English Writer 13 | - Freelance Writer
Feb 10, 2018 | #1
Introduction
Education is vital to the development of every human being. Unfortunately, not everyone has access to quality formal education. Children in refugee camps, particularly, are often disadvantaged in terms of access to education. Many refugee camps only offer basic requirements for survival, and education is considered secondary. Nowadays, however, schools can be found within refugee camps, but most of them are riddled with problems. A substantial body of literature exists on the challenges faced in providing quality education in refugee camps. This paper will discuss selected literature that shed light on children education problems in refugee camps.
The global rise in numbers of juvenile refugees suggests the need to examine the capacity of the camps to provide education opportunities. Educated children have higher chances of experiencing a smooth transition to citizenship than uneducated ones do. The literature reviewed in this paper analyzes the social and psychological problems, such as overcrowding, insufficient learning materials, poor infrastructure and insecurity, high rate of school dropout, and shortage of competent teachers. This study bears in mind that the difficult experience of the changes of family structure, exile and religious, ethnic, cultural, and legal differences can affect the ability of children to acquire quality education. The problems mentioned here can only increase the difficulty experienced in learning for child refugees. All efforts should be channeled toward eliminating or mitigating these problems and making learning as comfortable as possible for children in refugee camps. This report is not only useful for organizations involved with refugees; governments can also gain insight on how children's education can be affected by various issues inside and outside of refugee camps.
The social and psychological effects of various problems facing children in refugee camps are examined in the literature from various angles and disciplines such as sociology, behavioral sciences, psychology, urban geography and epidemiology. Many studies focus on the effects of these problems in school-going children. Some of the works analyzed the coping mechanisms of individual children in the context of the challenges they face in schools in refugee camps. Many of the children exhibited coping mechanisms such as withdrawal into personal space for emotional and psychological renewal. These coping mechanisms were threatened by many different social interactions that caused sensory overload on the children. Such theoretical formulations influenced studies that were conducted later; these latter studies maintained a focus on the children in refugee camps. The scholars acknowledged the importance of education for child refugees because it can provide them with a sense of hope and security; these aspects often lack in refugee settings. Education can play a vital role in helping to restore a sense of normalcy into the lives of children displaced from their homes to refugee camps. Educating refugees provides many benefits and produces an immediate and positive impact on society. Educated children learn self-reliance and other values necessary for human development. Education can also provide psychosocial and physical safety for children. It can be an important instrument for ensuring the children's future success. Despite the numerous benefits of education, many refugee children cannot attend school, and for those who manage, the quality is often low and ridden with problems. These issues compelled various scholars to carry out research on how to deal with them.
LITERATURE REVIEW
This review examines different problems and challenges that children in refugee camps undergo in their endeavor to gain quality education. It looks at the literature on refugee resilience in the face of these issues. It also discusses a range of interventions for dealing with the problems hampering provision of quality education to refugee children in schools.
Most refugees have inadequate classrooms in which children can learn in a formal setting. The buildings that act as schools are often poorly constructed. Where structures exist, they are often overcrowded. Mareng distinguishes between spatial density (the floor space per child) and social density (the number of children interacting in the school). These concepts are all relevant to the context of children schooling in refugee camps globally. The concept of subjective crowding occurs as refugee children feel the effect of the conditions of overcrowding. The American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise concludes that the number of classrooms available plays a massive role in determining how the child will interact with classmates, and is related to poor educational quality. Land for providing school extensions is becoming scarce within the boundaries of refugee camps. Some classrooms often accommodate 50 to over 60 students each in contrast to an average of 15 to 20 students in classrooms outside refugee camps. The research found that overcrowding led to problems of conduct among refugee children. In particular, there was increased fighting for space among children in refugee camps. There were also findings in the literature on the connection between overcrowding and health. Studies affirm that the transmission of communicable disease is enhanced among children staying closely together. Overcrowding raises the risk of infection because the number of possible transmitters increases. Consequently, children learning in crowded conditions acquire more infections; infections affect their ability to learn. The study suggests that illnesses such as influenza, whooping cough, diarrhea, acute lower respiratory infections (ALRI), hepatitis A and B, helminth diseases and chronic diseases may be related to crowding. In refugee camps, the respiratory diseases are predominant in children under 5. In one instance, it was reported that 48 percent of elementary schoolchildren in three camps were infected with parasites in the intestines. The children then suffered malnutrition immediately after the parasitic infections. This incident made the children more vulnerable to other infections than before. The study found that the chances of epidemic eruption greatly increased due to overcrowding.
Teaching quality in schools located in refugee camps has been found to be low. New, unqualified teachers are usually hired on contract because the concerned hiring organizations cannot afford to hire teachers permanently. Poor pedagogical approaches employed by the unqualified teachers are considered the biggest reason for the poor education standards. Dooley suggests employing a different approach to teaching refugee children in high schools. The author recommends that all teachers should extend their teaching skills to include teaching literacy and language to complement subject area content. This approach requires that ESL teachers and content area teachers find ways of using refugee children's conceptual knowledge and the knowledge to address their unique literacy. The approach builds on the refugee students' life experiences prior to their resettlement experiences. The British Columbia Ministry of Education draws the line between the needs of many refugee students and immigrant students. Many refugee students often need to learn new academic language forms and concepts alongside a new language. In contrast, many immigrant students only need support in learning a foreign language to succeed in their new academic environment. Pedagogies effective for other foreign language students may not necessarily be adequate for refugee students. Sutherland suggests that gaining literacy in a second language is influenced by the teaching quality, instruction intensity, methods for supporting the special language needs of refugees, learning evaluation and monitoring, and teacher preparation. Woods asserts that subject-area teachers should present information in a comprehensible way for refugees who are learning a second language.
Such children may also have difficulties adapting to their new environment. Teachers ought to know the factors that hinder or facilitate adaptation. The school environment may be more difficult to adapt to if the teacher speaks or acts inappropriately. The ability of refugee children to adapt depends on the amount of chronic and acute stressors experienced as well as the protective factors that may accelerate the coping mechanism. Another influential factor was found to be the child's personality disposition, which accounted for the disparities in how different children adapted to their situation. Compared to other children, refugee children were found to experience more adaptation and socialization difficulties. The problems arise especially because refugee flight disrupts the continuity of the socialization process and prevents normal acquisition of information and skills. Therefore, the refugee child has to incorporate meaningful and functional issues in different cultures. Schools in refugee camps may lack the capacity to create a safe environment in which the children could feel supported.
Dawn et al. revealed that trauma-related learning difficulties created complications in assessing refugee children during the first few weeks of arrival into the refugee camp. These issues were only considered problematic when they persisted and the child concerned failed to improve on the same level as other refugee children. Teachers needed to be trained to document pre-migration stressors, critical events and post-migration factors. During the assessment, teachers should also be equipped with the skills to discern the coping strategies the children used to deal with traumatic experiences. In this way, teachers were able to help the children to contain their emotions within manageable levels.
Researchers found that attempts to accelerate the children's healing process using therapeutic methods were successful when the social and cultural context was taken into account. The study therefore urged teachers to acquire cultural knowledge relevant to the conflicts experienced by the children. Teachers also needed to identify constructive elements to cultural bereavement for each child in the school. Tutors were advised to avoid defining children solely by their loss. Some researchers also recommended incorporating individual therapeutic techniques that were interlinked create a new sense of social belonging. Refugee children need to feel that they are a part of the school, without having to lose their cultural identities. Therefore, schools have to adapt and create a safe haven for enabling the transition of the refugee child.
Many studies recommended ways of building the capacity of teachers to be able to deal with refugee children in their schools. They recommended appropriate training of teachers and their participation in activities related to refugee education. Some researchers recommended the incorporation of specialized service providers to provide counseling to children who exhibit symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorders within the school setting. Additional resources and mechanisms may offer support to teachers in their efforts to help refugee children. School principles should also provide teachers with a platform in which they could air their views regarding the problems they have encountered and possible solutions. Such platforms could be instrumental in facilitating the teachers' own adaptation and healing process. Schools in refugee camps should adopt and implement cross-cultural curricular and projects to enhance levels of understanding and mutual respect. They should also integrate topics that focus on refugees and human rights to inform children from the host country students about the experiences and needs of the refugee children. In addition, extracurricular activities should be developed to help refugee children and others interact. Such activities could also help the refugee children forget traumatic experiences that they had undergone. Teachers could put the children in groups where they could share stories, songs and music. Children from the host countries may also get the opportunity to assist refugee students with any difficulties in class work.
Most refugees have experienced grief from the loss of one or more loved ones due to issues such as war, famine or drought. Majority of them have also lost their homes and the way of life that they have always known. Teachers may not be properly trained to handle the posttraumatic stress disorders, and their ineptitude may exacerbate the situation. Studies suggest that teachers need to be equipped with the capacity to help children suffering PTSD to be able to cope. They should learn to encourage such children to come out from reclusion and be able to express themselves. Research found that many teachers have no training to identify when a child has PTSD. This ability is important as it prevents generalization of children by teachers; some children are able to cope well despite having suffered traumatic experiences. If the teacher is not properly trained to make a diagnosis, he or she might act in a way that might trigger suppressed stressed.
Scholars identified death of a loved one, displacement, threat of violence, forceful migration and acculturation as the most common stressors among child refugees. This situation is often mitigated when teachers are drawn from within the refugee population. Such teachers may have experienced similar stressors and therefore be better positioned to help others.
Some researchers proposed the applicability of the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder construct for child refugees in general. They describe the associated symptoms predominant in children in refugee camps. These scholars provide the clinical contexts that focus on therapeutic interventions after identification and diagnosis. The scholars describe pre-migration stressors, the environmental adaptation trauma, and the issues of grief. The literature provides techniques that teachers can utilize to identify and treat children who require intensive individual therapy to cope with excessive stress. Studies identified symptoms such as fear, prolonged crying and anxiety as some of the behavioral changes that teachers were advised to look out for when dealing with children in refugee camps. Other symptoms include clinging, agitation, isolation, withdrawal, repetitive play, startled reactions and other regressive behavior.
In one study, some of the children who had survived atrocities of war were diagnosed with PTSD and depression. Those children who displayed fewer signs of severe trauma were those who had continued to live with family members. This study reflected the significance other systemic variables that heightened or diminished a child's vulnerability PTSD occurring in the refugee camp. The research recommended an acculturation stress diagnosis technique to help teachers or school managers to help refugees.
Having realized the critical role schools played in the mental health of refugee children, scholars tried to put trauma in the context of education settings. The literature documented that children are able to cope when given the right environment. However, concern was raised concerning the decline in discipline and academic performance of refugee children.
These issues posed pose significant challenges to teachers primarily because some teachers tended to internalize the trauma of their refugee pupils. Some of the teachers expressed loss of confidence in their pedagogical abilities when dealing with refugee children. Others were reported to have become withdrawn or rigid against their pupils. Studies found that teaching under such conditions was complicated; refugee children were the main losers, as they failed to understand these teachers or developed negative perceptions about school.
Kanu suggests that students with traumatic experiences have problems catching up with average academic and cognitive levels. In contrast, other immigrant students studying a foreign language take a shorter time and less support to catch up with their native English-speaking peers. The reason for this disparity could be attributed to the effects of psychological trauma. Some refugee children may have developed fear and distrust of teachers and other authority figures.
They may also have fear of expressing themselves audibly in class. In the study by MacKay & Travares, refugee children from war-affected countries were more likely to have socio-emotional issues in comparison to children who left their countries due to other issues, such as drought. Evidence suggests that the effects of war could severely influence the capacity of refugee children to learn. Many children from war-torn countries were reported to have difficulties forming friendships in school. Their reclusive nature made it difficult for teachers to help them gain knowledge. Some students exhibited hostile tendencies toward teachers and their fellow students. Teachers and schools ought to demonstrate compassion for such children. The author suggested that teachers should channel their focus on these learners. Mann recommended employing therapeutic interventions that are culturally sensitive, such as art, dance poetry, music and storytelling. These activities relate to the cultural heritage of the refugee children, and it can help social and psychological integration.
Conclusion
From this literature review, I have gained much about the challenges faced by children in refugee camps. Fortunately, the literature offers numerous interventions to help deal with these problems. Overcrowding, lack of qualified teachers and effects of trauma are the greatest impediment toward achieving quality education for children in refugee camps. The literature shows that refugee children are extremely disadvantaged compared to other immigrant children who moved for other reasons. Studies have exposed the need for building more schools despite limited space available in many refugee camps. If possible, humanitarian organizations should liaise with the host countries to acquire more space. Teachers should also be trained to deal specifically with refugee children. Issues to do with teaching a foreign language, particularly, need a special approach from teachers. In addition, teachers should be able to identify and help children with psychological trauma. Although the literature reviewed was exhaustive in these issues, there are certain gaps that need to be addressed in future studies. For example, the authors neglected to address gender-sensitive issues. The specific literature reviewed in this study provided a generalization of the children. The authors should have done some studies on the problems faced by girls compared to boys. This issue is critical in view of the fact that girls experienced unique problems that lead to a high dropout rate among refugee girls. Currently, studies have been done on the effect of female genital mutilation (FGM) on schooling of girls among refugee children from communities that practice the vice. Other studies have been done on how refugee girls are most at risk of early marriages, which force them to drop out of school. Though these issues have been discussed comprehensively, there is inadequate information regarding how studies of the various problems discussed can be incorporated into the school curriculum. This research will address the need to include the issue of being refugees, and how to handle various problems that children-especially girls-face. It is hoped that from this study, new research will be carried out to investigate more gender-specific problems that both boys and girls undergo in the refugee camps.
References
American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (2014). UN Relief & Works Agency (UNRWA): Palestinian Refugees in the West Bank.
British Columbia Ministry of Education (2009). Students from Refugee Backgrounds: a Guide for Teachers and Schools.
Dawn, C., ‎Joshua, A., Fogel & ‎Gillian Lewando Hundt (Eds.) (2005). Children of Palestine: Experiencing Forced Migration in the Middle East. Berghahn Books
Dooley, Karen T. (2009) Re-thinking pedagogy for middle school students with little, no or severely interrupted schooling. English Teaching: Practice and Critique, 8(1). pp. 5-22.
Woods, Annette (2009). Learning to be literate: issues of pedagogy for recently arrived refugee youth in Australia. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies: An International Journal, 6(1-2). pp. 81-101.
Kanu, Yatta (2008). Educational Needs and Barriers for African Refugee Students in Manitoba. Canadian Journal of Education 31, 4: 915-940
MacKay, T. & Travares, T. (2005). Building Hope: Appropriate Programming for Adolescent and Young Adult Newcomers of War-affected Backgrounds and Manitoba Schools: A Preliminary report for Consultation and Discussion (2005). Manitoba Education, Citizenship and Youth.
Mann, G. (2010). Finding a Life Among Undocumented Congolese Refugee Children in Tanzania. Children & Society. 24.4. 261-270.
Mareng, C. (2010). Analysis of the refugee children's education in the Kakuma refugee camp. Educational Research and Reviews. 5.6: 292-287.
Sutherland, E. (2008). Refugee Children and Families: A Model for Successful Integration. Calgary, AB: Edna Sutherland and Associates.
Education is vital to the development of every human being. Unfortunately, not everyone has access to quality formal education. Children in refugee camps, particularly, are often disadvantaged in terms of access to education. Many refugee camps only offer basic requirements for survival, and education is considered secondary. Nowadays, however, schools can be found within refugee camps, but most of them are riddled with problems. A substantial body of literature exists on the challenges faced in providing quality education in refugee camps. This paper will discuss selected literature that shed light on children education problems in refugee camps.
The global rise in numbers of juvenile refugees suggests the need to examine the capacity of the camps to provide education opportunities. Educated children have higher chances of experiencing a smooth transition to citizenship than uneducated ones do. The literature reviewed in this paper analyzes the social and psychological problems, such as overcrowding, insufficient learning materials, poor infrastructure and insecurity, high rate of school dropout, and shortage of competent teachers. This study bears in mind that the difficult experience of the changes of family structure, exile and religious, ethnic, cultural, and legal differences can affect the ability of children to acquire quality education. The problems mentioned here can only increase the difficulty experienced in learning for child refugees. All efforts should be channeled toward eliminating or mitigating these problems and making learning as comfortable as possible for children in refugee camps. This report is not only useful for organizations involved with refugees; governments can also gain insight on how children's education can be affected by various issues inside and outside of refugee camps.
Theoretical Framework
The social and psychological effects of various problems facing children in refugee camps are examined in the literature from various angles and disciplines such as sociology, behavioral sciences, psychology, urban geography and epidemiology. Many studies focus on the effects of these problems in school-going children. Some of the works analyzed the coping mechanisms of individual children in the context of the challenges they face in schools in refugee camps. Many of the children exhibited coping mechanisms such as withdrawal into personal space for emotional and psychological renewal. These coping mechanisms were threatened by many different social interactions that caused sensory overload on the children. Such theoretical formulations influenced studies that were conducted later; these latter studies maintained a focus on the children in refugee camps. The scholars acknowledged the importance of education for child refugees because it can provide them with a sense of hope and security; these aspects often lack in refugee settings. Education can play a vital role in helping to restore a sense of normalcy into the lives of children displaced from their homes to refugee camps. Educating refugees provides many benefits and produces an immediate and positive impact on society. Educated children learn self-reliance and other values necessary for human development. Education can also provide psychosocial and physical safety for children. It can be an important instrument for ensuring the children's future success. Despite the numerous benefits of education, many refugee children cannot attend school, and for those who manage, the quality is often low and ridden with problems. These issues compelled various scholars to carry out research on how to deal with them.LITERATURE REVIEW
This review examines different problems and challenges that children in refugee camps undergo in their endeavor to gain quality education. It looks at the literature on refugee resilience in the face of these issues. It also discusses a range of interventions for dealing with the problems hampering provision of quality education to refugee children in schools.
Overcrowding
Most refugees have inadequate classrooms in which children can learn in a formal setting. The buildings that act as schools are often poorly constructed. Where structures exist, they are often overcrowded. Mareng distinguishes between spatial density (the floor space per child) and social density (the number of children interacting in the school). These concepts are all relevant to the context of children schooling in refugee camps globally. The concept of subjective crowding occurs as refugee children feel the effect of the conditions of overcrowding. The American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise concludes that the number of classrooms available plays a massive role in determining how the child will interact with classmates, and is related to poor educational quality. Land for providing school extensions is becoming scarce within the boundaries of refugee camps. Some classrooms often accommodate 50 to over 60 students each in contrast to an average of 15 to 20 students in classrooms outside refugee camps. The research found that overcrowding led to problems of conduct among refugee children. In particular, there was increased fighting for space among children in refugee camps. There were also findings in the literature on the connection between overcrowding and health. Studies affirm that the transmission of communicable disease is enhanced among children staying closely together. Overcrowding raises the risk of infection because the number of possible transmitters increases. Consequently, children learning in crowded conditions acquire more infections; infections affect their ability to learn. The study suggests that illnesses such as influenza, whooping cough, diarrhea, acute lower respiratory infections (ALRI), hepatitis A and B, helminth diseases and chronic diseases may be related to crowding. In refugee camps, the respiratory diseases are predominant in children under 5. In one instance, it was reported that 48 percent of elementary schoolchildren in three camps were infected with parasites in the intestines. The children then suffered malnutrition immediately after the parasitic infections. This incident made the children more vulnerable to other infections than before. The study found that the chances of epidemic eruption greatly increased due to overcrowding.
Poor Pedagogical Skills
Teaching quality in schools located in refugee camps has been found to be low. New, unqualified teachers are usually hired on contract because the concerned hiring organizations cannot afford to hire teachers permanently. Poor pedagogical approaches employed by the unqualified teachers are considered the biggest reason for the poor education standards. Dooley suggests employing a different approach to teaching refugee children in high schools. The author recommends that all teachers should extend their teaching skills to include teaching literacy and language to complement subject area content. This approach requires that ESL teachers and content area teachers find ways of using refugee children's conceptual knowledge and the knowledge to address their unique literacy. The approach builds on the refugee students' life experiences prior to their resettlement experiences. The British Columbia Ministry of Education draws the line between the needs of many refugee students and immigrant students. Many refugee students often need to learn new academic language forms and concepts alongside a new language. In contrast, many immigrant students only need support in learning a foreign language to succeed in their new academic environment. Pedagogies effective for other foreign language students may not necessarily be adequate for refugee students. Sutherland suggests that gaining literacy in a second language is influenced by the teaching quality, instruction intensity, methods for supporting the special language needs of refugees, learning evaluation and monitoring, and teacher preparation. Woods asserts that subject-area teachers should present information in a comprehensible way for refugees who are learning a second language.
Adaptation Problems for Children in Schools in Refugee Camps
Such children may also have difficulties adapting to their new environment. Teachers ought to know the factors that hinder or facilitate adaptation. The school environment may be more difficult to adapt to if the teacher speaks or acts inappropriately. The ability of refugee children to adapt depends on the amount of chronic and acute stressors experienced as well as the protective factors that may accelerate the coping mechanism. Another influential factor was found to be the child's personality disposition, which accounted for the disparities in how different children adapted to their situation. Compared to other children, refugee children were found to experience more adaptation and socialization difficulties. The problems arise especially because refugee flight disrupts the continuity of the socialization process and prevents normal acquisition of information and skills. Therefore, the refugee child has to incorporate meaningful and functional issues in different cultures. Schools in refugee camps may lack the capacity to create a safe environment in which the children could feel supported.
Dawn et al. revealed that trauma-related learning difficulties created complications in assessing refugee children during the first few weeks of arrival into the refugee camp. These issues were only considered problematic when they persisted and the child concerned failed to improve on the same level as other refugee children. Teachers needed to be trained to document pre-migration stressors, critical events and post-migration factors. During the assessment, teachers should also be equipped with the skills to discern the coping strategies the children used to deal with traumatic experiences. In this way, teachers were able to help the children to contain their emotions within manageable levels.
Researchers found that attempts to accelerate the children's healing process using therapeutic methods were successful when the social and cultural context was taken into account. The study therefore urged teachers to acquire cultural knowledge relevant to the conflicts experienced by the children. Teachers also needed to identify constructive elements to cultural bereavement for each child in the school. Tutors were advised to avoid defining children solely by their loss. Some researchers also recommended incorporating individual therapeutic techniques that were interlinked create a new sense of social belonging. Refugee children need to feel that they are a part of the school, without having to lose their cultural identities. Therefore, schools have to adapt and create a safe haven for enabling the transition of the refugee child.
Many studies recommended ways of building the capacity of teachers to be able to deal with refugee children in their schools. They recommended appropriate training of teachers and their participation in activities related to refugee education. Some researchers recommended the incorporation of specialized service providers to provide counseling to children who exhibit symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorders within the school setting. Additional resources and mechanisms may offer support to teachers in their efforts to help refugee children. School principles should also provide teachers with a platform in which they could air their views regarding the problems they have encountered and possible solutions. Such platforms could be instrumental in facilitating the teachers' own adaptation and healing process. Schools in refugee camps should adopt and implement cross-cultural curricular and projects to enhance levels of understanding and mutual respect. They should also integrate topics that focus on refugees and human rights to inform children from the host country students about the experiences and needs of the refugee children. In addition, extracurricular activities should be developed to help refugee children and others interact. Such activities could also help the refugee children forget traumatic experiences that they had undergone. Teachers could put the children in groups where they could share stories, songs and music. Children from the host countries may also get the opportunity to assist refugee students with any difficulties in class work.
Learning Difficulties Due to Posttraumatic Stress Disorders (PTSD)
Most refugees have experienced grief from the loss of one or more loved ones due to issues such as war, famine or drought. Majority of them have also lost their homes and the way of life that they have always known. Teachers may not be properly trained to handle the posttraumatic stress disorders, and their ineptitude may exacerbate the situation. Studies suggest that teachers need to be equipped with the capacity to help children suffering PTSD to be able to cope. They should learn to encourage such children to come out from reclusion and be able to express themselves. Research found that many teachers have no training to identify when a child has PTSD. This ability is important as it prevents generalization of children by teachers; some children are able to cope well despite having suffered traumatic experiences. If the teacher is not properly trained to make a diagnosis, he or she might act in a way that might trigger suppressed stressed.
Scholars identified death of a loved one, displacement, threat of violence, forceful migration and acculturation as the most common stressors among child refugees. This situation is often mitigated when teachers are drawn from within the refugee population. Such teachers may have experienced similar stressors and therefore be better positioned to help others.
Some researchers proposed the applicability of the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder construct for child refugees in general. They describe the associated symptoms predominant in children in refugee camps. These scholars provide the clinical contexts that focus on therapeutic interventions after identification and diagnosis. The scholars describe pre-migration stressors, the environmental adaptation trauma, and the issues of grief. The literature provides techniques that teachers can utilize to identify and treat children who require intensive individual therapy to cope with excessive stress. Studies identified symptoms such as fear, prolonged crying and anxiety as some of the behavioral changes that teachers were advised to look out for when dealing with children in refugee camps. Other symptoms include clinging, agitation, isolation, withdrawal, repetitive play, startled reactions and other regressive behavior.
In one study, some of the children who had survived atrocities of war were diagnosed with PTSD and depression. Those children who displayed fewer signs of severe trauma were those who had continued to live with family members. This study reflected the significance other systemic variables that heightened or diminished a child's vulnerability PTSD occurring in the refugee camp. The research recommended an acculturation stress diagnosis technique to help teachers or school managers to help refugees.
Having realized the critical role schools played in the mental health of refugee children, scholars tried to put trauma in the context of education settings. The literature documented that children are able to cope when given the right environment. However, concern was raised concerning the decline in discipline and academic performance of refugee children.
These issues posed pose significant challenges to teachers primarily because some teachers tended to internalize the trauma of their refugee pupils. Some of the teachers expressed loss of confidence in their pedagogical abilities when dealing with refugee children. Others were reported to have become withdrawn or rigid against their pupils. Studies found that teaching under such conditions was complicated; refugee children were the main losers, as they failed to understand these teachers or developed negative perceptions about school.
Kanu suggests that students with traumatic experiences have problems catching up with average academic and cognitive levels. In contrast, other immigrant students studying a foreign language take a shorter time and less support to catch up with their native English-speaking peers. The reason for this disparity could be attributed to the effects of psychological trauma. Some refugee children may have developed fear and distrust of teachers and other authority figures.
They may also have fear of expressing themselves audibly in class. In the study by MacKay & Travares, refugee children from war-affected countries were more likely to have socio-emotional issues in comparison to children who left their countries due to other issues, such as drought. Evidence suggests that the effects of war could severely influence the capacity of refugee children to learn. Many children from war-torn countries were reported to have difficulties forming friendships in school. Their reclusive nature made it difficult for teachers to help them gain knowledge. Some students exhibited hostile tendencies toward teachers and their fellow students. Teachers and schools ought to demonstrate compassion for such children. The author suggested that teachers should channel their focus on these learners. Mann recommended employing therapeutic interventions that are culturally sensitive, such as art, dance poetry, music and storytelling. These activities relate to the cultural heritage of the refugee children, and it can help social and psychological integration.
Conclusion
From this literature review, I have gained much about the challenges faced by children in refugee camps. Fortunately, the literature offers numerous interventions to help deal with these problems. Overcrowding, lack of qualified teachers and effects of trauma are the greatest impediment toward achieving quality education for children in refugee camps. The literature shows that refugee children are extremely disadvantaged compared to other immigrant children who moved for other reasons. Studies have exposed the need for building more schools despite limited space available in many refugee camps. If possible, humanitarian organizations should liaise with the host countries to acquire more space. Teachers should also be trained to deal specifically with refugee children. Issues to do with teaching a foreign language, particularly, need a special approach from teachers. In addition, teachers should be able to identify and help children with psychological trauma. Although the literature reviewed was exhaustive in these issues, there are certain gaps that need to be addressed in future studies. For example, the authors neglected to address gender-sensitive issues. The specific literature reviewed in this study provided a generalization of the children. The authors should have done some studies on the problems faced by girls compared to boys. This issue is critical in view of the fact that girls experienced unique problems that lead to a high dropout rate among refugee girls. Currently, studies have been done on the effect of female genital mutilation (FGM) on schooling of girls among refugee children from communities that practice the vice. Other studies have been done on how refugee girls are most at risk of early marriages, which force them to drop out of school. Though these issues have been discussed comprehensively, there is inadequate information regarding how studies of the various problems discussed can be incorporated into the school curriculum. This research will address the need to include the issue of being refugees, and how to handle various problems that children-especially girls-face. It is hoped that from this study, new research will be carried out to investigate more gender-specific problems that both boys and girls undergo in the refugee camps.
References
American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (2014). UN Relief & Works Agency (UNRWA): Palestinian Refugees in the West Bank.
British Columbia Ministry of Education (2009). Students from Refugee Backgrounds: a Guide for Teachers and Schools.
Dawn, C., ‎Joshua, A., Fogel & ‎Gillian Lewando Hundt (Eds.) (2005). Children of Palestine: Experiencing Forced Migration in the Middle East. Berghahn Books
Dooley, Karen T. (2009) Re-thinking pedagogy for middle school students with little, no or severely interrupted schooling. English Teaching: Practice and Critique, 8(1). pp. 5-22.
Woods, Annette (2009). Learning to be literate: issues of pedagogy for recently arrived refugee youth in Australia. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies: An International Journal, 6(1-2). pp. 81-101.
Kanu, Yatta (2008). Educational Needs and Barriers for African Refugee Students in Manitoba. Canadian Journal of Education 31, 4: 915-940
MacKay, T. & Travares, T. (2005). Building Hope: Appropriate Programming for Adolescent and Young Adult Newcomers of War-affected Backgrounds and Manitoba Schools: A Preliminary report for Consultation and Discussion (2005). Manitoba Education, Citizenship and Youth.
Mann, G. (2010). Finding a Life Among Undocumented Congolese Refugee Children in Tanzania. Children & Society. 24.4. 261-270.
Mareng, C. (2010). Analysis of the refugee children's education in the Kakuma refugee camp. Educational Research and Reviews. 5.6: 292-287.
Sutherland, E. (2008). Refugee Children and Families: A Model for Successful Integration. Calgary, AB: Edna Sutherland and Associates.