Critically Examining Social Emotional Learning with Refugees in East Africa - Tensions, Challenges, and Complex Dynamics

Oct 15, 2026

Critically examines how Education in Emergencies (EiE) actors in East Africa understand and implement social emotional learning (SEL) for refugee learners. Using qualitative in-depth structured interviews and document review, the study engages 20 practitioners across regional NGOs and a donor government. Findings reveal tensions and challenges tied to culture and power, inconsistencies in defining SEL and delivery, siloed implementation, limited contextualization of Western SEL materials, and insufficient refugee involvement in design and delivery.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages28

Reading Time1 h 11 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Social Emotional Learning in Education in Emergencies

Research Design and Data Collection

Research questions and study approach

Participants and study scope

Findings

Tensions, challenges, and complex dynamics

Cultural, power, and implementation realities

Current Issues in Comparative Education (CICE), Volume 25, Issue 2, Special Issue 2023 Critically Examining Social Emotional Learning with Refugees in East Africa: Tensions, Challenges, and Complex Dynamics Kelsey A. Dalrymple University of Wisconsin-Madison, U.S. Social emotional learning (SEL) has become a popular trend in the ﬁeld of Education in Emergencies (EiE). Many SEL programs targeting refugee learners aim to help individuals develop skills that are necessary for learning and development, as well as mitigate the adverse impacts of crisis and displacement. While nearly halfa billion USD has been invested in SEL initiatives for refugee and crisis contexts world-wide, little evidence exists about the impacts of SEL interventions with refugee communities. As 20% of all refugees globally reside in East Africa, and it is estimated that over 152 million African children live in active conﬂict zones, this study set out to qualitatively examine understandings, implementation, and implications of SEL interventions across actors engaging refugee communities in the region. The results expose tensions, challenges, and complex dynamics related to culture, power, and the complicated reality of implementing refugee education initiatives in East Africa. While further research into this area of inquiry is needed and proposed, these study ﬁndings provide a stronger understanding of the refugee education landscape in East Africa and its current insuﬃ ciencies through the example of SEL, and serve to inform other topical EiE interventions and the broader uptake of SEL by education systems globally. Keywords: Socio Emotional Learning, East Africa, Education in Emergencies, crisis context, refugee. Introduction Humanitarian crises signiﬁcantly impact the educational opportunities and experiences of learners globally. Currently, an estimated 224 million crisis-aﬀected school-age children require education support (ECW, 2023) . At the end of 2019, one ﬁfth of the world’s crisis-aﬀected children lived in Africa, and it was estimated that 152 million African children lived in active conﬂict zones (ACPF & AMC, 2019) . Studies have found that many refugee children and families aﬀected by conﬂict and crisis suﬀer extreme trauma, live in inhumane conditions, and often become trapped in a cycle of displacement and poverty for years, and sometimes generations (Brown et al., 2017; Ferris, 2018) . Many of the world’s refugees living in protracted displacement come from Central and East Africa, with numerous individuals living in displacement for over 20 years (Devictor, 2019; Hyndman & Giles, 2019) . Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is currently positioned by Education in Emergency (EiE) practitioners as a key component of refugee education, as it is believed to help improve academic achievement and support psychosocial wellbeing, trauma-recovery, and resiliency for refugee teachers, students, and communities (INEE, 2018; UNESCO, © 2023, Dalrymple. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4 . 0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction, provided the original author and source are credited. Current Issues in Comparative Education 25(2), 8-35 . Critically Examining Social Emotional Learning with Refugees in East Africa: Tensions, Challenges, and Complex Dynamics 2019) . SEL is commonly understood, from a Western1 perspective, to be an educational approach that claims to help children develop the thinking, behavioral, and self-regulatory skills needed for learning (Jones & Doolittle, 2017) . Since 2018, nearly halfa billion USD has been invested in SEL initiatives for refugee and crisis-aﬀected communities globally, with more pledged for the years to come (ECW, 2018; Renau, 2022) . However, little evidence exists about the understandings, implementation approaches, and implications of SEL across actors engaging refugee communities (Sullivan

FAQs

What does the study investigate about SEL and refugees in East Africa?

It examines how EiE actors understand and implement SEL interventions for refugee communities, and what implications these interventions have.

How was the research conducted?

The study used qualitative in-depth structured interviews and document review.

What major challenges and tensions did the study identify?

Key issues include inconsistent understandings of SEL and how it should be delivered, siloed and uncoordinated programming, limited contextualization of Western SEL materials, and limited refugee involvement in design and delivery.

Oct 15, 2026

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