How Syrian Refugees Expand Inclusion and Navigate Exclusion in Jordan: A Framework for Understanding Curricular Engagement

Abstract:Following the influx of Syrian refugees starting in 2011, the government of Jordan adopted an inclusive model of refugee education. This model integrates refugees into the national education system such that they study the Jordanian curriculum in Jordanian schools. While the national curriculum limits the possibilities of inclusion for Syrian refugee youth, this paper demonstrates that students assert agency to engage with and respond to the curriculum in creative ways. This article offers a framework of curricular engagement comprising four mechanisms students employ in response to the curriculum: extension of the curriculum, leadership in the curriculum, uncertainty and curricular engagement, and resistance of the curriculum. This framework positions refugee youth as active agents in the classroom with power to construct spaces of inclusion and respond to exclusion, thereby giving new cultural meaning to inclusive refugee education. I argue that in the context of inclusive refugee education that centers on a national curriculum which does not reflect the lives and experiences of many refugees, students function in a fluid educational space where they can include and build on their lived experiences.