Abstract:

This work introduces a milestone of the project “RAISD: Reshaping Attention and Inclusion Strategies for Distinctively vulnerable people among the forcibly displaced” [Horizon 2020, grant 822688] aiming at identifying the most Vulnerable Groups among Forcibly Displaced People (FDP) in the EU influence area, analyse their specific needs and find suitable attention and inclusion practices to address them in variety of vulnerability contexts. Pushed by urgencies rather than events, educational inclusion solutions are frequently reactive, partial and disregard some groups. In Italy, this reflects in a high number of NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training) among FDP, consistent training dropout rates and lower female participation (Quintano et al., 2017).

As there is still a tendency for national educational change policy makers and planners to ignore human factors (Wedell, 2009), training providers too often assume to know and understand FDPs’ learning needs by default, thrusting learners into one-size-fits-all solutions while ignoring those individual factors and circumstances (pre-migration, in-transit, at-arrival) that strongly affect educational achievements.

The evidence for a need in ‘Change Management in Education Delivery Approaches’ that could focus on local/regional manifestations of global challenges and on ‘local’ opportunities for solving them (GUNI, 2017),
was suggested by the RAISD fieldwork findings under the action-research approach (Stringer, 2013):

(a) FDP interviews [13 Female (age 19 – 28): Nigeria, Gambia, Ghana; 12 Male (age 18 – 33): Gambia, Senegal, Ivory Coast and Guinea Conakry].
(b) local Quintuple Helix Stakeholder consultations (in total 11), to comply with activities of a Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) architecture process (Deblonde, 2015).

The design of the novelty selective-learning training opportunity ‘ALL you can LEARN’ (allyoucanlearn.cesie.org, 2020) also adopts the four fundamental RRI characteristics: anticipation, reflection, inclusion, responsiveness (Owen et al., 2012), by introducing a more bottom-up and participatory practice to education, shifting from an “induced” training offer approach (i.e. a dominating and top-down way to organise education for FDPs and leave them either accepting or rejecting the contents of education) to a “selective” approach in developing a training offer in which several optional modules are offered and participants can choose contents that are attractive for them.

The ultimate aim is to increase learners’ decision-making capacity (in this specific case, Forcibly Displaced Women living and/or exposed to highly vulnerable situations and conditions) as they are to be intended as “co-experts” of the RRI based inclusion strategy, thus having the opportunity to decide and co-design their own personal learning experience according to a set of individual variables (interests and aspirations, level of studies and previously attended programmes, language knowledge, logistics and time availability, etc.).

Thus, the work discusses how individual human factors and circumstances for vulnerability influence the effectiveness of training with FDP; describes the selective-approach methodological assets, the conceptualisation process of learning objectives and final results of the piloting experiences with FDP women currently living in Sicily, during the 2021 c-19 pandemic, originally from Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Comoros and Tunisia.

Keywords:

Forced migration, forcibly displaced people, highly vulnerable groups, innovation in education, selective-education, Responsible Research and Innovation.