Arlene_20Benitez-_20Annoted_20Bibliography.docx

Annotated Bibliography

Introduction

I have chosen to structure my annotated bibliography loosely around the first question: how has the history of cross-cultural exchange in education and learning influenced the relationship between the refugees and Greek natives? The assignment mentions sources that will contribute to the final project, however, I could not find any detailed description of the final project listed among the various class resources other than a mention of “designing a curriculum” in one of the zoom sessions. Since curriculum can mean a variety of things and I am not currently working as a classroom teacher, I have chosen to adapt the topic slightly to fit my professional and academic work.

As a director of a research center on international education and development that specializes in education in conflict and crisis areas, I have found myself working increasingly with refugee populations (most from South Sudan and Afghanistan.) In addition, for my EdD program I am considering a dissertation topic that looks at the effectiveness of humanitarian aid investment for these communities. My initial drive to participate in the Greece program was to consider the ways a European country was integrating refugee populations into their educational system as a possible comparative approach to my experiences in South Sudan and Afghanistan.

As such, I am taking the opportunity to create a list of resources that can contribute to my body of knowledge around the intersections of citizenship, displacement, and education within the Greek context. This bibliography blends articles from academic journals with reports from agencies working in this field, which provide both critical analysis and in depth context.

Resources:

Article 1:

Dryden-Peterson, S. 2016. Refugee Education: The Crossroads of Globalization. Educational Researcher 45, no. 9:473-482.

Summary: This article offers a broad introduction to my chosen topic by one of the leading experts in the field of education in emergencies. Dryden-Peterson has constructed a multi-national study in order to understand the provision of education as a human right to all children, including those displaced by conflict. She offers a comparative approach that discusses situations I am more aware of, such as refugees in Uganda escaping conflicts in South Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo as well as the impact of migrants on European countries such as Greece and Germany. Dryden-Peterson takes a mixed methods approach that combines reviews of existing data sets on migration and resettlement from agencies such as UNHCR as well as semi-structured interviews with key informants, including teachers of refugees. This data allows her to provide context and analyze the discrepancies between the stated policies and aspirations around education as a human right and the realities of providing education for refugees and integrating them into their countries of resettlement. Not surprisingly, she finds that traditional large refugee camps frequently house people for extended periods during intractable crises and fail at ever integrating them into the host country. This has been my experience with South Sudanese refugees who spent extended periods in Kenyan or Ugandan refugee camps. That said, her findings suggest that countries such as Greece, who serve as resettlement points for a more transient population also fail to integrate the refugees into their educational system successfully.

Crul, M.,Lelie F., Biner, O., Bunar, N., Keskiner, E., Kokkali, I., Schneider, J., & Shuayb, M. (2019). How the different policies and school systems affect the inclusion of Syrian refugee children in Sweden, Germany, Greece, Lebanon and Turkey. Comparative Migration Studies, 7:10

Summary: The authors of this article conducted research on the way that a variety of different countries (Sweden, Germany, Greece, Turkey, and Lebanon) that received refugees from the Syrian War integrated students into their educational systems. Through an extensive literature review, they compared information on the policies and practices that each country offers refugee children and the degree to which they include or exclude students. The article looks at issues such as introduction into the school system, second language immersion, tracking, and compulsory education. The discussion on Greece focused on the fact that the ministry was ill prepared to handle the large influx of migrants but has created a transitional system called Reception Facilities for Refugee Education (RFRE) to prepare refugees for integration into Greece or other European countries. This was particularly interesting to me as they discuss that the goal of this system is to provide a sense of normalcy for children and that psycho-social support is an integral part of the program. I am currently working on an evaluation of a similar program that UNICEF carries out for children displaced by conflict in South Sudan, so I find the comparison helpful in my work.

Faas D. (2011) The Nation, Europe, and Migration: A comparison of geography, history, and citizenship education curricula in Greece, Germany, and England, Journal of Curriculum Studies, 43:4, 471-492.

Summary: I chose this article because it offers a broader picture of the topic of how societies integrate citizens: school curriculum. Though not exclusively focused on refugees and migrants, this articles compares Greek and German curriculum on citizenship (and social studies) and analyzes to what degree they create a national identity vs. a European identity. According to the author, Greek curriculum lean more toward a national identity and Germany a more European. Additionally, there is a discussion on what it means to be “Greek” according to school curriculum and whether that is inclusive of migrant and refugee populations. This is an interesting debate that mirrors curricular issues we find in the United States as well and I found it important to add to my depth of knowledge about Greece. In regards to my own research, I find it an interesting way to view whether school systems view refugees as future citizens or transient populations.

Greek Council for Refugees (2016), Country Report: Greece, Asylum Information Database

Summary: In order to get a comprehensive view of the refugee situation in Greece, I thought it was important to include a few resources that explained the depth of the problem, offered historical context, and included figures and projections for the influx of migrants. This report looks at the multi-sectoral response by both Greek government and humanitarian aid agencies in providing basic resources. The document helped provide perspective for me as a reader of the other articles, since it included specific facts and figures on the capacity of the variety of reception centers discussed in other articles. It helped to define a critical problem- that the need far outweighs the available resources. Additionally, it offers some insight into the issue of unaccompanied children that arrive in Greece and what resources are available to them. It is clear from this report that there is inequity in the preparation to receive refugees between large cities like Athens and Patras and the islands that serve as the first points of entry for many migrants but have little infrastructure or facilities to serve the new arrivals.

Greek Ombudsman – Children’s Rights Department & UNICEF (2016), Report of the monitoring mechanism for the children on the move in Greece

Summary: This report was particularly useful for me in placing my visit to Greece within the context of other work I am conducting with UNICEF in providing support to children affected by conflict. UNICEF serves as a multi-national actor that ensures that host country governments meet the rights of children, though this report identifies the areas that are difficult for UNICEF to track. It has been my experience in my own work evaluating UNICEF programs that it is difficult to assess whether the ideals that are written into country plans are actually carried out on the ground with students. The report presents the difficulties of monitoring students who are a transient population as well a the challenge in providing services. UNICEF offers child protection services as well as education services, but these two sectors do not always communicate and collaborate well.

Palaiologou, N. & Faas, D. (2012). How ‘intercultural’ is education in Greece? Insights from policymakers and educators, Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 42:4, 563-584, DOI:

Summary: This article takes the approach of looking at Greek identity in education and whether the system is supportive of an intercultural approach. I found the discussion of “Greekness” particularly interesting as it suggests that only children born to Greek parents are considered truly Greek and that those whose families have migrated in the past and have been in Greece for generations are still considered “foreign.” This is particularly interesting to consider as Greece is facing a huge influx of new migrants that may change the demographics of the country. The article discusses the way that educational policy and practice might respond to this and whether it is adept and creating a truly intercultural system. The study describes in this articles includes interviews with key informants such as ministry officials, teachers, and administrators. It shows that many Greek educators feel unprepared to create an intercultural education system.

Sakellis, Y., Spyropoulou, N. & Ziomas, D. (2016), The refugee crisis in Greece in the aftermath of the 20 March 2016 EU-Turkey Agreement, Flash Report 2016/64, EU Network of Independent Experts on Social Inclusion, Brussels: European Commission

Summary: This report provides additional historical context for understanding the refugee issue in Greece. It details the change in policy regarding the closure of the overland “Balkan Route” which many refugees took to flee to other European destinations. As a result of that closure, many refugees have been forced to stay within Greece, overburdening a system that was unprepared for such a large influx of migrants. This policy can be seen as unfairly impacting Greece as the distribution of refugees between Greece and other EU nations is now uneven since Greece’s geographic location means it serves as an entry point. That challenge, when considered in conjunction with the Greek financial crisis, means that the educational system does not have the means to provide basic services for either the refugee population or the local children. This link between international policy and the effect on local schools identify the crux of the refugee issue as a globalized crisis.

Scientific Committee in Support of Refugee Children (2017), Assessment Report on the Integration Project of Refugee Children in Education, Ministry of Education, Research & Religious Affairs, Athens

Summary: This critical report helps frame the other readings I used in this bibliography as it explains the challenge of educating refugees and the strategy from the perspective of the Ministry of Education, Research, and Religious Affairs. In a sense, this report explains the aspiration of the ministry, while the other articles looks at the actual implementation. Taking both together allows me as the reader to identify the gaps between the aspirational and the reality on the ground. The ministry proposes a comprehensive approach to the crisis that includes RFREs, curriculum, teacher training, facilities and operations, and addressing the dropout issue. If everything listed in this document could be implemented, the response would surely meet the needs of the migrant students, however, several gaps exist, especially financial gaps due to the crisis.

Simopoulos, G. & Alexandridis, A. (2019) Refugee education in Greece: integration or segregation? Education: needs, rights and access in displacement, Forced Migration Review 60

Summary: This article takes a deeper look into the RFRE system that I mentioned previously and finds the challenges and inequalities built into the system. It states that the creation of this system was built on a misconception- that Greek schools would not be able to handle the influx of migrants. As a result, this has created a segregated educational system where schools don’t feel responsible for including refugees into their regular school day. Refugee students are tracked into a separate class at the end of the school day and discouraged from registering into the mainstream school system (even though it is their right.) The authors refer to this way of schooling as a refugee-hostile environment, where schools are actively keeping students from integrating. In my years of working in societies in and emerging from conflict, I have seen this approach many times. Students in Macedonia have split track systems, where Macedonian speakers attend the morning sessions and Albanian speakers attend the afternoon sessions. Similarly, I visited a school in Northern Ireland that has a separate building and track from “Irish traveller” students (a minority group). This approach strengthens divisions and is rarely successful at providing equal opportunity for all students.

Ziomas, D., Capella, A., & Konstaninidou, D. (2017) Integrating refugee and migrant children into the educational system in Greece. European Social Policy Network Flash Report 2017/67

Summary: This report also looks at the success and challenges of the system designed to integrate migrant children in Greek schooling. It offers in-depth data on what the program being offered are designed to do and how they are actually being implemented, with a large discrepancy between the goal and the actual outcome. The report identifies regional differences among participating areas. For example, Athens may be more successful in offering transition programs for students, but some Greek islands lack the infrastructure to support the reception/preparatory classes. The shortcomings in the system have meant that many students have dropped out or been unable to receive the needed school support. It identifies a lack of preparation for host schools to be able to address the challenge. As a result of reading this piece, I will be particularly interested to learn more about regional differences between schools in Greece and how the financial crisis has impacted the preparation of smaller or more rural schools to address student needs.