David Monk
4 Publications in AERD
Author Publications
Export PDFEducation for disabled refugees in South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe: a cross-case analysis
By David Monk
International treaties mandate the educational inclusion of refugees and disabled people, but many remain excluded with disabled refugees facing compounded exclusions. We compare research about educational access and inclusion for disabled refugees in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Uganda, with data generated from policy analyses and interviews with disabled refugee students and families, education officials and NGOs. A vertical cross-case analysis was conducted, drawing on conceptual tools from a social ecosystem approach. We assert that for disabled refugees: Systems beyond education have a significant impact; Access to education is uncertain and insecure, and when education is accessed, participation, progression and success are not guaranteed; The family, school personnel and community influence the extent of educational access; and NGOs and community-based advocates are relied upon to secure the right to education. We conclude with a call to address imbalances in global and local power structures that constrain educational opportunities for disabled refugees. © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Interrogating the agency and education of refugee children with disabilities in Northern Uganda: A critical capability approach
By David Monk
This paper draws on empirical evidence from a 3-year research project in Northern Uganda examining the educational experiences of refugees with disabilities. The authors present the compounded and interrelated challenges children with disabilities and their families face as they navigate their educational experiences and seek out opportunities to live well. The authors seek to make a contribution towards improving educational experiences by first highlighting compounding challenges faced by refugee children living with disabilities and their families and related policy gaps that have ramifications for refugee children's access to education in particular, and second by expanding discourse about refugee children with disabilities agency in relation to these liminal gaps and the impact the gaps have for accessing education. The authors use Powell and McGrath's (in Skills for human development: Transforming vocational education and training, Routledge, 2019; Handbook of vocational education and training, Springer, 2019) concept of critical capabilities and relationality, to expand Klocker's (in Global perspectives on rural childhood and youth: Young rural lives, Routledge, 2007) notions of thick and thin agency and to interrogate refugee children living with disabilities' agency in relation to education opportunities and rights. © 2023 National Children's Bureau and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Designing the Future: Youth innovation, informality and transformed VET
By David Monk
This article argues that Vocational Education and Training (VET) can be a valuable space to develop the innovation required to deal with the wicked problems of the world; however, radical and rapid transformation in approaches to VET is needed. While we use a case study from Gulu, Uganda, the findings can be applied more broadly. A new approach cannot be taken in isolation from other social circumstances, and desperately needs to include epistemic contributions both in relation to content and approach so that it bolsters and supports the initiatives, designs and dreams of the intended participants, especially women. We argue that epistemic injustice is a major limiting factor for environmental learning and innovation. We share potential opportunities from our research to shift towards a climate and socially conscious social skills ecosystem capable of designing a positive future. © 2023, EEASA, Environmental Learning Research Centre, Department of Education, Rhodes University. All rights reserved.
Vocational education and training for African development: a literature review
By David Monk
The SDGs mark the clearest global acceptance yet that the previous approach to development was unsustainable. In VET, UNESCO has responded by developing a clear account of how a transformed VET must be part of a transformative approach to development. It argues that credible, comprehensive skills systems can be built that can support individuals, communities, and organisations to generate and maintain enhanced and just livelihood opportunities. However, the major current theoretical approaches to VET are not up to this challenge. In the context of Africa, we seek to address this problem through a presentation of literatures that contribute to the theorisation of this new vision. They agree that the world is not made up of atomised individuals guided by a “hidden hand”. Rather, reality is heavily structured within political economies that have emerged out of contestations and compromises in specific historical and geographical spaces. Thus, labour markets and education and training systems have arisen, characterised by inequalities and exclusions. These specific forms profoundly influence individuals’ and communities’ views about the value of different forms of learning and working. However, they do not fully define what individuals dream, think and do. Rather, a transformed and transformative VET for Africa is possible. © 2019, © 2019 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
© 2026 AERD Database System. All Rights Reserved. Developed by Strategic Technologies.