Rethinking education in times of crisis

The system that funds and organises education in conflict and disaster zones around the world is in terminal decline, according to an expert in the field from the University of Auckland.

Dr Ritesh Shah, director of the Centre for Asia Pacific Refugee Studies (CAPRS) in the University’s Faculty of Arts and Education, says we’re witnessing “the erosion of multilateralism and global humanitarian commitments,” especially with the US scrapping tens of billions of dollars of foreign aid under the second Trump administration.

“There’s also increased questioning from many quarters about whose agendas, interests and ideologies continue to be promoted by those who provide education in these humanitarian crises,” says Shah.

Many believe donor countries who fund education in these situations are using aid to win ‘hearts and minds,’ gain diplomatic support or stabilise regions in ways that align with their foreign policy, rather than the interests of learners and their communities.

Other concerns include ‘policy conditionality’, where institutions like the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund, have historically tied assistance to economic or governance reforms like privatisation or austerity measures.

But Shah believes transformation of the system is possible and a new global initiative, which he will lead, in partnership with the Interagency Network on Education in Emergencies (INEE) and the University of Maryland-College Park, is set to tackle it.

He says, by asking various stakeholders, the project wants to understand how the system functions now and what it could and should look like in an ideal world.

“We want new ways of doing things to come from affected communities and for them to drive what comes next, rather than we project leaders ‘telling’ these communities how to run things, which has been the case in the past.”

Shah says they’re going to do things “from the bottom up,” starting with affected communities in places like Colombia, Syria and Sudan, who are all having to keep education going despite ongoing civil wars, displacement, disease and poverty, and then working their way up to the global level.

In a series of workshops, the people involved on the ground will be asked to imagine what the system would look like if decision-makers were accountable to them, rather than external interests and agendas, and if young people, educators and community leaders had access to the resources and power to make these changes happen.

The team are keen to identify examples of where this may already be happening, and to understand how and why it’s been possible; for example, teachers, parents and others continuing to offer education in makeshift spaces in Gaza despite years of bombardment and displacement.

“We will then generate ‘competing visions’ of what an ‘education in emergencies’ (EiE) system could and should look like in the future and shape a collective, new vision that hopes to avoid the mistakes of the past,” he says.

The team will then share these visions with global decision-makers and identify ‘key champions’ who are willing to support these community and nationally driven ideas for change.

The initiative is being funded by a US$75,000 Spencer Foundation Vision Grant, which gives project teams 12 months to develop a way research can help transform an element of the education system that require urgent attention.

“Rather than doing the research itself,” says Shah, “the idea for this grant is to mobilise a wider coalition of partners to brainstorm what such a programme of research would look like,” says Shah.

From this, Shah and the team will then apply for the foundation’s Transformative Research Grant, which would provide up to US$3.5 million to undertake the research itself.

He admits transforming such an entrenched system is “a tall ask.”

“But we have the benefit of engaging with a network [INEE] who has already made strong commitments to embrace a different future, and part of our role is to find other like-minded allies who want to be part of this vision at a community, national and international level.”

Shah says it’s also incredibly rare to have a funder who provides research teams dedicated time and resource to build a coalition of researchers and practitioners who can support system change together.

“Ultimately, our coalition’s ambition is to ensure that for the nearly 300 million children and youth affected by conflict and crisis in the world today, the education they’re receiving is better designed to support their needs and aspirations, and that of their communities, rather than the interest of others.”