Journal on Education in Emergencies Volume 8, Number 1

JEiE Vol8No1This issue of the Journal on Education in Emergencies (JEiE) offers a review of a broad range of dilemmas facing the field of education in emergencies (EiE). It provides actionable data along with insights for improving wellbeing and learning outcomes among children in conflict and crisis settings. This issue brings attention to efforts in the EiE field to support more equitable and social justice-oriented ways of working, especially as concerns the creation and dissemination of EiE data and evidence. 

JEiE Volume 8, Number 1 includes seven research articles, two field notes, a commentary, and two book reviews. It offers cutting-edge research and field work conducted by teams comprised of practitioners, researchers, and policymakers who live and work among diverse populations in an array of geographic settings, including the Middle East, South America, South Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa. Several articles in this issue are global in scope, commenting in particular on EiE practice and on refining frameworks for understanding our work in conflict and crisis settings, while other articles encourage using lessons learned from the implementation of EiE programs or policies in one setting and applying them in other EiE contexts.

The authors who contributed to this issue address the effects of conflict and crisis on education and assess the effects of children’s mental health and wellbeing on learning. Others pose solutions for supporting early literacy, numeracy, and social and emotional learning, both within schools and for out-of-school children. Yet other authors interrogate how to achieve social cohesion, social justice, and peace by reimagining the role of education and training for young people whose lives have been affected by armed conflict and other big questions of our time, such as climate change and sustainable development. Cogent analyses of the problems inherent in the structure and organization of EiE programming, data, and research round out this issue.

As a diamond open access journal, the full issue of JEiE Volume 8, Number 1, as well as individual articles, can be downloaded for free by clicking on the titles below.

Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial LicenseThe Journal on Education in Emergencies, published by the Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE), is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

17 March 2022 Journal Article Journal on Education in Emergencies (JEiE)

War and Schooling in South Sudan, 2013-2016

Author Augustino Ting Mayai examines the effects the civil war in South Sudan had on primary school enrollment during the first four years of the conflict. He argues that cumulative lost school years among students in war-affected communities in South Sudan pose long-term socioeconomic consequences, such as the stymied development of human capital.

17 March 2022 Journal Article Journal on Education in Emergencies (JEiE)

How Cognitive and Psychosocial Difficulties Affect Learning Outcomes: A Study of Primary School Children in Syria

In a study of 7,191 Syrian children, authors Grace Anyaegbu, Caroline Carney, Holly-Jane Howell, Alaa Zaza, and Abdulkader Alaeddin report lower literacy levels among children with one cognitive or psychosocial difficulty (as determined by the Washington Group Questions). Children with two or more such difficulties were less likely to progress as far on an eight-milestone literacy pathway.

17 March 2022 Journal Article Journal on Education in Emergencies (JEiE)

A Proof-of-Concept Study of Can’t Wait to Learn: A Digital Game-Based Learning Program for Out-of-School Children in Lebanon

Reflecting on the feasibility of ed tech solutions for out-of-school children, authors Jasmine S. Turner, Karine Taha, Nisreen Ibrahim, Koen I. Neijenhuijs, Eyad Hallak, Kate Radford, Hester Stubbé-Alberts, Thomas de Hoop, Mark J.D. Jordans, and Felicity L. Brown report significant effects on numeracy and self-esteem among 390 children in Lebanon who took part in a digital game-based intervention.

17 March 2022 Journal Article Journal on Education in Emergencies (JEiE)

The Role of Technical and Vocational Education in Social Reintegration: Insights from Colombian Ex-Combatants

Authors Maria Paulina Arango-Fernández and Stephanie Simmons Zuilkowski share insights from 20 Colombian ex-combatants engaged in TVET. They find that some forms of TVET may support social cohesion while other forms reinforce exclusion, but few TVET experiences addressed ex-combatants’ feelings of stigmatization. They recommend pairing TVET with economic support to encourage reintegration.

17 March 2022 Journal Article Journal on Education in Emergencies (JEiE)

Landscape Analysis of Early Childhood Development and Education in Emergencies

Authors Liliana Angélica Ponguta, Kathryn Moore, Divina Varghese, Sascha Hein, Angela Ng, Aseel Fawaz Alzaghoul, Maria Angélica Benavides Camacho, Karishma Sethi, and Majd Al-Soleiti uncover root causes behind low ECD access in EiE settings: low prioritization across sectors, little systematic mapping of the institutional and programmatic landscape, and limited consensus on strategic advocacy.

17 March 2022 Journal Article Journal on Education in Emergencies (JEiE)

Learning to Become Smart Radicals: A Regenerative Lens on the Potential for Peace and Reconciliation through Youth and Education Systems

Calling on readers to reflect on the power of youth as agents for peace, author Mieke T. A. Lopes Cardozo brings together an education rights framework with a framework for sustainable peacebuilding in EiE contexts to advance a new notion of the role of education that transgresses current models for students’ participation in tackling big issues, such as climate change and social justice.

17 March 2022 Journal Article Journal on Education in Emergencies (JEiE)

Beyond Numbers: The Use and Usefulness of Data for Education in Emergencies

Authors Elizabeth Buckner, Daniel Shephard, and Anne Smiley examine how EiE professionals use data and what makes data “useful” to them. While global-level actors emphasized strategic data uses and local-level actors, operational uses, respondents at all levels elaborated on nontechnical factors (e.g., the politics of data) that influence the availability and perceived usefulness of EiE data.

17 March 2022 Journal Article Journal on Education in Emergencies (JEiE)

Field Note: Community-Led Provision of Nonformal Education for Displaced Learners in Northern Nigeria

Highlighting the potential of community-driven nonformal education models to reach displaced students, author Maryam Jillani examines the innovative community mobilization and capacity-building approach that Creative Associates International adopted to provide access to education for more than 80,000 learners in northern Nigeria.

17 March 2022 Journal Article Journal on Education in Emergencies (JEiE)

Field Note: Embedding Social and Emotional Learning in Literacy and Teacher Training in Afghanistan

Writing prior to the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021, authors Susan Ayari, Agatha J. van Ginkel, Janet Shriberg, Benjamin Gauley, and Sarah Maniates reflect on the partnership between Afghan Children Read and the Afghanistan Ministry of Education to integrate SEL principles into early grade reading curricula for students and into preservice and in-service training for teachers.

17 March 2022 Journal Article Journal on Education in Emergencies (JEiE)

Commentary: Fishing in the Desert: Empowering Sustainable Development through Higher Education in Kakuma Refugee Camp

Paul O’Keeffe interviews Dieu Merci Luundo, the founder of Vijana Twaweza Youth Club, an internationally recognized, award-winning program Luundo founded to combat climate change and poor nutrition in Kakuma refugee camp. He describes the organization’s accomplishments, growth, and basis in sustainable development and permaculture.

17 March 2022 Journal Article Journal on Education in Emergencies (JEiE)

Book Review: Making Refuge: Somali Bantu Refugees and Lewiston, Maine by Catherine Besteman

In her review of Making Refuge: Somali Bantu Refugees and Lewiston, Maine, by Catherine Besteman, Kelsey A. Dalrymple underscores for EiE audiences what Besteman writes about the role refugee communities’ histories, values surrounding education, and past cruel and othering experiences in schools play in their resettlement, identity formation, and cultural change.

17 March 2022 Journal Article Journal on Education in Emergencies (JEiE)

Book Review: Those We Throw Away Are Diamonds: A Refugee’s Search for Home by Mondiant Dogon, with Jenna Krajeski

In her review of Those We Throw Away Are Diamonds: A Refugee’s Search for Home by Mondiant Dogon, with Jenna Krajeski, Elisabeth King shows how Dogon’s first-person account of his life calls into question popular misconceptions about forced migration and refugee life. King says the book is a powerful reminder of why EiE practitioners engage in this work, and of the work that remains.