CREATIVE ASSEMBLAGES

Since the early 2010s, there has been an increasing investment in ECD in Eastern Africa’s refugee camps.

A research project developed over three years in seven long-term camps in East Africa showed that this investment mostly focuses on formal settings, overlooking community initiatives and the built environment. Most of the former learning facilities are top-down managed, funded by international NGOs, developed in permanent structures and taught according to a set curriculum, grades, and accreditation once completed. This prescriptive education is often considered inherently good and learning that happens outside the class is largely ignored.

Our study showed that, especially for young children, it is important to recognise that the whole built environment is a source of learning, as evidence in other contexts has demonstrated that the socio-cultural and built environments are critical for lifelong learning and development at an early age. Therefore, to integrate and analyse spaces like homes, streets, toilets, or common spaces as learning settings, this research classified them into three categories: formal, non-formal, and informal.

Formal learning settings are often overcrowded, exhibit poor sanitation, have scarce stimulation, and are staffed by underpaid and undertrained caregivers. Only 48% of children attend these settings, and even then, only for a few hours daily.

Non-formal initiatives have the potential to provide services better adapted to each community, filling the gaps left by formal ones. However, these initiatives need to be funded, monitored, or evaluated. These settings are often understudied, resource-limited, and established in poorly built environments.

The informal settings like home environments, sleeping arrangements, streets, and common spaces harm the lifelong learning of young children living in camps. These settings have four main issues: overcrowding in the home and settlement, poor sleeping arrangements, vulnerability in common spaces, and lack of play areas for young children.

This research found that young children are negatively affected by the built environment of the refugee camps studied. To be more effective, refugee ECD initiatives should consider the whole built environment as a learning source and consider the perceptions of parents, caregivers, and children to positively impact young children’s lifelong learning.

Nerea Amoros Elorduy has presented the specific spatial characteristics of these camps at conferences, public lectures, a book, a website and written articles, and she also teaches about this and other topics as a guest speaker of Sustainable Learning Environments at the MSc on Learning Environments at the Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction at the University College of London.