Refugee Teachers The Heart of the Global Refugee Response

At the previous Global Refugee Forum held in 2019, education advocates lifted the humanitarian community’s focus towards greater inclusion and funding for education in refugee policy and practice. Where a lack of legal status, restricted mobility and the denial of basic human rights can strip displaced and stateless persons of agency and hope, quality education can contribute to mending the disjuncture of their uncertain futures.1 While this intervention was timely, one key factor remained sorely underrepresented (as it had been in previous refugee education campaigns): refugee teachers and teachers of refugees (hereafter, ‘refugee teachers’). Of the 240 education-focused pledges at the 2019 forum, only 33 pledges mentioned teachers, and only six were focused on teachers.