Private engagement in refugee education and the promise of digital humanitarianism

This paper examines the prevalence of technological interventions in education in emergencies through a case study of private participation in Syrian refugee education in Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey. This research is conceptually situated within critiques of 'digital humanitarianism', simu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Oxford review of education 2020-05, Vol.46 (3), p.313-330
Main Authors: Menashy, Francine, Zakharia, Zeena
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Access
Business
Case Studies
Civil Rights
Community Role
Coordination
corporate social responsibility
Corporations
Criticism
Decision Making
digital humanitarianism
Education
education in emergencies
education technology
Educational Technology
Elementary Secondary Education
Emergencies
Foreign Countries
Global Education
Humanitarianism
Information Technology
Intervention
Kindergarten
Optimism
Participation
Private Sector
Refugee education
Refugees
Role
Social Values
Technology
Technology Integration
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Summary:This paper examines the prevalence of technological interventions in education in emergencies through a case study of private participation in Syrian refugee education in Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey. This research is conceptually situated within critiques of 'digital humanitarianism', simultaneously interrogating the role of technology in humanitarian responses and the roles of private actors who promote this technology. Our study demonstrates that a pervasive optimism concerning education technology in emergencies accompanies a surge in private actor engagement in Syrian refugee education. Findings indicate that while access to technology in educational settings is important to the Syrian refugee populations, private actors' disproportionate focus on technology is problematic, particularly when technological interventions are viewed as panaceas for refugee education; designed free from coordination; driven by profit motivations; and developed in a manner decontextualised from the learning context. This study attends to the necessity of countering the overwhelming optimism about technology as a panacea for refugee education, which fails to problematise the implications of interventions developed in the Global North for a distant 'other' in the Global South.
ISSN:0305-4985
1465-3915
DOI:10.1080/03054985.2019.1682536