“What I Believe Can Rescue That Nation” : Diaspora Working to Transform Education in Fragility and Conflict

This study examines diaspora’s engagement in education development work in their fragile and conflict-affected countries of origin. Through analysis of 28 in-depth interviews with diaspora from four countries, we discuss diasporas’ motivations to engage, activities of engagement, and factors that enable or constrain it. Our research highlights that diasporas’ education development work seeks to transform conflict dynamics by attending to historical drivers of conflict. We found that diaspora were motivated to engage in education development by a sense of responsibility for communities, known and imagined, including a responsibility to act on the belief that education could transform fragility and conflict. Diaspora enacted their sense of responsibility through resources and rights they accessed through their insider/outsider status in two settings. In focusing on relationships with communities and authorities, diaspora reimagined where power lies in education development work, with implications for governments, development organizations, and diaspora working to transform conflict dynamics through education.