DRIVE

This research is funded by the Tackling Global Challenges initiative of the British Academy. The Principal Investigator is Elizabeth Walton at the University of Nottingham, with partners in Uganda (Gulu University), Zimbabwe (Bindura University), and South Africa (University of the Witswatersrand). The research is funded from March 2020 until December 2022. However, due to COVID-19, it has had a delayed start.  £ 355,157.15  is the total grant allocation with £ 79,571.10  allocated to the Uganda team. The full project website is located here: 

 https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/projects/education-learning-in-crises-disabled-refugee-students-included-visible-education/

The objective of this research is to understand the dynamics of educational inclusion and exclusion of disabled refugee students in three different host countries where their historical and ongoing experience of crises impacts learning and to use this understanding to advocate for change in policy, and practice. 

We take ‘refugee’ to denote someone unable to return to their country of origin. In most states ‘refugee’ is linked to legal status but in this research, we include students who are asylum-seeking and those who are stateless. We conceptualise ‘disability’ broadly and recognise physical, cognitive, sensory, and psychiatric limitations to functioning as being relevant to the project. We are interested in formal education structures ranging from schooling, through to higher and vocational education and refer to ‘students’ to encompass these levels. 

This is a new initiative but builds on projects in related areas (in inclusive education in South Africa, Vocational Education and Training in Uganda, and migration, refugees, and human trafficking in Zimbabwe). It develops existing research partnerships between the University of Nottingham and three universities in different African countries. These countries represent a range of approaches to refugee settlement in sub-Saharan Africa. All three countries are signatories to the UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. 

Publications

Monk, D., Walton, E., Madziva, R., Opio, G., Kruisselbrink, A., & Openjuru, G. L. (2025). Interrogating the agency and education of refugee children with disabilities in Northern Uganda: A critical capability approach. Children & Society, 39(3), 669-669. https://doi.org/10.1111/chso.12969

Walton, E., Thondhlana, J., Monk, D., & Wedekind, V. (2024). Education for disabled refugees in South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe: a cross-case analysis. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2024.2429835  

Walton, E., McIntyre, J., Awidi, S. J., De Wet-Billings, N., Dixon, K., Madziva, R., Monk, D., Nyoni, C., Thondhlana, J., & Wedekind, V. (2020). Compounded Exclusion: Education for Disabled Refugees in Sub-Saharan Africa. Frontiers in Education, 5, Article 47. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2020.00047

Three research questions will guide the project: 

1. What data about the education of disabled refugee students is available and needed in the three contexts and what local and international policies are relevant? Collecting data is important for policy formulation and eventual monitoring the impact of interventions. But collecting these data are difficult, because of different understandings of disability. Also, refugee populations may not wish to disclose disability and disabled people may be reluctant to disclose refugee status. We also need to know about where and how the education of disabled refugee students is located in national policy and legislation, to give an understanding of needed policy change and educational response.

2. What are the experiences of disabled refugee students (disaggregated by gender), and their families with educational access and success in the host country? The perspectives and experiences of these students and their families offer ‘insider knowledge’ of the realities of accessing education and succeeding in learning in the different contexts. In an era of big data, numbers can occlude the nuances of the workings of power and resistance in education access. Insights gained from these experiences will identify policy gaps and policy subversions, and also indicate contextually relevant practices that can be adopted and strengthened to secure educational access and success.

3. How do education officials (at institutional, district and department level) and NGO workers perceive the educational challenges and opportunities of disabled refugee students, with a particular focus on girls? This question is important because education officials create and mediate policy and have insight into the systemic pressures at play in the education of disabled refugees. NGO workers will yield insights about the context, challenges and extent of support faced by disabled refugee students.

The project is underpinned by a social ecosystem model (Hodgson & Spours, 2016) which locates activities

and practices in a conceptual space that is impacted by vertical facilitatory mechanisms such as

international, national and local policies and regulations, resource allocation etc. and the horizontal

connectivities, interactions and relationships between local actors. The practices of inclusion or exclusion

and how various actors (schools/colleges/universities, NGOs, local officials, refugees, communities) are

positioned in relation to this emerges in this ecosystem. This model is congruent with the interdisciplinary

approach of the project, and enables the investigators to consider the dynamic interplay of factors at

different levels of the system, including considering the effect of structural inequalities.

The methodology is a multiple-case study design, which is useful to study different cases that are linked

(Walton et al, 2019). Each country context is taken as a single case in which the phenomenon of the

education of disabled refugee students is studied according to the needs and priorities of that context.

Particular attention is given to hearing from disabled refugee students and their families and to community

organisations in each context. Country case specificity gives power to researchers to make contextually sensitive decisions about data collection and analysis within the overall project aims, and to prioritise

indigenous research methods. Following Stake (2006) a multiple case analysis will be conducted to enable

assertions to be made across all three cases and so contribute new knowledge about the global challenge

of the education of disabled refugee students.

Different methods of data collection and analysis will be used to answer the three research questions:

*To identify available and needed data, and relevant policies, a desktop survey of extant literature, policy

and datasets will be conducted. This will yield quantitative and qualitative data that will enable an understanding of the vertical facilitatory mechanisms in the system.

*To understand the educational experiences of disabled refugee students, a mosaic of approaches will be

used in each context. Participants and their families may be traumatised by previous and current crisis, and

interactive and collaborative methods will be used when researching with them. These include digital story-

telling, art, photography, life grids and narratives.

*To understand how education officials and NGO workers perceive the educational challenges and opportunities of disabled refugee students, semi-structured interviews will be conducted.

These methods offer insight into the horizontal connectivities in the system and allows exploration of the

relational agency at work between individuals, families and communities that resist exclusionary pressures

and create opportunities for inclusion and success.

The project's intended audience is broad and will impact people, policies and practices.

In each of the three African contexts the research will reach:

-Policy-makers with an impact on relevant national policy.

-The NGO sector with an impact on the focus and scope of their work.

-Educational practitioners at institutional level with an impact on educational practice.

-Disabled refugee students, especially girls, and their families with an impact on their educational access.

Internationally, the multiple-case analysis will reach:

-Academics who can build on new knowledge.

-International development and aid agencies with an impact on the scope and focus of their work.

-International policy-makers.

The proposed research links to the core aims and objective of the overall programme in that disabled

refugee students, especially women and girls, continue to face crises which potentially affect their learning.

Despite international policy initiatives, these students face disrupted and truncated access to education

which inevitably affects their learning outcomes. This research will contribute to meeting the programme

aim of providing policy-oriented research that advances Sustainable Development Goal 4: "Ensuring

inclusive and equitable quality education for all". Drawing on the interdisciplinary expertise of researchers and stakeholders in the UK and in the three African contexts, this research will deliver evidence of the

obstacles and opportunities faced by disabled refugee students (especially women and girls) and their families in accessing equitable and inclusive education.

March – July 2020: Project initialisation

*Principal and co-investigators will meet at the University of Nottingham (UoN) to:

-Further refine the overall programme in the light of any further developments at each site, and with the

input from members of the project advisory board (via Skype).

-Consider issues of law, trauma, gender discrimination and language relevant to disabled refugee students.

-Finalise methodology, outputs and dissemination.

-Agree timelines and interim reporting dates.

-Finalise first journal article.

*Ethics approval for the research will be

obtained from each university.

*Risk assessment documents will be submitted and approved by the University of Nottingham.

*Co-Investigators in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Uganda will each convene a meeting of available

members of the respective stakeholder forums for detailed planning for that context.

*Contracts and other administrative procedures across universities will be finalised.

*Research assistant posts will be advertised and filled in each country site, and research assistants will be

briefed and trained by co-investigators.

*The project blog will be created, with first posts introducing the project. Blogposts will be uploaded

throughout the project.

August 2020 – March 2021: Data collection and generation

Desktop surveys of extant literature, policy and datasets will be conducted at each African country

university by the Co-Investigator and Research Assistant. The UoN investigators will build a literature review

of global research on the education of disabled refugees. Statistical analyses of available quantitative data

will be performed by the South African Co-Investigator. The data will be shared with all Investigators and

lodged on the UoN repository.

The qualitative research intends to conduct at least 120 separate data collection sessions across the three

African countries.

*25 disabled refugee students and their families will be recruited as participants in each country. Attention

will be given to ensuring that the experiences of girls and women are foregrounded. They will be identified

with the assistance of local NGOs, community organisations and snowball sampling.

We expect that recruiting these participants will be time consuming, as refugee populations may not wish to disclose

disability and disabled people may be reluctant to disclose refugee status. It may also take more than one

visit to build the necessary trust and rapport (Madziva, 2015). The perspectives and experiences of these

students and their families offer ‘insider knowledge’ (Walton, 2016) of the realities of accessing education

and succeeding in learning in the different contexts. In an era of big data, numbers can occlude the

nuances of the workings of power and resistance in education access. Insights gained from these

experiences will identify policy gaps and policy subversions, and also indicate contextually relevant

practices that can be adopted and strengthened to secure educational access and success.

*10 semi-structured interviews will be held with education officials at institution, district and government

levels in each country. Invitations to participate in the research will be made to managers of educational

institutions where participants attend, or wish to attend, and through contacts in educational departments.

It is important to hear from education officials because they create and mediate policy and have insight

into the systemic pressures at play in the education of disabled refugees, and the particular vulnerabilities

of girls in the system. They will also help to identify good practice and factors that contribute to successful

inclusion.

*Five semi-structured interviews will be conducted with NGO and community workers in the refugee and disability sectors at each site. NGO workers will yield insights about the context, challenges and extent of

support faced by disabled refugee students, and will know how gender inequalities are instantiated in these

contexts.

April - June 2021: Collaborative data analysis at each African country site

Three meetings are planned, one each in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Uganda. The Co-investigators from

each African country will attend each of these, as will two UoN Investigators. These meetings are intended

to enhance South-South collaboration across the project, and build capacity at each site for data analysis across the different data sources. These meetings will finalise the findings for each country case and

prepare them for journal publication and dissemination.

June – October 2021: Country case dissemination events

Each African country Co-Investigator will organise an in-country event to present findings to national and

local policy makers, stakeholders, and community organisations.

September 2021: Conference presentation and cross-case analysis

All investigators will meet in the UK to present a symposium at an academic conference and then to work

collaboratively on the cross–case analysis to prepare overall project findings for dissemination, including

cross-case analysis journal article.

November 2021: Project findings dissemination event

Colloquium to present overall project findings to international stakeholders, aid and development

organisations. Virtual presentations will extend the presenter and audience reach.

December 2021: Project closure

Final financial and other reporting.

*To reach policy makers we plan:

Policy briefs each for South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe, and one for international policy actors,

Presentations at dissemination events in each country.

*To reach an academic audience we plan:

Articles in peer reviewed journals,

A conference symposium presentation.

*To reach NGOs and aid organisations we plan:

Pamphlets/posters/factsheets for awareness and advocacy,

Presentations at dissemination events in each African country, and in the UK,

Blogposts.

*To reach a general audience we plan:

Blogposts,

An article in The Conversation Africa,

Other media opportunities.

*To reach policy makers:

Produce four policy briefs, one for each country case, and one from the overall project, including key

findings from the research, policy issues arising from the findings, and recommendations for policy change.

Convene three policy workshops, one in each African country. These dissemination events will present the

policy brief to representatives of departments/ministries whose work touches on the educational lives of

disabled refugees, especially girls. Local actors in the education systems (school, VET and HE managers) will

be invited to hear evidence of good practice and measures that need to be taken to effect change. These

events will also include organisations represented by the stakeholder forums and other interested

community/religious bodies.

Convene a project colloquium (likely in London) to share findings and present the international policy

briefs. Members of UK development organisations, DFiD, UNHCR representatives and committee members

of the UN CRPD will be invited (webinar format possible). To enhance the reach we will capitalise on the

following links within the wider project team: Three UNESCO chairs (International Education and

Development, Teacher Education for Diversity and Development, Lifelong Learning Youth and Work);

UNESCO's specialized Centre for technical and vocational education and training; contributions to various

GEM reports; organisations represented by the international project advisory board.

*To reach an academic audience:

A minimum of 5 journal articles:

1. At the outset of the project we will submit a conceptual paper that makes the case for research into

disabled refugee students in Africa to the open access ‘Frontiers in Education’ journal in response to the call

for contributions to a research topic ‘Education, Forced Migration, and Disability’

2. Each country case will publish an article in a relevant open access, peer reviewed African journal (eg

African Journal of Disability; African Review of Education)

3. We will target an international peer reviewed journal (such as Compare) to publish the multiple case

analysis.

A conference presentation:

The project will present each country case study and the preliminary multiple case analysis in a symposium.

The 2021 UKFIET conference in Oxford will be targeted because it is the leading forum for dissemination to

the education and development community and includes academics and practitioners.

*To reach NGOs and aid organisations:

In addition to the dissemination events:

Three Open Educational Resources: Each case country will produce at least one Open Educational Resource

(e.g. pamphlet, factsheet or poster) for use by local education institutions, NGOs and teacher educators to

promote awareness and action for the inclusion of disabled refugee students, and a focus on girls. This will

be translated into local languages as appropriate and made accessible via the project website.

*To reach a general audience:

Six blogposts: Omeka (https://www.omeka.net/) will be used to publish blogs on the research processes

and outcomes.

A dedicated twitter account to link to other outputs and to publicise project activities.

At least one article in the Conversation Africa.

The UoN investigators will work with the Nottingham Institute for Policy and Engagement to identify additional dissemination and media opportunities.