Inclusive education for children with disabilities in a refugee camp
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Author/Creator ORCID
Date
2022-03-16
Type of Work
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Citation of Original Publication
Crea, T.M., Evans, K., Hasson, R.G., III, Neville, S., Werner, K., Wanjiku, E., Okumu, N., Arnold, G.S., Velandria, E. and Bruni, D. (2023), Inclusive education for children with disabilities in a refugee camp. Disasters, 47: 99-113. https://doi.org/10.1111/disa.12534
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This is the pre-peer reviewed version of the following article: Crea, T.M., Evans, K., Hasson, R.G., III, Neville, S., Werner, K., Wanjiku, E., Okumu, N., Arnold, G.S., Velandria, E. and Bruni, D. (2023), Inclusive education for children with disabilities in a refugee camp. Disasters, 47: 99-113. https://doi.org/10.1111/disa.12534, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/disa.12534. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.
Subjects
Abstract
Children in refugee camps, and particularly those with disabilities, face unique challenges in accessing education and are at high risk of being marginalised. Best practices suggest that main-streaming is the optimal strategy for serving students with disabilities. This study examines the extent to which mainstreaming in a refugee camp helps to promote children's prosocial behaviours, taking into account their emotional and behavioural problems. In Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya, researchers collected data from the parents of children currently enrolled in special needs education centres (n=65) and from those formerly enrolled at these facilities who transitioned to mainstream classrooms (n=81). Children in mainstream schools functioned better in terms of prosocial behaviours, but this relationship disappeared when factoring in children's emotional and behavioural difficulties. In the context of a refugee camp, mainstreaming alone is not likely to help children's psychosocial and educational functioning, which requires dedicated supports, appropriate facilities and infrastructure, and a dual focus on disability-specific and disability-inclusive initiatives.