational conventions acknowledge the right of refugees and of disabled people to access quality inclusive education. Both groups struggle to assert this right, particularly in the Global South, where educational access may be hindered by system constraints, resource limitations and negative attitudes. Our concern is the intersectional and compounding effect of being a disabled refugee in Sub-Saharan Africa. Disabled refugees have been invisible in policy and service provision, reliable data is very limited, and there has been little research into their experiences of educational inclusion and exclusion. This article makes the case for research to address this gap. Three country contexts (South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Uganda) are presented to illustrate the multi-layered barriers and challenges to realizing the rights for disabled refugees in educational policy and practice. These three countries host refugees who have fled civil unrest and military conflict, economic collapse and natural disaster, and all have signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. None has available and reliable data about the numbers of disabled refugees, and there is no published research about their access to education. Arguing for an inclusive and intersectional approach and for the importance of place and history, we illustrate the complexity of the challenge. This complexity demands conceptual resources that account for several iterative and mutually constituting factors that may enable or constrain access to education. These include legislation and policy, bureaucracy and resource capacity, schools and educational institutions, and community beliefs and attitudes. We conclude with a call for accurate data to inform policy and enable monitoring and evaluation. We advocate for the realization of the right to education for disabled refugee students and progress toward the realization of quality inclusive education for all.https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/feduc.2020.00047/fulleducationdisabilityrefugeesSub-Saharan Africainclusive educationcomplexity and systems theory |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Elizabeth Walton Elizabeth Walton Joanna McIntyre Salome Joy Awidi Nicole De Wet-Billings Kerryn Dixon Roda Madziva David Monk Chamunogwa Nyoni Juliet Thondhlana Volker Wedekind Volker Wedekind |
spellingShingle |
Elizabeth Walton Elizabeth Walton Joanna McIntyre Salome Joy Awidi Nicole De Wet-Billings Kerryn Dixon Roda Madziva David Monk Chamunogwa Nyoni Juliet Thondhlana Volker Wedekind Volker Wedekind Compounded Exclusion: Education for Disabled Refugees in Sub-Saharan Africa Frontiers in Education education disability refugees Sub-Saharan Africa inclusive education complexity and systems theory |
author_facet |
Elizabeth Walton Elizabeth Walton Joanna McIntyre Salome Joy Awidi Nicole De Wet-Billings Kerryn Dixon Roda Madziva David Monk Chamunogwa Nyoni Juliet Thondhlana Volker Wedekind Volker Wedekind |
author_sort |
Elizabeth Walton |
title |
Compounded Exclusion: Education for Disabled Refugees in Sub-Saharan Africa |
title_short |
Compounded Exclusion: Education for Disabled Refugees in Sub-Saharan Africa |
title_full |
Compounded Exclusion: Education for Disabled Refugees in Sub-Saharan Africa |
title_fullStr |
Compounded Exclusion: Education for Disabled Refugees in Sub-Saharan Africa |
title_full_unstemmed |
Compounded Exclusion: Education for Disabled Refugees in Sub-Saharan Africa |
title_sort |
compounded exclusion: education for disabled refugees in sub-saharan africa |
publisher |
Frontiers Media S.A. |
series |
Frontiers in Education |
issn |
2504-284X |
publishDate |
2020-05-01 |
description |
International conventions acknowledge the right of refugees and of disabled people to access quality inclusive education. Both groups struggle to assert this right, particularly in the Global South, where educational access may be hindered by system constraints, resource limitations and negative attitudes. Our concern is the intersectional and compounding effect of being a disabled refugee in Sub-Saharan Africa. Disabled refugees have been invisible in policy and service provision, reliable data is very limited, and there has been little research into their experiences of educational inclusion and exclusion. This article makes the case for research to address this gap. Three country contexts (South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Uganda) are presented to illustrate the multi-layered barriers and challenges to realizing the rights for disabled refugees in educational policy and practice. These three countries host refugees who have fled civil unrest and military conflict, economic collapse and natural disaster, and all have signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. None has available and reliable data about the numbers of disabled refugees, and there is no published research about their access to education. Arguing for an inclusive and intersectional approach and for the importance of place and history, we illustrate the complexity of the challenge. This complexity demands conceptual resources that account for several iterative and mutually constituting factors that may enable or constrain access to education. These include legislation and policy, bureaucracy and resource capacity, schools and educational institutions, and community beliefs and attitudes. We conclude with a call for accurate data to inform policy and enable monitoring and evaluation. We advocate for the realization of the right to education for disabled refugee students and progress toward the realization of quality inclusive education for all. |
topic |
education disability refugees Sub-Saharan Africa inclusive education complexity and systems theory |
url |
https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/feduc.2020.00047/full |
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