Inclusive Education in Humanitarian Crises: An Exploration of Approaches and Challenges

Sammanfattning

This thesis explores the approaches used and challenges experienced implementing Inclusive Education (IE) in humanitarian contexts. Addressing an evident gap in humanitarian research, the study takes an exploratory lens, utilising the perceptions of aid workers to better understand how IE is implemented by humanitarian organisations. The researcher conducted 11 semi-structured interviews with humanitarian aid workers split between headquarters and fieldbased positions. Sub questions focused on pedagogical approaches and implementation strategies, the rationale for IE in emergencies, and the challenges that humanitarian aid workers face implementing IE in crisis environments. Analysis was conducted qualitatively, using inductive coding, and supported by NVIVO software, with results presented and analysed thematically. The study yielded several significant findings of relevance to the humanitarian sector. Firstly, trauma informed pedagogical approaches were regarded by participants as an important and distinct strategy for implementing IE in humanitarian contexts, involving trauma informed teacher training, classroom approaches, and the provision of psychosocial support alongside classroom teaching. Contrary to the mixed perspectives on the applicability of IE in emergency contexts, this study noted a strong level of support for the approach in humanitarian education work. Nonetheless, a series of challenges implementing IE were identified, including poor data collection, stigma, limited resources, and a misalignment between donor priorities and humanitarian need. This misalignment represents the study’s most significant finding and contribution to humanitarian research, with donors perceived as constraining longer term structural solutions, and at times allocating funding to areas inconsistent with the greatest level of humanitarian need.