Equitable Partnerships for Education: A Myth or a Panacea

Abstract

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. Based on this analysis and the authors’ personal experiences facing dominant colonial privilege(s), the article concludes with precepts that could make partnerships in the fields of refugee education and education in emergencies research more equitable and capable of adopting more humanised and humanising ethical frameworks.

Keywords

• equitable partnerships
• refugee education
• education in emergencies
• Lebanon
• education research
• knowledge production