Steppingstones or stopping points? An analysis of three blended higher education programs available to Syrian refugee youths in Jordan through a revisited 4As framework for the right to education.

Abstract

This literature-based study explores the online and blended higher education programs currently on offer to Syrian youths in Jordan. It analyzes three specific programs through a revisited 4As framework for the right to education, as well as the theoretical paradoxes underlying technology-enabled and refugee-oriented higher education programs and impeding their realization of the right to (higher) education of Syrian refugees. Firstly, the study will explore the availability of the right to higher education of Syrian refugees in Jordan by outlining all the (uncovered) ICT-enabled programs offered. Secondly, the study will analyze three specific programs through a revisited 4As’ framework for the right to education (availability, accessibility, acceptability, and adaptability). Lastly, the study will explore three main paradoxes underlying these programs and hindering the fulfilment of these criteria. Adopting a rights-based critical approach, this thesis demonstrates that these ICT-enabled programs (re)produce barriers to accessing their programs, create unattainable outcomes, and misrecognize the contextual challenges of refugees, thereby exacerbating feelings of frustration, uncertainty, and hopelessness. Ultimately, this study hopes to demonstrate that these programs, while paving the way for addressing the immense refugee higher education gap, produce a promise for change that cannot be actualized given structural limitations on refugees’ lives and futures