This article addresses partnerships in the fields of refugee education and education in emergencies research. We use the framework of political reflexivity to critically engage with our experiences as researchers from the Global South working on research projects funded and led by institution in the Global North. Based on these experiences we highlight issues of claimed and assigned positionalities, hierarchies and power dynamics and how they shape knowledge production and dominant narratives in the field.
Related efforts have been focused on addressing the long legacy of domination by Global North institutions over scholarship and resources in many fields including forced migration. To address this legacy of domination, several global, large scale funding schemes have been introduced aimed at providing more funding to local or regional organisations in humanitarian responses. As part of this scheme, research partnerships have been promoted as one of the objectives and means for releasing funds and achieving its objectives.
These experiences became more common with the intensification of the war in Syria, which led to an increasing number of Syrian refugees arriving in Lebanon, in turn causing an influx of humanitarian workers and academics from the Global North seeking research opportunities in an evolving crisis.
As the conflict evolved into a protracted one, education for refugee children became part of the humanitarian response. Yet, the challenges Syrian refugee children face in accessing formal education are humongous Shuayb, They include difficulties in finding a place in public schools, discrimination practiced against Syrian children by teachers and students, reduced learning timetables and poor quality of teaching, particularly for those attending second shifts in public schools, restrictions on using school space and amenities, languages used for instruction and exams, and confused policy regarding residencies and other legal documentation required for school enrolment Abu Moghli, This proliferation has been encouraged by substantial financial support by governments in the Global North for research on the impact of the Syrian refugee crisis.
We start by explaining our theoretical framework: political reflexivity, which is the lens used to critically engage with and reflect on our experiences. In the second section, we engage with the ideas of claimed and assigned positionalities, and how they shaped our research experiences and decisions.
