Journal of Interactive Media in Education
***JIME is currently focusing on a number of Special Collections - see announcements below for more details on our calls for papers- the journal is therefore closed to general submissions at the present time.*** JIME is a peer reviewed open access online journal in educational technology that focuses on the implications and use of digital media in higher or post-compulsory education. It aims to foster a multidisciplinary and intellectually rigorous debate on both the theory and practice of interactive media in higher or post-compulsory education. JIME was launched in September, 1996.
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Unsafe AI for Education: A Conversation on Stochastic Parrots and Other Learning Metaphors ⚠️
This interview article discusses the impact on popular and educational discourses of the metaphor for a Large Language Model of a “stochastic parrot”. The metaphor comes from the title of an influential paper on the harms of large language models from 2021. Here we present a perspective on the short but influential history of the metaphor through an interview with one of its creators, Professor Emily M. Bender. Using the broad lens of metaphor as a way to shape and frame discourse, the editors interviewed Professor Bender and asked her a series of questions to spark discussion around AI in Education. A variety of topics were covered, including: on how metaphors and anthropomorphisation when carelessly used can elide harms and obviate responsibilities; the role of BigTech, data theft and metaphors of colonisation; Whether AI is unsafe for education and if so to which learners; Techno-solutionism; Positionality and AI “voice”; and whether EdTech is a key driver of AI bullshit and enshittification. This article aims to give readers an accessible insight into how a particular metaphor may be enacted in discourse and to contribute to wider critical debates about how GenAI operates in the context of datafication and educational harms.
Copyright (c) 2025 The Author(s) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Metaphors of AI in Education: Discourses, Histories and Practices
Editorial – Connected Learning in Contexts of Forced Displacement
Autotune for Knowledge: A Generative Metaphor for AI in Education
This paper explores how Donald Schön’s concept of generative metaphor can serve as a conceptual frame for problematising AI in education. Our focus is on the metaphor of AI as autotune for knowledge, as originally proposed by educator Dave Cormier. Through a close reading and exploration of the metaphor, we draw on Schön’s conceptual materials to surface underlying assumptions and reframe key issues at play in Cormier’s story. We show that the autotune metaphor, while intuitively appealing, oversimplifies the analogy between autotune as a tool for professional music-making and the relationship between expertise and use of AI tools. Drawing on a more nuanced view of autotune in music production, we elicit several points of conflict with Cormier’s original metaphor to generate a richer problematisation of issues posed by AI in education.
The Staging of AI: Exploring Perspectives About Generative AI, Creativity and Education
In this article we investigate the role of generative AI in education with a focus on creativity, metaphorically utilising relevant features from Augusto Boal’s Forum Theatre as part of a participatory qualitative inquiry. Presenting three distinct perspectives—Gatekeeper, Evangelist, and Diplomat—our article explores emotional and intellectual responses to AI and creativity, utilising theatrical forms to offer personal insights about the intricate balance between AI’s benefits and risks. Adopting a post-qualitative approach, we avoid forced consensus, instead weaving individual viewpoints with a reflective commentary that seeks to elucidate and critically engage with the ideas presented. The adoption of Forum Theatre as a metaphor for our inquiry serves to deepen our understanding of AI’s transformative potential in educational settings and highlights the need for a collaborative, dialogic and critical approach to AI in education in a time of global change, one that honours the diversity of opinions in this evolving domain.
AI and Learning with AI: University Students’ Metaphorical Conceptualizations
The introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) in people’s lives, including in educational settings, is happening rapidly and on a massive scale. However, AI represents a complicated and abstract concept for laypeople and is, in its entirety, still quite unfamiliar to many, including students in higher education. Metaphors may facilitate the comprehension of novel or abstract concepts in terms of something already known, and help investigate implicit beliefs that have the potential to influence an individual’s actions. This study explored undergraduate students’ (n = 124) perceptions of AI and of learning with AI by analyzing metaphors collected following an established metaphor elicitation paradigm. Students’ attitudes towards AI, AI content knowledge, and usage of AI tools were assessed. The qualitative analysis of metaphors of AI yielded nine categories (e.g., brain, human, machinery, unknown), while the analysis of metaphors for learning with AI yielded seven categories (e.g., self-regulation, educator, shared learning). Overall, the anthropomorphization of AI for both foci was observed. Many conceptualized learning with AI as learning with trustworthy support, and foregrounded the perceived facilitation of learning on the basis of AI. This study highlights the importance of fostering accurate conceptualizations of AI and its role in learning, while addressing misconceptions and overly simplistic representations. Promoting a nuanced understanding of AI is essential to ensuring its effective use as a tool that enhances, rather than impedes, learning processes.
The Language on GenAI: A Critical Exploration of Personification Metaphors in UNESCO’s Guidance for Generative AI in Education and Research
This paper examines how UNESCO’s Guidance for Generative AI in Education and Research uses personification metaphors to describe artificial intelligence and how these linguistic choices shape public understanding of AI’s educational role. Through critical discourse analysis, we identify personification metaphors that attribute human characteristics to AI: biological traits, cognitive abilities, and leadership qualities. These metaphors make technology appear more relatable while risking overly optimistic, techno-deterministic perspectives. These metaphors also construct a narrow educational future where AI serves as an essential teaching partner, potentially encouraging over-dependence while reducing critical human oversight. Our analysis reveals three key concerns: framing AI as an autonomous entity capable of substituting human educators in resource-limited contexts could inadvertently widen existing disparities; language influences how institutions integrate AI technologies; and educational discourse needs more expansive and critical perspectives on AI’s appropriate role. The findings highlight the necessity for nuanced discussions about AI in education that acknowledge both opportunities and limitations.
A Metaphor for Rethinking Artificial Intelligence in/and Education
Like Alice’s journey through the looking glass, so-called “Artificial Intelligence” (AI) in education distorts familiar truths revealing uncomfortable reflections of systemic values and biases. Drawing on metaphor theories and ecological models of technology, the paper shows how dominant metaphors shape educational imaginaries and policy responses. It critiques the anthropomorphic rhetoric surrounding “AI”, arguing that common framings, such as “tool” or “tutor”, obscure its statistical nature and legitimize systems that entrench efficiency and control under the guise of neutrality. The mirror metaphor reframes these technologies not as “intelligent” but as reflective surfaces, exposing the cultural, political, and pedagogical assumptions coded into their design and deployment. Through this lens, technologies like LLMs, proctoring systems, and predictive analytics reveal distorted priorities—personalization that conceals standardization, automation that amplifies bias, and efficiency that overrides pedagogical depth. Crucially, the mirror reveals what remains unseen: emotional nuance, creativity, collaborative dynamics, and broader social context. These blind spots are compounded when institutions misread the reflection, adopting punitive or cost-saving policies that deepen existing inequities. Ultimately, the mirror metaphor serves as a catalyst, demanding we look beyond technical functionality to confront the societal reflection. It connects educational dilemmas concerning digital technologies to broader existential crises driven by capitalism and narrow definitions of progress. Arguing that reactive fixes are insufficient, the paper calls for a fundamental reimagining of education’s purpose towards ecological awareness, social justice, community empowerment, and critical pedagogy—using the mirror not just to critique, but to inspire the transformation of the educational systems and societal structures it reflects.
Mapping AI Literacy Frameworks: An Analysis of the Evolving Metaphorical Relationships between Students, Teachers, and AI
Rich metaphors abound within the growing AI literacy research landscape, and there is no better place to look for them than within the rapidly proliferating number of AI literacy frameworks. Conceptual metaphors and AI literacy frameworks, which outline the skills, competencies, and dispositions needed to engage critically with AI, complement each other by organizing people’s perceptions of this complex technological change and coordinating our actions in response. Through idiographic metaphor analysis, we coded the metaphors in eighteen AI literacy frameworks to uncover the underlying metaphorical relationships between AI, students, and teachers. We highlight the dominant metaphors for each actor: AI-as-tool-transformer-ubiquitary-artefact-threat; student-as-analyst-citizen-creator; and teacher-as-designer-guide. We then discuss the connections between these metaphors and their alignment with dominant educational paradigms. Finally, we discuss three tensions within the metaphors that address blind spots within the current corpus of AI literacy frameworks. We suggest areas for future research that address these tensions and consider our individual and collective capacity in higher education to shape or reject an AI-saturated future.
Fear and Awe: Making Sense of Generative AI Through Metaphor
In this paper, we advance the examination of generative AI (GenAI) in educational contexts in two distinct ways. First, we introduce and evaluate an innovative workshop model designed to explore GenAI metaphors, helping participants to articulate their own and their peers’ responses to the technology. These workshops included students, academics and educational support staff at a large Australian university. Second, we analyse the metaphors and collaborative discussions generated during these workshops, which reveal a diverse spectrum of perspectives on GenAI, from practical tool to existential threat. Our analysis surfaces tensions that align closely with prevailing attitudes and current literature on metaphor and GenAI, particularly the tensions between human versus machine agency, and the known versus the unknowable capabilities of the technology. Through these contributions, we propose a qualitative approach that maps the complex interplay of perceptions surrounding emerging technologies, inviting critical reflection on GenAI’s ethical and societal dimensions. Our work offers a structured yet flexible approach for facilitating meaningful dialogue about the implications of GenAI in education that moves past fear and awe.
Reflecting Reality, Amplifying Bias? Using Metaphors to Teach Critical AI Literacy
As educational institutions grapple with questions about increasingly complex Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems, finding effective methods for explaining these technologies and their societal implications to students remains a major challenge. This study proposes a methodological approach utilising Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) and UNESCO’s AI competency framework to develop activities to foster Critical AI Literacy (CAIL). Through a systematic analysis of metaphors commonly used to describe AI systems, we develop criteria for selecting pedagogically appropriate metaphors and demonstrate their alignment with established AI literacy competencies, as well as UNESCO’s AI competency framework. Our method identifies and suggests four key metaphors for teaching CAIL. This includes AI as a funhouse mirror, a map, an echo chamber, and a black box. Each of these metaphors seeks to address specific characteristics of GenAI systems, from filter bubbles to algorithmic opacity. We present these metaphors alongside pedagogical activities designed to engage students in experiential learning of these concepts. In doing so, we offer educators a structured approach to teaching CAIL that touches on aspects of technical understanding and provokes questions about societal implications. This work contributes to the growing field of AI and education by demonstrating how carefully selected metaphors can make complex technological concepts more accessible while promoting CAIL.
Open Learning and Learning at Scale: The Legacy of MOOCs
This paper provides an introduction to the special collection. It presents a summary of the last decade in relation to research on MOOCs and describes the FutureLearn Academic Network (FLAN), which brought together FutureLearn partners for sharing and research purposes. Using this lens, research on MOOCs over the period is reviewed in terms of topic, in terms of the themes explored at different points in the last decade and in terms of the changes in focus of the MOOC platforms. The paper concludes by summarising the papers published in this special collection.
Copyright (c) 2024 The Author(s) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The following publication contains book reviews of these titles: Olivier, J., Oojorah A., Udhin, W. (eds) (2022) Perspectives on teacher education in the digital age. Singapore: Springer Nature. 241 pages. ISBN 978-981-19-4225-9 Isaacs, S., Mishra, S. (2022). Smart education strategies for teaching and learning: Critical analytical framework and case studies. Moscow: UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education. 158 pages. ISBN: 978-5-906399-13-7. Open Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11599/4464 Popenici, S. (2022). Artificial intelligence and learning futures: Critical narratives of technology and imagination in higher education. Routledge. 228 pages. ISBN: 978-1-032-20852-7 Moore, S. L., Tillberg-Webb, H. K. (2023). Ethics and Educational Technology: Reflection, Interrogation, and Design as a Framework for Practice. Routledge. 328 pages. ISBN: 978-0-415-89508-8 Conrad, D. (ed) (2023) Research, writing, and creative process in open and distance education: Tales from the field. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers. 239 pages, ISBN Paperback: 978-1-80511-094-1
Special Collection Editorial – Social Media in Higher Education: What’s Happening?
The Twitter interface famously prompts users to submit content by asking the question, ‘What’s happening?’. As Twitter has seen rapid change of leadership and the implications of this, emerging re-branded as X, it is a timely question to reflect back on itself, and upon the social media landscape more broadly. While the relationship between social media and higher education is far from new, the uncertainty and migration to other platforms highlight the precarity of relying on corporate infrastructure to support public scholarship. It is against this background that we launched a call for submissions to this special collection on the topic of social media in higher education. In this editorial, we will further discuss the recent changes to the social media landscape. We will focus on the JIME Twitter account as a case study attempting to make sense of the impact of this. Finally, we will introduce the papers included in the special collection, and concluding remarks.
Addressing Global Challenges by Contextualising Learning at Scale: Future Professional Learning for the Health Sector
Today’s global challenges are characterised by rapid change. Adjusting to these changes, requires professionals to learn at pace, then rapidly adapt how they work. To support this need, professional development programmes have been designed as Massive Open Online Courses aimed at universal reach, large numbers, and knowledge transfer. However, focus on the scale and reach of knowledge transfer is not sufficient. Professional development programmes must extend beyond learning at scale by supporting professionals not only to learn new knowledge, but also to apply this knowledge to their work. Achieving this goal means taking into account the local context by combining knowledge learned on the programme with local knowledge, by reflecting on the role, and by planning how to adapt work practice and processes. This new focus is particularly relevant to areas of healthcare that are changing at pace. The global health challenge of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) threatens our ability to treat infections and achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Mitigating the impacts of AMR requires professionals across a wide range of roles to change how they work and there is widespread recognition of the need to provide learning opportunities for professionals to build capacity to tackle this challenge. Provoked by a funder’s interest in ‘developing a MOOC’ to support capacity building for AMR surveillance, this paper investigates how we reconceptualise MOOCs as professional learning in rapidly changing contexts and how we combine ‘learning at scale’ with the need for professionals to adapt and apply knowledge. The paper presents the theoretical framework and methodological approach and offers reflections on key decisions concerning the design of ‘Tackling Antimicrobial Resistance’, a professional development MOOC designed as a collection of online modules aiming to support professionals to reflect on how the knowledge learned applies to their everyday practice. Although this study is contextualised within the global health challenge of AMR, these findings are likely to have applicability for the design of professional learning to support other global challenges.
Educators’ Perceptions and Experiences of Online Teacher Professional Development
Online teacher professional development (oTPD) provision has seen a rapid increase in recent years, with significant growth during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, concerns persist around equitable access, course retention and completion, the relevance of materials for varied contexts, and the level of engagement that is realistically possible. More research is needed regarding the ways in which learners in these contexts engage in learning and the impact on their practice. Using a phenomenological approach (Creswell 2013), this paper identifies and documents educators’ perceptions and real, lived experiences of oTPD during a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) entitled ‘The Fundamentals of Educational Dialogue’. Findings indicate that educators’ perceptions of oTPD impact and correlate with their experiences. Participants are responsive to how courses are designed (e.g. course aims, structure, cost, and opportunities to meaningfully connect with other practitioners), which influences their engagement in the course and levels of interaction with peers, and ultimately affects the ways in which the course impacts their personal and professional lives. Implications for future oTPD courses include utilising a framework that recognises learners as reflective, critical professionals who shape their own and others’ experiences. This encourages a view of capacity building as not ending with the acquisition of subject knowledge alone but rather results in a greater depth of learning, particularly when dialogue is used as a pedagogical tool to co-create new knowledge. This intentional sharing of perspectives and reflective engagement with the differences therein can ultimately contribute to fostering a sustainable community of practice.
The Importance of Offline Options for Online Learners
The popularity of MOOCs and MOOC platforms prompted some universities to develop their first online courses, while others experimented with the format of existing online offerings. Despite the body of research identifying cognitive, metacognitive, and practical benefits of printed materials, there has been a shift towards an approach that privileges online resources, reducing opportunities to access resources offline or in printed form. Online courses can be produced more quickly and cheaply than those providing both printed and digital options. They can also benefit learners in a society that values digital skills and literacies. This paper, informed by the principles of universal design for learning (CAST 2018), asks ‘What are the benefits to students of offering downloadable/printable versions of online study materials and supporting offline study?’. It takes a phenomenological approach, exploring the experience of 100 postgraduate learners on an online course delivered on the FutureLearn platform. Data was extracted from a large dataset that included all the students’ course discussion postings (N = 17,158). Data analysis identified the importance of the online/offline divide and showed that, as students’ contexts change, the benefits and accessibility of online, offline and print versions shifts. Printed and digital materials support different ways of learning and can have an affective impact. These findings point to ways in which learning design, skills training, and technical changes might be used to increase the affordances of digital materials for learners.
Understanding Accessibility in MOOCs: Findings and Recommendations for Future Designs
Ensuring accessibility in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) is essential to enable learners with accessiblity needs to fully engage in and derive benefits from online learning experiences. Prioritising accessibility in MOOCs not only adheres to principles of social inclusion but also amplifies the overall effectiveness of online education, creating a learning environment where all participants can thrive and actively contribute. However, there is currently a limited understanding of accessibility in MOOCs. To bridge this gap, this paper presents a systematic literature review of 20 papers, examining the current state of the art, and offers key recommendations for implementing accessibility. The findings highlight the importance of involving all stakeholders, including MOOC providers, course developers, and learners, in including accessibility in MOOCs by using co-creation and participatory design methodologies. This systematic literature review contributes to building an evidence base that can guide the development and integration of accessibility in online educational contexts by organising pertinent literature into cohesive themes that offer insights for future research.
RefugEAP Case Study: Developing and Critically Evaluating a Free, Online Trauma-Informed English for Academic Purposes (EAP) Programme for Refugee-Background Students
Among the barriers facing refugee-background students (RBS) in accessing Higher Education (HE) in the UK is reaching the required academic English standard, and accessing courses to support them with this (Ashlee & Gladwell 2020: 13). In response to these barriers, the Universities of Leicester and Leeds (both in the UK) have developed the RefugEAP programme – a free, online, pre-university academic English and skills course for the RBS cohort. The programme has been informed by Social Justice, Connected Learning in Crisis (CLiC) and Trauma-Informed Pedagogy (TIP) principles, making it unique within the English for Academic Purposes (EAP) sector. This Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) case study employed an action research approach (Dickens & Watkins 1999) to course development and evaluation, drawing from qualitative data from students and tutors, as well as observations from course designers, to evaluate the course, inform changes and assess impact. This paper outlines the design of the course, including theoretical underpinnings, and how a collaborative approach to feedback led the review process for its second iteration. The outcomes indicate that this EAP course was well-placed to meet a gap in provision for RBS, and that careful consideration was needed in areas including independent study practices, student decision-making and pastoral support.
The Effects of a Teacher-Curated LMOOC on EFL Students: A Case Study
This study investigated the effects of using a teacher-curated LMOOC on EFL students at a university in Thailand. It also investigated students’ attitudes to the LMOOC. Data were collected from a group of nursing students (N = 179) taking a compulsory English course. After taking the midterm exam, the students engaged in a 5-week LMOOC intervention as a supplement to their usual English classes instead of regular self-study materials they had in the first half of the semester. Final examination scores and gains since the midterm were compared. Attitudes to the LMOOC were assessed using a questionnaire and interviews. The students experienced statistically significant score gains in the final exam, with greater gains being evident in the grammar and vocabulary portions of the test. The students also reported generally positive attitudes towards the LMOOC implementation. The findings suggest that an LMOOC, when carefully curated and designed, can be an effective supplemental tool for language learning and may positively affect academic performance. Future studies adopting a quasi-experimental research design are needed to assess the applicability of the findings.
Beyond Boundaries: The Role of Learning Types in Shaping MOOC Learner Engagement and Progression
Utilising the ABC Learning Design based on the ABC curriculum design method (Young & Perović 2016) and the Conversational Framework (Laurillard 2012), specifically the six learning types that underpin that model, eight Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) from Coursera or FutureLearn were examined. These MOOCs were selected because they represent a wide range of disciplines, assessment options, and course structures. This paper will demonstrate how the application of various learning types impacts how learners engage with the material, progress through the course, and how it influences their commitment to continue learning (Martin & Bolliger 2018). Additionally, results from this research provide evidence of how the frequency and sequencing of learning types create opportunities for learners to engage with content in a meaningful way. By synthesising the secondary data from pre-course surveys, exit surveys, end-of-course surveys, comment sections, and several other course metrics, including but not limited to the watch-through rates and technical feedback of over 400 videos, course completion, assessment completion, and learner satisfaction, seven key areas of impactful course design were identified and will be explored throughout this paper. These key areas will focus on the following elements of course design (1) quality and duration of videos, (2) balance and distribution of acquisition learning types (3) structure of discussions, (4) effective guidance for exploration activities, (5) balance of assessment and feedback opportunities, (6) utilisation of e-learning tools and plug-ins, and (7) successfully leveraging the synergies between the learning types in online course design. This empirical research will present evidence on how learning types can be successfully deployed in course design and course design sequencing.
Pedagogical Approaches to Teacher Professional Development in Contexts of Mass Displacement: An Agenda for Research and Practice
Educational providers frequently respond to learning disruptions encountered by refugees, internally displaced persons, and migrant communities through online platforms. Learning modules in these digital spaces are often remotely designed, prescriptive and lack full appreciation of challenging circumstances faced by teachers and learners. To sustain meaningful learning in conflict and crisis, the crucial role of teachers cannot be overestimated. Drawing on research into teacher professional development (TPD) through Co-designed Massive Open Online Collaborations (CoMOOCs) in Lebanon, which have global reach, we critique decontextualised and rigid approaches to TPD and highlight the importance of enabling local solutions through dialogue and collaboration with refugee educators. We argue for working from local needs, trialling and harnessing local solutions, and sharing these methods and outcomes globally so that others can consider their relevance and adapt them to their own contexts. We illustrate this approach through presenting our current work with teachers of refugees and migrants from Myanmar now in Thailand, highlighting the research agenda and potential of CoMOOCs to support TPD in this context by: 1) supporting teachers to collaborate with peers in similar contexts; 2) understanding how scholars in the Global North can help facilitate South-South collaborations through global online learning infrastructures; 3) addressing linguistic barriers for teachers learning in online environments; and 4) planning teacher certification to recognise their pedagogical knowledge and skills. The paper describes our “Theory of Change” for widening access to quality tertiary education through TPD in contexts of mass displacement, thereby fostering hope, empowerment, and resilience in the face of adversity.
Teacher Trainees’ Perspectives on the Use of Technology for Teaching and Learning in Forced Displacement Contexts
In forced displacement contexts, the uptake of educational technology (EdTech) is generally driven by resource availability, the haste to satisfy a specific need or a donor-driven solution, and whether the technology offers ‘value for money’ in terms of its cost. As a result, discrepancies in technology usage and infrastructure have emerged, necessitating major measures to address them in the long run. In these contexts, educational institutions providing teacher education have used synchronous and asynchronous approaches, albeit with contextual and infrastructural limitations. The study presented in this paper focuses on one forced displacement context in Kenya and a teacher education diploma course offered by the Faculty of Education at the University of Nairobi. The focus of this study was to evaluate the diploma course through the voices and views of teacher trainees. A mixed methods approach was used, which included an online questionnaire (n = 9) and interviews (n = 4) with teacher trainees. The study concluded that teacher trainees perceive learning online as a major enabler that allows them to be flexible and attend to other personal roles and responsibilities. However, they expressed challenges such as economic status, electricity or solar power availability, internet access, and low storage capacity of the devices, which limited access to course resources and subsequently influenced technology choice and usage. Teacher trainees further highlighted the need for connectedness and belonging to the university and peers and for increased access to course resources to enhance their participation. In addition, the trainees posit that when designing and implementing new teaching approaches, contextual barriers are to be considered for the efficacy of teaching and learning, scalability, and sustainability.
Certificate of Open Studies – Education in Emergencies: Leveraging African Orality in a Freiran Approach
This article contributes to the debate of Higher Education in the context of emergencies from an Open Science and Open Education perspective. It presents the Certificate of Open Studies (COS), a new format offered in a distance modality by the University of Geneva. The contribution specifically discusses how the COS Education in Emergencies (EiE) is designed in a participatory manner with academics, field partners and decision makers in Niger and in Switzerland. Drawing on Freire’s empowerment through education approach, the design leverages ritual pedagogies and orality as foundational principles. Embedded in a European university degree framework, it breaks with the positivist content provision of Higher Education in Emergencies (HEiE). Departing from the single mechanistic paradigm prevailing in the mainstream, the design incorporates a systemic paradigm aligned with conceptualisations of sustainability. In the COS EiE, HEiE is considered an opportunity to empower participants through reconnection with their language and cultural heritage to be able to imagine a prospective future for themselves and their communities. The first edition of the training programme ran from November 2023 to June 2024. This paper presents some outputs of the participants’ achievements and also their assessment of the programme.
Connected Learning as Collaboration and Psychosocial Support: A Critical Reflection on a Bridging Programme for Refugees in Uganda
Uganda currently hosts approximately 1.7 million refugees (93% fully registered refugees, 3% asylum seekers and 4% stateless persons), the most in sub-Saharan Africa. Most refugees come from South Sudan (57%), Democratic Republic of Congo (32%), Burundi (3%), and Somalia (3%). Refugees largely live in rural based settlements within 12 districts alongside host communities and only 8% reside in Kampala, the capital of Uganda. This has posed challenges related to refugee access to economic, medical, and social services including education. These challenges are often addressed in education through connected bridging programmes, which are designed to provide refugees with instruction to help them access and succeed in higher education. This paper explores one such bridging programme and the research that accompanied it, Foundations for All, which was a blended programme designed to provide access to higher education for refugees. Through critical reflections of the overall programme gleaned from interviews with teachers and students, we focus on two discrete elements of this project – the collaborative practices of the disparate project partners and the embedded psychosocial support – and discuss how these two elements might inform the further conceptualisation of connected learning in refugee education contexts.