WORLD REFUGEE DAY WEBINAR
WEDNESDAY 20 JUNE 2018
10.00–11.00 or 16.00–17.00 (UK time)
Running twice for participants across time zones.
To mark World Refugee Day, we warmly invite you to join a webinar to hear from young people (aged 18 – 30) from the refugee community and organisations working in the area of languages education and resilience. We welcome those working across sectors and fields who are involved in languages education and the humanitarian response.
Hosted by Mike Solly, Senior Adviser and global Language for Resilience lead, British Council, the webinar will provide short and varied sessions, including:
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A conversation with participants, aged 25 – 30, from the refugee community who studied English and academic skills courses on the EU-funded LASER programme, and are currently studying degrees or diplomas online with Amity University in India, or the Open University in the UK. We ask them to share experiences of access to learning: what works and what doesn’t work?
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A presentation: Who teaches refugees? Policy dilemmas, barriers and opportunities, with Ruth Naylor (Education Development Trust) Integrating refugees into national education systems provides a sustainable solution, but usually means that refugees are taught by national teachers, rather than by refugee teachers who share their culture, language and experience. The laws, policies and practices determining who teaches refugees rarely consider who make the best teachers of refugees. Ruth Naylor, is the author of new research into the management of teaching refuges from host-country to institutional level, by the Education Development Trust in partnership with IIEP UNESCO.
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An update on findings from the Language for Resilience research hub, in an interview with Tony Capstick, Lecturer in TESOL and Applied Linguistics from the University of Reading and research hub lead.
We’d then like to hear from webinar participants and invite your questions or comments.
The webinar will be repeated at 10.00 – 11.00 and 16.00 – 17.00 (UK time) for those joining across different time zones. Please register for one of the times by selecting a time above.
Join fellow professionals in the Language for Resilience partner network
We’re also pleased to announce the launch of the Language for Resilience partner network (on LinkedIn). The Language for Resilience partner network brings together professionals involved in language education and the humanitarian and international development responses to crises, to collaborate and improve knowledge of innovative language education in support of building the resilience of refugees and their host communities. We invite you to join the group and invite you to share details about your projects, reports, research papers, to conferences and events.
What is language for resilience?
Across the world many millions of people have been displaced from their homes by conflict and civil unrest. Education and career opportunities for both children and adults have been severely disrupted, or halted. Both refugees and the communities that host them recognise that issues around the acquisition of language are absolutely essential for refugees and their hosts to lead meaningful, engaged and productive lives. Language learning helps refugees and their host communities to withstand challenges, to recover from crisis, to overcome barriers – to build resilience.
Based on the work the British Council delivers in partnership with international humanitarian, development and education partners, across four regions (the Middle East, Africa, the European Union and the Americas) Language for Resilience focuses on how language enhances the resilience of refugees and displaced persons, whether that’s giving a voice to young people and adults, building social cohesion in host communities or providing individuals with the skills they need to access work, services, education and information.
For more information, please visit this page.
