Education at Eye Level

Flight or political displacement, represents an abrupt, mostly forced, and unplanned break in people’s lives. The unprepared separation from family, circle of friends, educational institutions, and social and cultural environments marks a decisive turning point, especially for children and adolescents, from previously experienced everyday routines and familiar situations that have shaped the child’s life in the past and made it seem classifiable. To illustrate the peaceful participation and preparation of accompanied refugee children for their inclusion in the Austrian education system, a pilot project, organized and carried out on a voluntary basis featuring an educational science approach, will be presented in this chapter and used as an illustration of good practice in the design of low-threshold educational initiatives that could be offered in collective accommodations. From 2015 to 2016, the pilot project, “the school in transitional quarters,” offered escorted refugee children and adolescents an extracurricular educational space oriented towards multilingualism, diversity, peace, democracy, and the individual resources of all participants, which developed, given the very basic conditions available in the transitional accommodations (quarters). In addition to facilitating the children’s guaranteed right to education and participation (see Unicef 2021, UN-Kinderrechtskonvention 1990, Articles 28, 29; Articles 12, 13, 14), the educational initiative focused on peace education and the creation of an open educational space for refugee children and teenagers. The target group was also cooperatively prepared for their impending individual transitions into the Austrian educational system. (The literature sources used in this paper are originally written in German. The direct and indirect quotations used have been translated into English for the purpose of a providing deeper understanding of the text in this article. The original citations, however, are all in German. This academic contribution is based on two articles recently published by the author (see Michitsch V (2020a) Bildung auf Augenhöhe. Partizipativ gestaltete Bildung für Menschen auf der Flucht. Die Österreichische Volkshochschule. Magazin für Erwachsenenbildung, 2019/2020a (269). Accessed on 10.02.2021 under http://magazin.vhs.or.at/magazin/2019-2/269-winter-201920/schwerpunkt-interessegeleitetes-lernen-interesse-entwicklung/bildung-auf-augenhoehe/. Michitsch V (2020b) Bildung auf Augenhöhe. Das Transitquartier als personalisierter Bildungsort. Die Österreichische Volkshochschule. Magazin für Erwachsenenbildung, 2020b (270). Accessed on 10.02.2021 under http://magazin.vhs.or.at/magazin/2020b-2/270-sommer-2020/bildungsthemen/bildung-auf-augenhoehe/)).