The contradictions of refugee inclusion policy in education: Teacher and student agency in Afghan refugee schools during language policy and curriculum transition in Pakistan
Durrani N. Khan M.Y. Novelli M.
January 2025Elsevier Ltd
International Journal of Educational Research
2025#134
This study interrogates the contradictions of global refugee education policy by analysing how Afghan refugees in Pakistan, a population enduring protracted displacement yet persistently understudied, navigate the mandated shift from Pashto to Urdu/English instruction. This transition, emblematic of UNHCRs push to integrate displaced communities into national systems, reveals critical gaps in both policy and research. Combining teacher interviews (n = 10) and arts-based methods with students (n = 40), the study advances Priestley and colleagues’ agency framework to displacement contexts, revealing how policies framed as fostering refugee inclusion in education can, in practice, erode agency. Findings demonstrate three constrained dimensions of agency: iterational (systematic marginalisation of funds of knowledge), projective (dual precarity from residency insecurity and credential devaluation), and practical-evaluative (teachers’ strategic use of Pashto as pedagogical resistance). While Pakistans policy appears inclusive at a discursive level, its implementation—marked by tokenistic training, chronic resource gaps, and epistemic injustice—limits genuine refugee participation. The de facto reliance on Pashto in classrooms underscores both resistance and policy failure, exposing how top-down integration neglects the political economy of displacement and how narrow forms of inclusion risk reproducing marginalisation. The study challenges the global education communitys technocratic assumptions, arguing that integration into national systems, when pursued without legal protections, material investment, and the participation of refugee communities in policymaking, risks exacerbating inequality under the guise of inclusion. By centring Afghan refugees’ experiences, the findings illuminate tensions in protracted displacement, where universalist policies clash with local realities, offering critical insights for rethinking refugee education globally.
Afghan refugee village schools , Agency , Language-in-education , Pakistan , Primary school , Student , Teacher
Text of the article Перейти на текст статьи
of Education, Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan
Department of English, BUITEMS, Quetta, Pakistan
Centre for International Education, School of Education and Social Work, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom
of Education
Department of English
Centre for International Education
10 лет помогаем публиковать статьи Международный издатель
Книга Публикация научной статьи Волощук 2026 Book Publication of a scientific article 2026