Advancing Social Justice for Asylum Seekers and Refugees in the UK: An Open Education Approach to Strengthening Capacity through Refugee Action's Frontline Immigration Advice Project

Autor/inn/en	Charitonos, Koula; Albuerne Rodriguez, Carolina; Witthaus, Gabi; Bossu, Carina
Titel	Advancing Social Justice for Asylum Seekers and Refugees in the UK: An Open Education Approach to Strengthening Capacity through Refugee Action's Frontline Immigration Advice Project
Quelle	In: Journal of Interactive Media in Education, 2020 (2020) 1, Artikel 11 (11 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1365-893X
Schlagwörter	Social Justice; Refugees; Coping; Immigration; Foreign Countries; Program Descriptions; Capacity Building; Immigrants; Public Policy; Correlation; Professional Development; Skill Development; Open Education; United Kingdom + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Soziale Gerechtigkeit; Flüchtling; Bewältigung; Ausland; Immigrant; Immigrantin; Immigranten; Öffentliche Ordnung; Korrelation; Kompetenzentwicklung; Qualifikationsentwicklung; Offene Erziehung; Offener Unterricht; Großbritannien
Abstract	Britain's asylum system fails the most vulnerable; it cannot ensure that people who are least able to protect themselves are provided with the legal assistance that they require to cope with the challenges with which they are inevitably faced. Against this background, the charity Refugee Action developed the Frontline Immigration Advice Programme (FIAP), a technology-supported capacity strengthening programme that aims to increase access to justice for those going through the asylum system in the UK. This paper is concerned with the design and implementation of the FIAP as a free digitally enabled programme that provides learning opportunities for organisations and frontline workers in the refugee sector and supports them in developing new forms of legal practice. It provides empirical data from interviews with members of staff from six participating organisations in the FIAP, and from Refugee Action and the Office of the UK's Immigration Services Commissioner (n = 21). The paper adopts a view on social justice, which according to Fraser (2005) is understood as 'parity of participation'. We draw on Fraser's work, as well as work of other scholars such as Lambert (2018) and Hodgkinson-Williams and Trotter (2018) to explore the relationship between social justice and open education by taking into consideration the context within which organisations and professionals operate. The analysis highlights six dimensions for social justice approaches for professional learning as demonstrated through the case of the FIAP: i. deliberate iterative design; ii. access to provision; iii. flexibility of provision; iv. development of resources; v. support and vi. advancing knowledge and skills whilst adapting the workplace. All these dimensions are discussed in the paper in relation to the concept of openness and are critical in developing open socially just programmes that aim to change work practice and address the needs of the most vulnerable. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	Institute of Educational Technology, The Open University. Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK. e-mail: jime@open.ac.uk; Web site: http://jime.open.ac.uk
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01