Paper details

Paper authors	Allyson Krupar
In panel on	Impacts of war and displacement on refugees’ educational trajectories
Paper presenter(s) will be presenting	In-Person / Online

Abstract

This research sought to understand wellbeing and learning outcomes in remote programming during COVID-19 for children experiencing displacement in Arauca and Cali, Colombia. Colombia hosts the third largest refugee population in the world, primarily from Venezuela, as well as internally displaced Colombian nationals. This study presents findings from the Return to Learning programming, which provided children continued access to learning content through paper-based and phone-based materials during COVID-19. Using the Social Competence Scale in a pre-post evaluation and weekly formative data collection, we measured children’s prosocial communication and emotional regulation as well as correct responses to learning comprehension questions. We compare results by children’s experiences of displacement, as Venezuelan nationals or Colombian nationals. We found that while Colombian households had higher socio-economic status, Venezuelan children had higher gains in emotional regulation and prosocial communication skills, as well as more caregiver engagement than their Colombian counterparts. These findings suggest that displaced household in Colombia face different pressures than Colombian nationals, and that experiences of displacement may be correlated with an increase in caregiver’s attention to children’s learning and wellbeing. Future research should explore wellbeing more qualitatively in Colombian and Venezuelan households, circumventing deficit-based approaches to children’s learning and wellbeing in displacement.

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