Who’s the refugee crisis?

By Ellen Schulze, Monika Thakur, Renee Evans and Dalila Ghoneim

This activity is designed to educate students about the current global refugee crisis in order to
challenge the dominant discourse. Through inquiry-based learning, students learn to
individualize rather than generalize the experiences of refugees in both global contexts and
their own contexts. The activity uses the adapted content of two Google expeditions and a
survey using the fun, game-based, educational tool Kahoot.

The resource uses concepts associated with the Geography curriculum, encouraging students
to investigate culture and cultural identity, respect diversity and explore and compare cultural
knowledge via stories and events. These are key aspects of the general capability:
Intercultural Understanding.

[Show using a chat or image]:

Who’s the refugee crisis? is a relevant contribution to the following Geography units:
Stage 4: ‘Place and liveability’ and/or ‘Changing nations’
Stage 5: ‘Geographies of Interconnections’ and/or ‘Geographies of Human wellbeing’
Stage 6: ‘Natural and Ecological Hazards’ and/or ‘Global transformations’

In the context of your lesson, this is an awareness-raising virtual reality experience that
explores the issue of marginalizing refugees based on ethnicity, race and economic status.

This game does require the use of a smart phone and/or a device. Refugee Phones have
donated 40 phones to this educational cause. We’d encourage you to use the resources
available to you in your own schools, adhering to your BYOD or BYOT policies. Contact us
if you require additional resourcing.

How the game works:

[Animate /illustrate this]

In a classroom of 24 students:
 Each student has/is issued with a smart phone.
 The teacher also uses a smart phone or device.
 Students work in pairs (there should be a minimum of one smartphone per pair and
two devices in total, i.e. two smart phones, or one smart phone and one device.

1 student from each pair (12 students) and the teacher uses their smartphone to connect to
Google Expeditions. The teacher ‘leads’ the expedition and the students ‘follow’. These
students slip their smart phone into a Google Cardboard. They immerse themselves into the
virtual reality of current-day Germany during a refugee crisis. The teacher facilitates this
process using the Script. Students describe the scenescape to their partner, and then pass the
Google Cardboard to their partner who will view the scenescape themselves.
The teacher will offer additional explanations to the scenescape using the Script. Students
listen, engage with inquiry-based learning and reflect on the narrative and significance of
what they see with their partner.

After a few minutes, when directed by their teacher, students set aside their Google
Cardboard and use their second device to connect to the Kahoot. They respond to the first
two questions which relates what they see to their own knowledge and understanding of the
experiences of refugees.

When the Kahoot indicates, students resume their expedition. The teacher takes them through
the next scenescape. When directed students again, set aside their Google Cardboard and
respond to the next two questions, reflecting with their partner. So on and so forth, students
immerse themselves in the scenescapes, reflect, and apply their knowledge to their own
contexts using the Kahoot questions and the discussion opportunities.

Aims and outcomes

By the conclusion of this awareness raising game, students will have considered and critiqued
their own perspectives through a process of social learning. Students consider their part to
play in challenging generalizations by individualizing and personalizing the experiences of
refugees challenging the dominant discourse.

The Australian Curriculum recognizes the diversity of EAL/D students in Australian schools,
some of whom are refugees. In order for schools to be a safe and welcoming space for
refugees, students must learn to challenge the dominant discourse that undergirds
stereotyping.

We’ve linked this resource to the theoretical framework of post-structuralism which argues
that language has the ability to construct our realities. Post-structuralism argues that language
is critical to understand “social organisation, social meanings, power and individual
consciousness” (Weedon, 1987, p.21). This resource encourages students to consider the
experience of refugees in an individual and personal rather than a general way considering
several aspects of their situation. Foucault reasons that it is not only what is said that
constitutes discourse; what is not said is equally important. Our resource encourages positive
dialogue through the directed use of discussion questions. Bordieuan concepts of capital
illuminate the inequities and power imbalances for refugees. This resource teaches students to
be critical and to challenge their preconceived notions of inequity and entitlement.

This immersive, engaging and reflective resource is designed to help students to think
critically (a key general capability). In the context of your classroom, we think this is an ideal
way to start productive conversations in a way that is not discursive from curriculum and the
general capabilities outlined in the Australian curriculum. We also believe that game-based
learning is an accessible and relevant way to engage young people. Virtual reality is newly
thought to help develop empathy by immersing subjects in the perspective of the ‘other’. We
deem this extremely valuable to our 21st century students.
So, do let us know how this resource works in your classrooms. We’d like to keep developing
this resource as Google Expeditions develops theirs. Please feel free to send in your
suggestions for improvement, we’d love this to be a collaborative process.

We hope it inspires productive conversations for your students, and that through this resource
they’ll learn to include rather than exclude using language and discourse.

Reference:

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (2015). Students for whom
EAL/D. Retrieved from https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/resources/student-
diversity/students-for-whom-eald/

Ferfolja, T., Jones-Diaz, C., & Ullman, J. (2015). Understanding Sociological Theory for
Educational Practices. West Nyack: Cambridge University Press.

Google Expeditions. (n.d.) About. Retrieved from https://edu.google.com/expeditions/#about