Project Summary
Children in refugee camps, and particularly children with disabilities, face unique challenges to accessing education and are at high risk of being marginalized. Best practices suggest that mainstreaming is the optimal strategy for serving students with disabilities. Yet, such an approach is of limited benefit given the resource constraints in refugee camps. This project combines Community Based System Dynamics with longitudinal survey data to provide recommendations for inclusive education in refugee camps, and to measure the effects of these strategies over time on children's well-being.
Approach
This project used community-based system dynamics (CBSD) activities to understand key stakeholders’ perspectives of the drivers and effects of inclusion and wellbeing for children with disabilities, and to elicit recommendations to enhance educational inclusion. Recommendations were quickly built into program design and implementation. Longitudinal quantitative data are being collected to measure the extent to which program changes and school settings are linked to improved child well-being.
Measurement & Metrics
CBSD; Child Well-Being (using the parent reported Strengths & Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), and the short version of the Washington Group Set of Questions on Disability (n=200)
Key Findings
CBSD findings indicated participants have a broad conceptualization of inclusion, highlighting the value of community interaction and importance of meeting basic needs. Baseline survey findings found that children in mainstream schools functioned better in terms of prosocial behaviors, but this relationship disappeared when factoring children’s emotional and behavioral difficulties. These findings suggest that including children in mainstream educational settings in a complex humanitarian context requires a more nuanced approach given the lack of existing resources to support Western models of educational inclusion fully.
