Designing for Social Justice: A Decolonial Exploration of How to Develop EdTech for Refugees

This paper reflects on the lived experiences of young refugees located in Pakistan and Rwanda when interacting with education technology (EdTech) during and following displacement. We offer a broad decolonial commentary on issues related to the design and development of EdTech initiatives for refuge...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Education sciences 2024-01, Vol.14 (1), p.77
Main Authors: Barnes, Katrina, Emerusenge, Aime Parfait, Rabi, Asma, Ullah, Noor, Mazari, Haani, Moustafa, Nariman, Thakrar, Jayshree, Zhao, Annette, Koomar, Saalim
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Afghanistan
Burundi
Colonialism
Critical Theory
decoloniality
decolonising EdTech
Decolonization
Definitions
Design
Designers
Developing countries
Distance Education
education in emergencies
education technology
Educational Attainment
Educational technology
Emergencies
Epistemology
Geopolitics
Industrialized nations
Job Skills
LDCs
Literature Reviews
Methods
MOOCs
Natural resources
Neocolonialism
Online instruction
Oppression
Pakistan
Political Issues
refugee education
Refugees
Refugees, African
Research methodology
Rwanda
Social aspects
Social justice
technology design
Theory Practice Relationship
United Kingdom
World Views
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Summary:This paper reflects on the lived experiences of young refugees located in Pakistan and Rwanda when interacting with education technology (EdTech) during and following displacement. We offer a broad decolonial commentary on issues related to the design and development of EdTech initiatives for refugees, noting some of the historical trends prevalent in the education and emergencies sector. We are guided by questions such as: Why EdTech to start with? Who designs the products? Where are they designed? How are they designed? And, which power dynamics are at play during the design process? From this, we draw on qualitative data generated through three focus groups, where we explore young refugees’ experiences of EdTech. The focus group included a creative element inviting participants to imagine what a liberatory EdTech practice would look like. We aim to illustrate the practical implications of design choices taken by EdTech developers and, from this, recommend a set of justice-centred design principles for developers of EdTech in refugee contexts. These insights relate specifically to the experiences of refugees in Rwanda and Pakistan, though we also discuss the implications of these learnings for other contexts.
ISSN:2227-7102
2227-7102
DOI:10.3390/educsci14010077