With more than 114 million people displaced worldwide, refugee education has become one of the most urgent yet neglected issues in global education. While refugee education often emphasises basic literacy and numeracy, science education is rarely part of the conversation. Yet for millions of children living in refugee camps, science is not an abstract subject; it is a means to understand health, the environment and technology in the context of daily adversity.
In my recent study, “Nurturing science learning amidst adversity: A portraiture of science teaching with refugee students in refugee camps”, I sought to explore what science teaching looks like in one of the world’s largest refugee camps: the Rohingya camps in Bangladesh.
For two months, I worked inside the camps observing classrooms and interviewing teachers. Refugee students and teachers are not allowed to leave the camps, which makes these learning spaces both highly restricted and unique.
Learning with almost nothing
Imagine trying to teach science in a classroom with no computers, no lab equipment and no projectors, only a chalkboard and students crowded together on the floor. That is the reality for Rohingya teachers in the camps.
Despite global promises of ‘education for all’, Rohingya children attend informal learning centres that provide no formal accreditation and rely on piecemeal resources. Yet these spaces matter deeply. They provide children with an opportunity to learn, to imagine different futures and to maintain a sense of dignity in an environment designed for survival, rather than thriving.
At the heart of this fragile and politically fraught education system are two groups of teachers: Rohingya refugees, whose lack of formal qualifications reflects both displacement and restricted opportunities, and Bangladeshi host-community teachers, who do not share the same culture or language as their students.
Although this unique arrangement, shaped by necessity and politics, could easily deepen barriers, in practice co-teaching between the two groups has proven not only practical but transformative, offering Rohingya students bridges across languages, cultures and ways of science learning.
A portrait of co-teaching
One portrait from my study illustrates this power of collaboration. In a Grade 3 classroom of more than 25 children, Mr Omar, a Rohingya refugee teacher, began the science lesson by warmly greeting students in their own language. He guided them through key terms related to natural disasters, ensuring the children understood them. His affirmations and gentle encouragement created an atmosphere where students felt seen and valued.
Then his co-teacher, Mr Dishan from Bangladesh, stepped in. Using posters on lightning safety, he introduced new content and asked the children to reflect on their own experiences. At first, the class fell silent. But when Mr Omar translated and connected the topic to a recent incident in the camps, the children came alive, sharing stories, nodding in recognition and debating safety precautions.
Together, the two teachers turned the lesson into a lively game: students drew slips of paper naming disasters and explained safety measures while their peers cheered. What might have been a dry lesson on natural disasters became a joyful, participatory and profoundly relevant experience.
Co-teaching allowed the strengths of both teachers, Mr Omar’s cultural knowledge and language, and Mr Dishan’s formal training and resources, to come together in ways that neither could have achieved alone.
Teachers’ voices
What does this mean for the refugee education and science education community? Much of the study on refugee education tends to focus on deficits, specifically in terms of infrastructure, curriculum or policy. While these challenges are real, concentrating solely on absence obscures the resilience and creativity of refugee teachers who, with almost nothing, teach every day. In contrast, my study aimed to foreground these teachers’ voices rather than pointing out problems.
Additionally, this study advocates for equity in science education to extend beyond traditional considerations of race, gender and class to encompass displaced populations in refugee camps, where science can significantly impact survival. In refugee camps, teaching is not about preparing for STEM standardised tests or careers, but about helping children understand health, the environment and technology, making science both a tool for survival and a pathway to hope.
Ultimately, the study highlights the significance of supporting refugee teachers as professionals. Universities, policy-makers and NGOs must invest in training, certifying and recognising refugee educators, rather than treating them as temporary or secondary. Co-teaching models, such as those of Mr Omar and Mr Dishan, offer a blueprint for bridging cultural divides and leveraging complementary strengths.
A call to action
The stories from the Rohingya camps are not just about science lessons. They are about what it means to honour the voices of marginalised teachers and students and to recognise their resilience.
As higher education scholars and policy-makers, we must ensure that refugee contexts are not blind spots in our work. We need research that humanises refugee teachers, partnerships that bring universities into collaboration with camps, and policies that treat education in displacement not as charity but as a right.
In a world where forced displacement is likely to grow due to conflict and climate change, refugee education cannot remain an afterthought. If we are serious about the global promise of ‘education for all’, then education in refugee camps must be part of the conversation – because it is not just about knowledge, but about survival, dignity and the possibility of a better future.
Dr Shukufe Rahman is a visiting assistant professor in the department of engineering education at Ohio State University, USA. Her research interest centres on developing and promoting STEM teaching and learning in meaningful and relevant ways, so that all students, regardless of gender, race, ethnicity or colour, can see themselves challenging oppressive ideologies in society and realise that society can be transformed. Her work critically examines existing educational frameworks, curriculum design and teaching practices to promote inclusive and equitable learning in STEM learning environments, particularly to empower refugee students and support their future integration.
This article is a commentary. Commentary articles are the opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of University World News.
