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Schooling and Education in Lebanon

Syrian and Syrian Palestinian Refugees Inside and Outside the Camps

by Nina Maadad (Author) Grant Rodwell (Author)
©2017 Monographs 170 Pages

Summary

This book provides insights into the education and schooling of Syrian and Palestinian Syrian children inside and outside Lebanese refugee camps. It describes what is happening to these children and young refugees in terms of their schooling. Investigating the perspectives of children, their parents, teachers, community leaders, and state politicians and bureaucrats on the schooling provisions and educational opportunities for refugee children in Lebanon, this book reveals the condition of social disadvantage that Syrian and Syrian Palestinian refugee children and their families are experiencing in Lebanon. Maadad and Rodwell propose the idea of the pedagogy of the displaced that recognises socio-economic disadvantage and refocuses the nature of the learner and their learning and the philosophy of teaching. A collaborative action of society – the refugee families, the schools, the communities, the host state, the international aid agencies and the rest of the world – in addressing the barriers to education and schooling of the refugee children must break ground and be sustained.

Table Of Contents

  • Cover
  • Title
  • Copyright
  • About the author
  • About the book
  • This eBook can be cited
  • Contents
  • Dedication
  • Acknowledgements
  • Acronymns and Abbreviations
  • Preface
  • Introduction
  • Chapter One: Geopolitics, Middle East Conflicts, Communities, Refugees and Children
  • Chapter Two: Refugees in Lebanon: The Context
  • Chapter Three: The Provision of Schooling and Challenges for Education for Refugees Inside and Outside Camps in Lebanon
  • Chapter Four: Children’s Experiences
  • Chapter Five: Parents’ Concerns Regarding Schooling
  • Chapter Six: Teachers’ Perspectives and Challenges
  • Chapter Seven: Community Concerns and Responses
  • Chapter Eight: The State and Policy Support
  • General Conclusion
  • Appendix
  • References

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DEDICATION

The authors would like to dedicate this book to all those displaced children, their parents and teachers in scattered refugee camps throughout the world.

Our responsibility and duty as parents and carers is to provide the best education for our children, love and protect them, but also to give them the freedom and stability that allows them to have a normal childhood and to dream of their future, a future they create for themselves so they can live their lives as we did before them. Nothing says it better than the renowned words of wisdom recorded by the famous Lebanese poet and writer Gibran Khalil Gibran in his book, The Prophet:

Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of life’s longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, and though they are with you yet they belong not to you … (Gibran Khalil Gibran, 1923). ← 7 | 8 →

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We would like to express our deepest appreciation to all those who helped us and made it possible for us to gather information for this book. Visiting schools, homes and camps during such difficult times in Lebanon would have been impossible to achieve without the help and support of school principals, teachers, parents, students and stakeholders who sacrificed their time to provide us with information and made sure that we were safe. We would also like to thank family and friends for accompanying us on our visits, ensuring our safety and introducing us to people and places. A specific thank you also to the family members who carried out some extra interviews on our behalf since our departure from Lebanon on late matters and provided us with feedback. Last, but not least, a huge thank you to Dr Marizon Yu for her great work on the diagram and the cross-referencing to it, as well as her tireless support.

Nina especially wishes to thank the University of Adelaide for providing her with study leave and financial support to travel to Lebanon in the second part of 2014. Without this opportunity it would have been impossible to meet the large number of humble and generous people including family, friends, children, parents, teachers, principals and community leaders interviewees; which allowed us to gather the information needed to complete this book.

We are most grateful to everyone involved in this journey, and acknowledge the fact that we could have not completed this book without their help. ← 9 | 10 →

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ACRONYMNS AND ABBREVIATIONS

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PREFACE

Most people viewing the state funeral of former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser on 27th March 2015 at Scots’ Church in Melbourne’s CBD would have been most impressed by a large group of Vietnamese Australians present, complete with a large sign proclaiming their thanks to a man who, as Prime Minister from 1975 to 1983, welcomed them to Australian shores, and through government policy, facilitated their Australian citizenship. As his son, Hugh Fraser, emphatically stated in his eulogy, Fraser was a “truly global man”, who loved Australia, and who in his public and private life really cared for what was happening globally, to the extent he could not remain silent in the face of such events as global refugees (News.com.au, 2015, n.p.).

News.com.au (2015) also reported:

The volume of public mourners spread across the corner of Russell and Collins streets to St Michael’s Uniting Church where screens telecast the service and police shut down traffic.

Details

Pages
170
Publication Year
2017
ISBN (PDF)
9783034323826
ISBN (ePUB)
9783034323833
ISBN (MOBI)
9783034323840
ISBN (Softcover)
9783034323819
DOI
10.3726/978-3-0343-2382-6
Language
English
Publication date
2016 (December)
Keywords
Refugee children pedagogy of the displaced Lebanon schooling, education children’s perspectives
Published
Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt am Main, New York, Oxford, Wien, 2017. 170 pp., 4 coloured ill., 7 b/w ill.

Biographical notes

Nina Maadad (Author) Grant Rodwell (Author)

Nina Maadad’s research and professional development interests include pedagogy and culture, education and languages, primary and secondary school experience, curriculum and student engagement, and education and society. Grant Rodwell, an Associate in the Faculty of Education at the University of Tasmania, recently has completed his fifth PhD, has published widely on the foundations of educational theory, curriculum studies and the history of education. He is just completing a book on the impact of moral panic theory in American, Australian and British school education.

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