As a partner, Islamic University of Gaza won an international research project entitled “Welcoming languages: Including a Refugee Language in Scottish Education”, funded by British “Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)” and in partnership with Glasgow University.
The project, which implementation period spans from January 2022 to November 2022, generally aims to include Arabic as a refugee language in Scottish education to enact integration as a two-way process, and provide evidence of the concept of linguistic diversification in education. It also aims to achieve several specific objectives, such as: Adapting teaching of Arabic over the Internet to the needs of Scottish teachers, teaching Arabic online to a number of teachers in Scotland, introducing Arabic into the Scottish educational context, and drafting policy guidelines on the possibilities and methodologies of introducing refugee language into Scottish education.
The project seeks short-term results in understanding the feasibility of expanding the languages used by Scotland’s primary teachers to include Arabic as one of the languages spoken by refugee children and families, making recommendations for the diversification of languages taught/learned when introducing refugee and minority languages into Scottish education, and recommendations for the successful introduction of refugee and minority languages into education and public services in the United Kingdom and at international scale.
As for long-term results, the project seeks to provide insights into the feasibility of language diversification in education to include a range of refugee languages, as well as to provide insight into the possibility of expanding the status of refugee languages in the Scottish public sphere to include a greater number of languages in a variety of public places, thus activating the vision of integration as a two-way process that requires changes by not only the “New Scots” but also by the wider Scottish community.
Dr. Nazmi Almasri, Project Director at the Islamic University, explained that the project would contribute to strengthening the scientific research environment, as the project is expected to contribute to understanding the implications of Arabic learning by teachers in the Scottish educational context with regard to the expansion of refugee languages in the Scottish public sphere, documenting the processes and results of the upward approach of the language curriculum, as well as documenting the feasibility of language diversification in education to include a range of refugee languages and shedding light on policy recommendations for a successful introduction of refugee languages in Scottish education. Dr. Almasri added that social impact would enhance social cohesion and provide an overview of ways in which communities and the public sphere could absorb refugee languages as an opportunity to enrich all parties involved.
