Refugee education for living well in a world worth living in

 

Summary

Like all education, refugee education has a double purpose of formation of individuals and formation of societies. This can be seen as the double purpose of education: helping students live a good life in a world worth living in. This includes a view about how people should live in the world, and the kind of world we should try to establish.

Utilizing Jürgen Habermas’s notion of system and lifeworld and theories of practice, this article explores how teachers in South African, Finnish, and Australian schools work towards the double purpose of education. Our focus is on the teachers’ visions of what they are doing, and how these practices are impacted by the larger contexts in which students live. The findings show that teachers understand that refugee students will face barriers in their national systems and aim, through their pedagogical practices, to bridge students’ lifeworlds and educational system demands.

Key Takeaways

We offer the following practical steps and actions based on this research below (click to expand).

+ For Policymakers

INSIGHTS ACTIONS
Teachers understand that educational and societal systems are unfair and unjust for refugee students. However, teachers want to support students to be successful in the systems they live in while also learning how to critique it. ➟ Individual teachers can rarely change systemic requirements, and it would not always be in the student’s best interest. Policies must be enacted to reduce societal and educational inequities of refugee students.
Teachers feel they must justify their work with refugee students against the constraints at the contextual and policy levels. ➟ Teachers’ work with refugee students should be appreciated and supported with training and resources. One of the participating teacher's expertise with refugee students was recognized, enabling them to allocate part of their working time for consulting other teachers in the city.
School systems may be ignorant of the educational rights refugee students. Moreover, they might be incompatible with what is required for refugee students to be successful and live a good life. ➟ Ensure the realities of schools, and the rights of refugee students, are understood at schools and in policy making. Capitalize on the expertise of existing staff members, promoting informal learning about refugee education.

+ For Educators

INSIGHTS ACTIONS
Teachers play a crucial role as mediators between refugee students, their families, and the broader educational system in the receiving countries. ➟ Make sure education is understandable, accessible, and relevant for students and their families.
Refugee families may have different forms of capital than the kinds of capital needed in the new countries and schools. ➟ Schools should reach out to refugee families to identify needs and help find resources to meet them.
Meeting the needs of refugee students in the short- and long-term, and the opportunities in their contexts, requires good student-knowledge and trust with families. ➟ Learn to know the students, connect the curriculum to students’ lifeworld, and build trusting relationships with the students and their families.

+ For Researchers


FURTHER RESEARCH IS NEEDED TO EXAMINE:
  • Further research is needed to examine how the double purpose of refugee education, that is, to help students to live well in a world worth living in, would be possible in other refugee contexts, for example camp settings.

Citation (APA): Kaukko, M., Dryden-Peterson, S., Wilkinson, J., & Kemmis, S. (2025). Refugee education for living well in a world worth living in. Teachers and Teaching, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2025.2478151

 
Integration & BelongingSarah Dryden-PetersonCurriculum, For Researchers, Belonging, Pedagogy, For Educators