South Sudanese Refugee Higher Education Access in Uganda: An Intersectionality Enquiry
Abstract
This study was guided by the intersectionality theory, originally developed by Kimberlé Crenshaw. According to Crenshaw, the theory assumes that people have multiple biological, social and cultural identity markers that intersect, resulting in experiences of privilege or disadvantage, inclusion or discrimination. However, the theory maintains that marginalized individuals are not homogeneous and they experience discrimination and inclusion in different ways. The intersectionality theory also recognizes power dynamics and how structural, political and representational domains, intersect and produce complex patterns of discrimination, inequality and disadvantage. Ultimately, the intersectionality theory asserts that effective activism and social change require recognizing and addressing the intersections of various forms of oppression, and advocating for justice across multiple fronts. This exposes discrimination and exclusion that would have otherwise gone unnoticed, also giving voice to the disadvantaged and excluded. The study adopted a qualitative approach, an exploratory case study design, and an advocacy/ participatory philosophical lens. Twenty-seven purposively sampled participants took part in the study. They included 12 undergraduates from two private Ugandan universities, 13 government and non-governmental organization (NGO) officials, two officials from public and private universities, all involved in refugee higher education. Data was collected through a literature review, in-depth interviews with key informants and students, and a students’ focus group discussion. The study established that higher education access for South Sudanese refugees in Uganda involves multiple intersectional prohibitive and also supportive factors. The study therefore recommends that through situational analysis and needs assessment, Uganda develops clear objectives, activities and outcomes in the Education Response Plan, to establish the divergent supportive and prohibitive factors and cater for the various refugee student needs. The study also designed the refugee access and resilience (RARE) model to assist in the aforementioned regard
Downloads
References
Avery, H., & Said, S. (2017) ‘Higher Education for Refugees: The Case of Syria’. Policy & Practice: A Development Education Review. 24, Spring, 104-125.
Baker, S., Lenette, C., & Ramsay, G. (2019). Students from refugee and asylum-seeker backgrounds and meaningful participation in higher education: From peripheral to fundamental concern. Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning, 21(2): 4-19. https://doi.org/10.5456/WPLL.21.2.4.
Betts, A. (2018) The Global Compact on Refugees: Towards a theory of change? International Journal of Refugee Law, 30 (4), 623–626. doi:10.1093/ijrl/eey056
Brown, V., Kyeyune, R., Kibombo, R., Hudda, N., and Ruddle, N. (2020) ‘Information, coordination, and financing: Does the Education Response Plan for Refugees and Host Communities make a difference? Phase 1 Findings’, Oxford Policy Management.
Chow, P.Y.S. (2016). Has Intersectionality Reached its Limits? Intersectionality in the UN Human Rights Treaty Body Practice and the Issue of Ambivalence. Human Rights Law Review, 16 (2016), 453–481. doi: 10.1093/hrlr/ngw016
Cohen, F., Meyer, S. R., Seff, I., Bennouna, C., Allaf, C., & Stark, L. (2022).
Intersectionality: Experiences of gender socialization and racialization for Iraqi students
resettled in the United States. Journal on Education in Emergencies, 8 (2), 111-38. https://doi.org/10.33682/1xf5-ef54
Connor, D.J. (2006). Michael’s story: “I get into so much trouble just by walking”: Narrative knowing and life at the intersections of learning disability, race, and class. Equity & Excellence in Education, 39, 154-165. DOI: 10.1080/10665680500533942
Crawford, N., & O’Callaghan, S. (2019). The comprehensive refugee response framework: Responsibility-sharing and self-reliance in East Africa. Overseas Development Institute.
Crenshaw, K. (1989). Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory, and antiracist politics. University of Chicago Legal Forum.
Creswell, J.W. (2013). Qualitative inquiry and research design (3rd Ed.). Sage.
Dare, O., & Abebe, A. M. (2018). Regional Solutions and the Global Compact on Refugees: The Experience from Africa. International Journal of Refugee Law, 30 (4), 704–706. doi:10.1093/ijrl/eey063
Denaro, C., & Giuffre, M. (2022). UN Sustainable Development Goals and the “refugee gap”: leaving refugees behind? Refugee Survey Quarterly, 41(1), 79–107. https://doi.org/10.1093/rsq/hdab017
Detroube, M. (2018). Inclusion through access to higher education: Exploring the dynamics between access to higher education, immigration and languages. Sense Publishers.
Devereux, E. (2017). Refugee crisis or humanitarian crisis? Policy & Practice: A Development Education Review, 24, Spring, 1-5.
https://www.developmenteducationreview.com/issue/issue-24/refugee-crisis-or-humanitarian-crisis
Dewulf, A., Khan, A., & Nicolai, S. (2020). Strengthening coordinated education planning and response in crises Chad case study. Overseas Development Institute. https://odi.org/en/publications/strengthening-coordinated-education-planning-and-response-in-crises-chad-case-study/
Donald, H. (2014). Preparing for uncertainty: Exploring access to higher education in Dzaleka refugee camp, Malawi. [Masters Thesis, York University]. York University.
https://core.ac.uk/reader/77103280
Dryden-Peterson, S., Adelmana, E., Alvaradoa, S., Andersona, K., Bellinob, J. M., Brooksa, R., Suzukia, E. (2018). Inclusion of refugees into national education systems. Paper commissioned for the 2019 global education monitoring report, migration, displacement and education: Building bridges, not walls. UNESCO.
Gallagher, M., & Bauer, C. (2020). Refugee Higher Education and Future Reconstruction Efforts: Exploring the Connection through the Innovative Technological Implementation of a University Course in Nakivale Refugee Settlement, Uganda. Current Issues in Comparative Education, 22 (1), 39-57.
Gasdaglis, K., & Madva, A. (2020). Intersectionality as a Regulative Ideal. Ergo Open Access Journal of Philosophy. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3998/ergo.12405314.0006.044
Gateley, D. E. (2015). A policy of vulnerability or agency? Refugee young people’s opportunities in accessing further and higher education in the UK, Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 45(1), 26-46, DOI: 10.1080/03057925.2013.841030
Hakami, A. (2016). Education is our weapon for the future: Access and non-access to higher education for refugees in Nakivale refugee settlement, Uganda. [Masters Dissertation, University of Stavanger]. University of Stavanger.
Hall, S. (2015). Towards a global and regional framework to address the education of Somali refugees. UNHCR. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5cfe2c8927234e0001688343/t/5d54063c48dec30001e04c38/1565787733952/Regional-framework-UNHCR-Education-of-Somali-refugees.pdf
Harðardóttir, E., Magnúsdóttir, B. R., & Dillabough, J. (2019): Understanding the politics of inclusion, the ‘refugee’ and nation: Analysis of public policies and teacher narratives in Iceland. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 25 (2) 239-258.
DOI: 10.1080/13603116.2019.1707306
Hathaway, J. C. (2018). The global cop-out on refugees. International Journal of Refugee Law, 30, (4), 591– 604. doi:10.1093/ijrl/eey062
International Rescue Committee. (2019). Missing persons: Refugees left out and left behind in the sustainable development goals. International Rescue Committee. https://www.rescue.org/sites/default/files/document/4121/missingpersonreport100319.pdf
Kavuro, C. (2013). Refugees and tertiary education in South Africa: the challenges to equal access to education and living a dignified life. [Master’s thesis, University of Cape Town]. University of Cape Town.
Kimoga, J., Kibuuka, E., Namuli, P., Namuwaya, E., & Mukalere Nadongo, E. (2015). Refugees and higher education accessibility: Issues of policy and law. British Journal of Education, Society and Behavioural Science, 10(1): 1- 13. https://doi.org/10.9734/BJESBS/2015/18007.
Korstjens, I., and Moser, A. (2017). Practical guidance to qualitative research. Part 4: Trustworthiness and publishing. European Journal of General Practice, 24(1): 120-124. https://doi.org/10.1080/13814788.2017.1375092.
Lincoln, Y., & Guba, E. G. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Sage. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0147-1767(85)90062-8
Maringe, F., Ojo, E., & Chiramba, O. (2017). Traumatized home and away: Toward a framework for interrogating policy–practice disjunctures for refugee students in higher education. European Education, 49(4): 210-230. https://doi.org/10.1080/10564934.2017.135245.
Masuku, S. (2019). The aligning of refugee social protection guidelines: Examining the impediments to their universal adoption. Centre for Social Science Research.
McCann, G. (2017) Migration and public policy in a fragmenting European Union, Policy & practice: A development education review. 24, Spring, 104-125.
McMonagle, S. (2017). Perspectives in solving refugee issues solidarity must come first. Policy & practice: A development education review. 24, Spring, 70-87.
Nambi, R., Najjuma, R., & Gallagher, M. (2023). Integrating refugee students into Ugandan higher education: Language, othering and everyday enactments of participation. Research in Comparative and International Education, 18(4), 600- 619. https://doi.org/10.1177/17454999231185647
Norwegian Refugee Council. (2022). failing the ‘Uganda model’ why donors must urgently bridge Uganda’s refugee financing gap. Norwegian Refugee Council
Nwosu, O. C. (2014). Constructing multi-conscious identities: ethnicity, socialization, and schooling among Sub-Saharan African refugee youth [Doctoral Thesis, Vanderbilt University]. Vanderbilt University.
http://hdl.handle.net/1803/11524
Robert, S A., & Yu, M. (2018). Intersectionality in transnational education policy research. Review of Research in Education, 42 (1), 93 –121. doi: 10.3102/0091732X18759305.
Semambo Sempebwa, C. (2023). Higher education policy and access for South Sudanese Refugees from the Bidi Bidi settlement, Uganda. AHMR African Human Mobility Review, 9(3). doi: https://doi.org/10.14426/ahmr.v9i3.1665
Tamrat, W., and Habtemariam, D. (2020). The quest for refugee higher education in Ethiopia: The case of self-financing Eritreans. Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning, 21(2): 120- 140. https://doi.org/10.5456/WPLL.21.2.120.
Tobin, G. A., & Begley, C. M. (2004). Methodological rigour within a qualitative framework. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 48, 388– 396. doi:10.1111/j.1365- 2648.2004.03207.x
Tulibaleka, P. O. (2022). Refugee education: Refugees’ perceptions of educational challenges in Uganda. International Journal of Educational Administration and Policy Studies. 4(1), 38- 45. DOI: 10.5897/IJEAPS2022.0729
Uganda Ministry of Education and Sports. (2018). Education response plan for refugees and host communities in Uganda (2018–2021). Uganda Ministry of Education and Sports.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. (2012). The 2012-2016 Education Strategy. UNHCR.
UNHCR. (2018). Refugee student voices: DAFI annual report 2018. https://data.unhcr.org/en/documents/details/71603
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. (2019). A strategy for refugee inclusion. UNHCR.
Walton, E., McIntyre, J., Awidi, S. J., De Wet-Billings, N., Dixon, K., Madziva, R., Wedekind, V. (2020). Compounded exclusion: Education for disabled refugees in Sub-Saharan Africa. Frontiers in Education, 5 (47), 1- 14. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2020.00047
Woldegiorgis, E, T., & Monari, K. (2023). Access and politics of higher education for refugees: Comparative contexts from Uganda and Ethiopia. African Journal of Teacher Education. 12(2), 1-19. https://doi.org/10.21083/ajote.v12i2.7516
Yin, R.K. (2014). Case study research and applications: Design and methods (5th ed.). Sage.
Copyright (c) 2024 Christine Semambo Sempebwa
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
