Original Research © The Author 2023. Published by the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities. www.cumuonline.org Metropolitan Universities | DOI 10.18060/26467| March 8, 2023 43 Seeking Justice, Seeking Hope: Refugee Resettlement Campuses and Transformative Pedagogy in Higher Education Sonalini Sapra,1 Christian Matheis,2 and Diya Abdo3 1 Center for Principled Problem Solving and Excellence in Teaching, Guildford College, 2 Community and Justice Studies Program, Guildford College, 3 Every Campus a Refuge (ECAR) and Department of English, Guildford, College Cite as: Sapra, S., Matheis, C., & Abdo, D. (2023). Seeking Justice, Seeking Hope: Refugee Resettlement Campuses and Transformative Pedagogy in Higher Education. Metropolitan Universities, 34(2), 43-69. DOI: 10.18060/26467 This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. Guest Editors: Patrick M. Green, Ph.D. and Susan Haarman Editor: Valerie L. Holton, Ph.D. Abstract This article provides an exploratory case study of place-based pedagogy developed in partnership with Every Campus A Refuge (ECAR) at Guilford College. ECAR is the first initiative of its kind to mobilize college and university campus resources to provide housing and other forms of assistance to refugees seeking resettlement in the institution’s local area (within and beyond the institution’s physical borders). ECAR is transforming refugee resettlement in the United States as it also transforms our understanding and teaching about the issues faced by these communities and the role of post-secondary educational institutions. Through ECAR’s commitment to “compassionate hospitality and radical accountability” (Every Campus A Refuge, n.d.), campuses undergo transformations that blur the boundaries between campus and community and redefine the notion of “place” for students and community members. This article examines how place-based initiatives at resettlement campuses, such as ECAR in Greensboro, impact student experiences and learning. We present an analysis of survey data collected from students who participated in the ECAR minor and analyze their responses. This data indicates that the academic program’s place-based pedagogy 1) provides students opportunities to learn about what forced displacement is and why it happens; 2) centralizes the voice, agency, and perspectives of the individuals who experience forced migration and resettlement; 3) emphasizes how we can collectively organize and advocate to address the problems of forced displacement and resettlement. In this way, the minor is helping students engage in the work of principled problem-solving in refugee resettlement through specialized http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ © The Author 2023. Published by the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities. www.cumuonline.org Metropolitan Universities | DOI 10.18060/26467| March 8, 2023 44 course offerings and place-based pedagogy. The paper concludes with challenges and opportunities for campuses interested in adopting this place-based refugee resettlement program for their colleges/universities. It also discusses pathways for further research and pedagogical innovation. Keywords: refugee resettlement, equity, diversity, inclusion, place-based pedagogy, higher education, resettlement campus © The Author 2023. Published by the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities. www.cumuonline.org Metropolitan Universities | DOI 10.18060/26467| March 8, 2023 45 Place-Based Pedagogy and Every Campus of Refuge Place-based pedagogy is a form of experiential education that utilizes the local community and environment to teach relevant concepts in subjects across the curriculum (Greenwood, 2003). It has roots in environmental education, critical pedagogy, and collaborative learning and arose in tandem with the larger community engagement movement in higher education to respond to concerns about the alienating impact most traditional educational practices have on systemically marginalized groups (Shannon & Galle, 2017). Connected to place-based pedagogy is the rise of place-based community engagement – a specialized type of community engagement defined as “a long-term, university-wide commitment to partner with local residents, organizations, and other leaders to focus equally on- campus and community impact within a clearly defined area” (Yamamura & Koth, 2019, p. 184). Place-based initiatives typically aspire to include a) a geographically defined focus; b) an equal emphasis on campus and community; c) long-term vision and commitment; d) university-wide engagement that animates the mission and develops the institution; and e) draws on collective impact (Yamamura & Koth, 2018). In this article, we highlight an innovative place-based initiative focused on refugee resettlement that seeks to redefine how higher education institutions understand “place” and their role as anchor institutions in their local, national, and global communities. As exploratory research, this article offers the groundwork for both praxis and ongoing research at the intersections of place-based pedagogy and a growing wave of efforts to transform higher education using the “resettlement campus” model (Appendix A). Historically, there have been three main ways higher education institutions have engaged with teaching and learning about refugee resettlement (Matheis, Abdo, & Sapra 2022; for full typology, see Appendix A). The first, or Type 1, follows a traditional service-learning model where the institution sends student volunteers to off-campus sites to volunteer with a refugee resettlement agency for 15-20 hours a week. This typically includes a facilitated critical reflection component that students complete on-site or in the classroom (Jones, 2016). The second Type 2 approach is refugee student/scholar support services, where universities support forcibly displaced faculty and students through scholarships, enrollment opportunities, and special academic appointments (Cantat et al., 2022). In the third version, Type 3, higher education staff/faculty/students visit refugee camps overseas to provide service-learning opportunities and/or conduct research in or near refugee camps and resettlement areas while refugees await the outcome of asylum claims and settlement applications (Duff-Brown, 2013; Ruecker, 2017). In this paper, we highlight and focus on a fourth approach, Type 4: Resettlement Campuses, which seeks to transform the landscape of place-based education regarding refugee resettlement in the United States, where colleges and universities welcome, house, and provide support to © The Author 2023. Published by the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities. www.cumuonline.org Metropolitan Universities | DOI 10.18060/26467| March 8, 2023 46 refugee families on their campuses in the early phases of arrival and resettlement. Type 4 differs from and complements the first three types of engagement by engaging campuses directly as a hosting site of resettlement and community integration. As mentioned above, while colleges and universities support student volunteers (i.e., internship, practicum, service-learning opportunities, etc.) to do work in the community and by traveling off-site (away from campuses) to engage in research and experiential learning, very rarely are their physical spaces and their material and human resources leveraged to foster a sense of belonging for refugee newcomer residents, especially through inter-group interaction and sustained access. ECAR serves as the first “prototype” program designed to support campuses that wish to engage in Type 4 resettlement activities. Inspired by Pope Francis’ call in 2015 for every European parish to host a refugee family, ECAR connects refugees and supportive community stakeholders to provide integration support to newcomers. Colleges and universities have the necessary physical facilities, inter-institutional partnerships with various social organizations and government agencies, and internal human resources to provide housing and community support to welcome refugees. Under the ECAR model, a local refugee resettlement agency assigns a refugee case (singles, couples, or families) to a college or university and supervises their experiences. Refugees then avail of free housing and utilities and access to campus facilities and amenities. As ECAR was built around the a) needs, b) agency and c) dignity of new arrivals, the program creates partnerships between universities, local organizations, and communities to facilitate refugees’ access to education, health, social, and cultural services. Students, faculty, staff, and community members are vetted and trained as culturally responsive volunteers to provide childcare, interpretation, career services, and other support at no cost to guest families (funded in various ways relative to the revenue and budget model of a given campus). In the ECAR model, once refugees are financially ready (usually after 5-8 months), they transition to safe off-campus housing but continue to access ECAR support. Since 2015, ECAR at Guilford has hosted 86 refugees, 38 of whom have been children. As of December 2022, twelve campuses have joined as official ECAR chapters. Of the total number of resettlement campuses using the ECAR model, four are public colleges/universities, and eight are private. The notion of place that ECAR asks us to consider is unique. This distinction is partly because the ECAR resettlement campus model disrupts “place” as only a geographically bounded category to instead account for and respond to place as ideological, affective, interdependent, and relational. ECAR socializes students to be mindful of how individuals, particularly refugees, experience place, culture, and identities in multi-dimensional ways. Further, the program helps students understand that the forced migration journeys many refugees experience can include multiple geographic and transnational spaces and times (Bennett, 2022). In this conceptualization, “place” becomes a liminal space, and one need not necessarily leave campus to investigate global migration flows and attendant power relations. © The Author 2023. Published by the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities. www.cumuonline.org Metropolitan Universities | DOI 10.18060/26467| March 8, 2023 47 Connections to this form of place-based pedagogy also sensitize students to the degree of dislocations that one can experience in life. For example, students experience one type of dislocation when they leave home to move to a residential campus like Guilford. This can profoundly impact their sense of belonging and ability to engage in deep learning experiences. Coming to belong happens in myriad ways, but exposure to ECAR can aid in shifting their gaze from the individual to systemic issues of global inequity. These exposures prime students to learn more about the ecosystem in which we are all embedded, as well as give them skills to be advocates for change in their communities. In the next section, we describe Guilford College’s Principled Problem-Solving program that continues to serve as the programmatic home for the ECAR minor and detail the courses and pedagogy developed from this place-based model. Place-Based Engagement and the Principles Problem-Solving Experience (PPSE) Minor Recently, multiple universities and colleges have come to understand and take ownership of their missions to serve the public good and to do so with an equity lens (Guarasci, 2022; Green et al., 2020). As a Quaker-founded institution, place-based education and principled problem solving are harmonious with Guilford College’s mission, to provide a transformative, practical, and excellent liberal arts education that produces critical thinkers in an inclusive, diverse environment, guided by Quaker testimonies of community, equality, integrity, peace, and simplicity and emphasizing the creative problem-solving skills, experience, enthusiasm and international perspectives necessary to promote positive change in the world. (Guilford College, n.d) Following this mission, Guilford College has a long history of place-based engagement centered on social justice. The Principled Problem-Solving Experience (PPSE) minor, housed at the Center for Principled Problem Solving and Excellence in Teaching (CPPSET), is a curricular innovation that began over a decade ago at Guilford College. The model enables individual faculty members to join interdisciplinary teams to develop a minor focused on an important community-identified topic or theme, emphasizing place-based engagement and pedagogy. Over the years, faculty have developed several PPSE programs that use the physical, environmental, and cultural landscapes around Greensboro to enable students to see the world in new ways. One example is the Forced Migration and Refugee Resettlement minor started in 2017. The minor engages students minor in principled problem-solving in refugee resettlement through intentional course offerings. Courses in the minor complement one another by 1) providing students opportunities to learn about what forced displacement is and why it happens; 2) centralizing the voice, agency, and perspectives of the individuals who experience forced migration and resettlement; 3) emphasizing how we can collectively organize and advocate to address the problems of forced displacement and resettlement. For details on the Forced © The Author 2023. Published by the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities. www.cumuonline.org Metropolitan Universities | DOI 10.18060/26467| March 8, 2023 48 Migration and Refugee Resettlement minor, including assignments and course readings, please see Appendices C, D, & E. Place is not geographically bounded, and at the same time, the unique features of a particular location do influence local pedagogy. The history and cultural contours of Greensboro as a “Gateway City” that has long been a resettlement hub and is home to many refugee and immigrant communities, including the largest Montagnard community outside of Vietnam (Bailey et al., n.d.), has influenced how students experience their learning and environment. The wealth of cultural, ethnic, and religious diversity brought about by immigration, and refugee resettlement in the Triad has enriched the community in countless tangible and intangible ways. Some students in the minor choose refugee resettlement as their career and take on opportunities before graduation, like interning with resettlement agencies or serving refugee communities through AmeriCorps. Students are also using and honing their disciplinary skills to support ECAR, and some have gone on to work professionally in refugee resettlement support and immigrant rights fields. Finally, other courses at Guilford that are not part of the minor partner with ECAR as a site for conducting community-based participatory research, which could be considered a project-based type of place-based education. For example, the 2022-2023 Community and Justice Studies research and capstone cohort worked in two complementary teams to design a preliminary study proposal in partnership with ECAR. Early in 2022, ECAR received a substantial grant to support the creation of a resettlement campus manual (forthcoming in 2023), an open-access document designed to guide campuses to resettle refugees more directly (Type 4 explained above). The grant funding supported the fall 2022 ECAR Gathering. This three-day event brings stakeholders from refugee communities, K-12 youth, faculty and other representatives from colleges and universities, personnel from resettlement nonprofits, public agencies, local government, businesses, and others. One student team designed a survey and focus group interview protocols on gathering data from stakeholder attendees. Another student team developed survey and interview strategies for broad national outreach to post-secondary educational institutions to get a clearer picture of common and best practices related to refugee resettlement activities by colleges and universities. Following a grounded theory approach, these proposals underwent revision and modification with feedback from ECAR during a six-month-long planning process for the Gathering. Research Question and our Positionality as Teacher-Scholars Our broad research question in this project was: How do place-based initiatives at resettlement campuses, such as ECAR in Greensboro, impact student experiences and learning? It is important to note that all three of us identify as teachers/scholar-activists and bring ethical and political commitments to our teaching and research. We detail below several aspects of our identities as teacher-researchers that inform our commitments and are relevant to our experiences teaching about refugee and immigrant experiences, especially at a predominantly white institution (PWI). © The Author 2023. Published by the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities. www.cumuonline.org Metropolitan Universities | DOI 10.18060/26467| March 8, 2023 49 I (Author 1) am a Punjabi Sikh, a first-generation immigrant female born in Saudi Arabia into a Dalit (considered “low-caste/untouchable”) family. I came to the United States in 2004 on an F-1 visa for graduate studies in Political Science. I earned tenure at a faith-based liberal arts college in 2016 but decided, for personal and professional reasons, to move into the field of educational development. In early 2018, I joined Guilford’s Center for Principled Problem Solving and Excellence in Teaching, working as a “third-space professional” (Whitchurch, 2012). In my role, I help build capacity and support for inclusive teaching, and I also teach courses in Political Science and the Forced Migration and Resettlement Minor. I was drawn to work at Guilford College because of the ECAR program. I (Author 2) grew up in the United States in both Texas and Oregon. I identify as white, queer, intergenerationally low-income, and a first-generation U.S. citizen and child of a refugee (my father). I joined the Community and Justice Studies faculty at Guilford in 2018, where I teach courses in areas such as public policy, direct-action organizing, and immigration justice. Like Author 1, I was particularly drawn to Guilford College for the opportunity to work with ECAR. I (Author 3) am a second-generation Palestinian refugee born and raised in Jordan. I came to the U.S. on an F1 International Student Visa in 1996 to continue my graduate education at a small liberal arts university in New Jersey. In 2003, I returned to Jordan after challenging experiences in post-9/11 America. After a violation of my academic freedom at my university in Jordan, I decided to leave for the U.S. again. I joined the faculty of Guilford College in 2008. In 2015, I founded ECAR, and in 2017 developed the minor Every Campus A Refuge and then the Forced Migration and Resettlement Studies in 2019. As we reflect, one common thread in our teaching is how little our current pedagogies center (i.e., to prioritize rather than place at the center with the dangerous potential of tokenizing and objectifying) Black Peoples, Indigenous Peoples, People(s) of Color (BIPOC) students in our classrooms. While our teaching has always been student-centered, it has become apparent to us, from the feedback we have received from our BIPOC students as well as their increased activism on campuses, that our pedagogies and systems center a particular kind of student whose universalized gaze has typically dictated the tenor and arc of our curricula. As a result, teaching subject matter that is personally relevant to BIPOC students in the classroom happens at their expense, even if the lofty goal of uplifting and amplifying their experiences and voices is achieved. Holding ourselves accountable to our BIPOC students’ experiences in our classroom (a pedagogy of accountability) allows us to prioritize their community relationships and mental health over the more representational goal of amplifying oppressed voices (pedagogy of the oppressed). The ECAR minor seeks to achieve such accountability to refugee-hosted guests by centering and prioritizing their dignity, agency, and privacy above the other pedagogical goals of the class. For example, ECAR minor students are not allowed to interview hosted guests formally or informally; students are vetted/background checked and sign confidentiality agreements before interacting with guests. Their final projects must meaningfully serve refugee populations in Greensboro, responding to the identified needs of the local community. © The Author 2023. Published by the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities. www.cumuonline.org Metropolitan Universities | DOI 10.18060/26467| March 8, 2023 50 Findings Data were analyzed using an open-coding procedure that primarily applied in vivo codes (Charmaz, 2006). We began by coding the data from the online survey responses and written reflection papers/assignments and conducted our thematic analysis. We then met to discuss our themes and categories, which we found to be primarily synergistic. These thematic clusters – groupings of themes that appear together several times throughout responses – allow us to portray themes in relatively close, co-constitutive relationships with one another as clusters. The strategy involves showing that themes interrelate, rather than a conventional approach of presenting themes individually as isolated concepts. Theme Cluster 1: Career Development, Social Justice Commitments, and Skill- Building Respondents described the benefits of the ECAR minor, including a positive impact on their career development through internships that allow them to explore and grow their commitments to social justice while building skills by engaging with systematically marginalized communities. Some illustrative comments from survey respondents: I have an internship and part-time job with a nonprofit [and] I need to be up to date on the definitions and precise meaning of words such as refugee. So professionally, this class has been significant because I can use my skills and knowledge to educate voters and build meaningful, lasting support for refugee resettlement in Tennessee. … this class aided in my ability to do my job. In a personal sense, I can use this information to talk to people in my life who may not be convinced of the need to accept more refugees. This class is probably one of the most important classes I have taken. Immigration has many issues that need to be brought to light. With this course, I learned … correct terminology and history on migrants and refugees. I will definitely be carrying this work with me. It is something I hold close and in high value. I wish to work with immigrant children or juvenile detention centers. With these paths ahead of me, this class has definitely given me a lot more knowledge. I am applying what I have learned in many of the courses I took at Guilford on community problem-solving. Looking at issues in the lens of equity, how to include people - who’s not in the room, and how to center community voices in my workplace. Since leaving Guilford I have worked as a private English tutor for several clients in the Greensboro area, most of whom were non-native English speakers. Several of my clients have been older students, and thus many of the sessions are structured more as conversations rather than instructions or activities. I find myself using a lot of the same discussion prompts and active listening strategies that I used while I was working with the ECAR clients to garner fruitful, relevant conversation. © The Author 2023. Published by the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities. www.cumuonline.org Metropolitan Universities | DOI 10.18060/26467| March 8, 2023 51 These data indicate that place-based pedagogy studied in this article enhances student learning and experiential opportunities in ways they consider deeply relevant to their commitments to social justice and long-term career goals and in ways that are based on building skills they can apply in future jobs and community engagement in their broader social lives. Theme Cluster 2: Enhanced Working Understanding of Causes of Global Refugee Crises, Experiential Knowledge of the Long-Term Impacts on Individuals and Families The second theme cluster indicates that student respondents gained a working understanding of different macro-level factors driving the global refugee crisis and how those large-scale forces impact specific individuals and families over the long term. Some sample responses in this theme cluster include the following: I learned a lot in the ECAR class. I … came away from it feeling connected and prepared. Also, I think refugees, immigrants, and American-born people all have much to learn from each other and developing meaningful relationships. The U.S. government also creates instability in other countries which leads to refugee situations. Allowing refugees into the U.S. helps to an extent, but there are big problems that need digging into. There was a publication that we read as part of the ECAR minor that was simply aimed to break down refugee theory and provide some beginner-friendly info and stats about what refugeedom entailed. I really enjoyed this because it dispelled many myths and misunderstandings about the nature of refugeedom and reinforced the notion that refugees have always existed. I also appreciated how it discussed the de-humanization of refugees; it is very easy to talk about large groups of people as just numbers, but it is more difficult, albeit necessary, to recognize that each of those numbers is an individual with their own story and their own set of skills and beliefs. I helped tutor the children of a refugee family that were once living in the ECAR house, but had since relocated. With another tutor, I learned that the little girl was barely scraping by, because she had missed some learning milestones. She was in first or second grade. Among thousands of other issues refugees face, lost time for education and experiencing childhood is incredibly harrowing. The topics of immigration and asylum seekers/refugees has remained prevalent within my sphere since graduating college. I keep up with policy changes and news regarding these topics. I have enjoyed explaining matters concerning refugees entering into the U.S. with those in my community who are less knowledgeable and more skeptical of accepting “outsiders” than the community at Guilford generally was. There have been many instances in which others have divulged ignorant perspectives concerning refugees to me, and I have eagerly attempted to dispel their fears and parroted lies. © The Author 2023. Published by the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities. www.cumuonline.org Metropolitan Universities | DOI 10.18060/26467| March 8, 2023 52 Theme Cluster 3: Improved Social Imagination and Strategic Understanding of What Post-Secondary Educational Institutions Can Immediately Do and Become Concerning Resettlement Throughout their experiences with place-based resettlement efforts in partnership with ECAR, students developed a broader understanding and vision of what colleges and universities can do as resettlement campuses. This includes local, immediate actions related to the resettlement of individuals and families as well as a broader national and long-term vision for transforming the social role of post-secondary educational institutions. I think it’s really amazing that certain colleges and universities care about serving community needs and using their resources to support migrants. Collaborations can come out of colleges and universities in partnerships with local organizations in the case of both the Immigrant Justice Lab as well as ECAR. Deeply Engaged Academia gives students an opportunity to investigate place-based experiences and displacement while actively challenging the systems that create displacement while using their resources to help immigrants and refugees resettle in Greensboro. This shows a mutually beneficial community partnership, but I also wonder how the dynamics of pain narratives, saviorism, and using student labor may complicate this community partnership. Guilford College can be more actively engaged in campus and deepen relationships in the college and outside of the college by applying Radical Hospitality to other spaces in the college. Communicating with ECAR chapters outside of Guilford and collecting their unique stories gave me insight into community engagement that went beyond my normal scope. It was enlightening to collaborate with such a wide array of people who, nevertheless, shared many of the same ideals, hopes, and concerns. By engaging with multiple chapters, I was able to see how community engagement can take different forms depending on the people/resources available, as well as how many core principles remain the same. Reaching out to people with whom I was not familiar also helped me to become more confident and outgoing within our own ECAR chapter. As a result of participation in the minor, students demonstrate that they are rethinking the role of post-secondary institutions, baccalaureate degrees, and their potential efficacy as change agents. They directly reference how these place-based academic and co-curricular experiences prepare and motivate them to apply their newly-gained skills to refugee communities’ best interests. In addition, they indirectly point to the tools they gained to dismantle social inequities they see in other arenas. Lessons Learned Applying and adapting place-based pedagogy within the context of a resettlement campus in a city that is a major resettlement hub affords opportunities to investigate some of the challenges © The Author 2023. Published by the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities. www.cumuonline.org Metropolitan Universities | DOI 10.18060/26467| March 8, 2023 53 and opportunities of curricular and teaching strategies. Generally, these courses allowed students to increase their working, experiential knowledge of the place of their higher education and one locality, among many, of refugee resettlement, e.g., Greensboro, Guilford County, and the regional ecosystem of resettlement organizations. Place-based pedagogy also helped students learn and practice their skills at thinking critically about hegemonic narratives and prompted students to grapple with their social location/positionality in the context of community engagement. The courses and pedagogy analyzed in this study also indicated that place-based pedagogy has multiple applications. Creating Strong Learning Communities As many community-engaged professionals and faculty are aware, courses that foster connections between systematically marginalized communities (e.g., refugees in the case of this research) and campus communities can generate substantial benefits for all involved. However, these connections can and often do take on more transactional interactions that primarily benefit those associated with educational institutions and then wane easily once the semester ends. Once students and faculty bring a community-engaged course to a close, there may not be any deliberate continuation of the relationship that benefits refugee communities. Alternatively, curricular engagement through ECAR greatly increases the likelihood that students will be engaged over a sustained period of time beyond the time of a given academic course, as evidenced by students engaged in the ECAR and CPPSET curricula who maintained engagements with refugee resettlement support beyond the formal courses. Course offerings that productively orient students to the systemic oppression refugees face like these can significantly enhance curricular and co-curricular student learning experiences. Work Against Fetishizing the Refugee Experience The ECAR minor is carefully designed to work against fetishization by highlighting structural racism and institutional accountability, decentering the student learning experience, and recentering the needs and lived experiences of the hosted guests as they decide for themselves. “Fetishizing” refers here to the use of a person as a means to some economic and/or political end, to treating persons as commodities/currencies, the sole value of which is to get someone what they want at another person’s expense (Marx, K. 1867). All too often, seemingly principled and ethical campus engagement with refugee communities nonetheless prioritizes the interests of faculty and students in ways that fetishize refugees, treating resettling persons as transactional resources in an academic economy. ECAR maintains an emphasis on structural racism and institutional accountability by placing academic virtues such as intellectual curiosity and novel experiences, which are undoubtedly important, at a lower priority than the ability of refugees to feasibly refuse engagement while still retaining access to support services (Matheis, 2016). That is, ECAR fosters institutional accountability by seeking to make sure refugees have access to support whether or not they choose to engage with academic and co-curricular programs at a resettlement campus, and ECAR deliberately educates students about this approach as a means of challenging structural racism. © The Author 2023. Published by the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities. www.cumuonline.org Metropolitan Universities | DOI 10.18060/26467| March 8, 2023 54 Foster a Culture of Impact Evaluation ECAR has established Best Practices, workshops/trainings, and a published impact study (Abdo & Craven 2018) that shows how campus-based support increases financial stability and sense of integration, and a greater sense of belonging for refugees. This is important because most research in this area tends to emphasize student learning with too little attention paid to community impact. Importantly, findings from a research study showed that participation in the program provided a deeper and more meaningful education for all students, with the experience for non-immigrant students being especially transformative. The study showed that student volunteers experienced greater opportunities to build working knowledge of forced migration, refugee experiences, and refugee resettlement in the U.S., as well as an initial understanding of national policies and practices impacting refugees. They stated they would be more likely to advocate for and with refugees and immigrants due to their participation (Abdo and Craven, 2018). Challenges Our approach to place-based pedagogy also revealed different challenges at both the institutional and structural levels as well as in terms of pedagogy. Concerning the institutional and structural challenges, we found the following: 1. Curriculum and Course Design Parameters Can Limit or Enhance the Efficacy of Place-Based Pedagogy. Guilford’s new academic calendar with its three-week “intensives” allowed for extended time for off-campus field trips, film screenings, and discussions, the truncated time for each course means that ongoing, longer-term projects are not easily or effectively completed. During the three-week sessions, students also tend to prioritize courses required for their major. Thus they are less likely to take a course for the minor or as an elective. 2. Institutional Commitment to Offer Housing and Auxiliary Support Services is Pivotal to Ensure Fair Partnership Among Refugees and Course Participants. To be leveraged to its fullest extent, the minor benefits from institutional support for refugee resettlement through the offer of temporary housing, campus community integration support, and access to campus facilities and amenities. Working with refugees hosted on campus allows students to experience their campus as a place for resettlement. Likewise, students can achieve similar learning outcomes by working with refugees off-campus in the community. Still, it does not allow them to see how their institutions can function as resettlement sites within the ecosystem. Pedagogical Challenges © The Author 2023. Published by the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities. www.cumuonline.org Metropolitan Universities | DOI 10.18060/26467| March 8, 2023 55 Instructors who wish to use place-based pedagogy for courses that engage directly with refugee resettlement must carefully prepare for the unique needs of different refugee families. Further, it is necessary to commit to ongoing reflection and refocusing of priorities to help ground academic courses in ways that balance the course’s learning objectives with refugees' real and immediate wants and needs. Some specific commitments in practice include: 1. Dedicate Time to Foster Relationships. Instructors will need to plan and for and dedicate additional time before, during, and after a course (i.e., time in addition to the traditional semester schedule) to foster and maintain relationships among refugees and students, community partners, and higher education institutions. Course start and end dates are insufficient guidelines for holistic, place-based pedagogy. The time required to build and maintain critical relationships must be considered early, persistently, and for the long-term. 2. Commit Substantial Time for Debriefing and Processing. Instructors need to build debriefing and processing time into class meetings and discussion forums so that students can discuss and reflect on what they are experiencing and gain greater individual and collective insight into those experiences while simultaneously reflecting on course materials. 3. De-Center the Dominant Paradigm and Norms of Overrepresented and Privileged Identities. Instructors will need to conscientiously prioritize identities and experiences that suffer systemic marginalization while also addressing the relative lack of understanding (i.e., ignorance and lack of insight) expressed by those from socially dominant identities. Put more directly: those who suffer marginalization will express pain and experiences that, without instructor interventions, will not be understood as coherent or legitimate by those from dominant identities. Likewise, those from socially dominant identities will likely express their ignorance and lack of understanding about pain and marginalization in abstract, unempathetic, and even hostile ways. Those who lack knowledge and experience cannot easily interpret the pain of marginalized people. Instructors will need to centralize and prioritize the voices of marginalized identities, attending to the ignorance expressed by those with dominant identities, yet without using the suffering of “others” to educate the ignorant and dominant. Conclusion: Implications for Further Research and Practice The survey data and documents we analyzed and presented alongside our experiences as instructors provide an initial indication of the positive impact and challenges of the ECAR course model and the place-based pedagogy used throughout the program. Further research into two specific areas of this work would help us better understand the positive, long-term impacts for students and the broader implications of partnering with refugee communities. We know from our ongoing communication with students that those who completed the ECAR minor have benefited from the international attention and visibility that the ECAR model has received. For example, three groups of students in the minor (January and June 2018 and then again in January 2019) represented ECAR and Guilford College at a United Nations Conference on Refugees at the U.N. Headquarters in New York. Additionally, one of the students presented © The Author 2023. Published by the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities. www.cumuonline.org Metropolitan Universities | DOI 10.18060/26467| March 8, 2023 56 on the ECAR minor at a U.N. panel session at the conference. Students from other campuses in the United States have also benefited from learning about place-based refugee resettlement happening at ECAR. In March 2020, 10 students from Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, spent their Alternate Spring Break at Guilford College learning about ECAR at Guilford College, it is local (on and off campus ecosystem), and worked with ECAR hosted guests and local community-based organizations supporting refugees. Hamilton students learned about what a resettlement campus looks like, how refugee resettlement in Greensboro compares to refugee resettlement in Utica, NY (another small city/refugee resettlement hub), and how to begin an ECAR Chapter on their campus. Still, a more comprehensive longitudinal study of the impact of the ECAR minor on participating students would allow for a better understanding of the strengths and limitations of our use of place-based pedagogy. It is of the utmost importance to engage with systemically vulnerable refugee populations in ways that share power, centralize their voices and experiences, and provide compensation for engagement with educational programs. A more robust and institutionally supported longitudinal study, designed and carried out in partnership with partnering refugee communities, would also give us a better understanding of the benefits and limitations of place-based pedagogy from the perspectives of refugees and additional guidance for institutions seeking to become resettlement campuses. © The Author 2023. Published by the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities. www.cumuonline.org Metropolitan Universities | DOI 10.18060/26467| March 8, 2023 57 References Abdo, D., & Craven, K. (2018). Every Campus A Refuge: A small college’s engagement with refugee resettlement. Migration and Society: Advances in Research, 1, 135-146. https://doi.org/10.3167/arms.2018.010112 Bailey, R., Nie, Y. H., K’Briuh, P., Rahlan, T., Hinton, T., & Center for Applied Linguistics (n.d.). Montagnards. https://cnnc.uncg.edu/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/montagnards.pdf Bennett, C. B. (2022). Refugee women and higher education across space, place, and time (dissertation). N.C. Digital Online Collection of Knowledge and Scholarship (NCDOCKS). University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Cantat, C., Cook, I. M., & Rajaram, P. K. (Eds.) (2022). Opening up the university: Teaching and learning with refugees (Vol. 5). Berghahn Books. https://doi.org/10.3167/9781800733114 Charmaz, K. (2006). Constructing grounded theory: A practical guide through qualitative analysis (1st ed.). SAGE. Duff-Brown, B. (2013, March 15). Stanford students visit refugee camps in Ethiopia on design project. Stanford Center for International Security and Cooperation. https://cisac.fsi.stanford.edu/news/stanford_students_visit_refugee_camps_in_ethiopia_o n_design_project_20130315 Every Campus A Refuge. (n.d.). Our global call: For every college and university to host one refugee family. http://everycampusarefuge.net Green, P. M., Stewart, C. P., Bergen, D. J., & Nayve, C. (2020). Faith and community engagement at anchor institutions: Exploring the intersection and turning toward an engagement of hope. Metropolitan Universities, 31(3), 3-21. https://doi.org/10.18060/24784 Greenwood (formerly Grunewald), D.A. (2003). The best of both worlds: A critical pedagogy of place. Educational Researcher, 32(4), 3-12. Guarasci, R. (2022). Neighborhood democracy: Building anchor partnerships between colleges and their communities. Stylus Publishing, LLC. Guilford College. (n.d.). Guilford College mission statement. https://catalog.guilford.edu/student-handbook/mission-statement/ Guilford College. (2022). Underground railroad in Guilford College woods. Hege Library & Learning Commons. https://library.guilford.edu/c.php?g=656676&p=5029507 https://doi.org/10.3167/arms.2018.010112 https://cnnc.uncg.edu/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/montagnards.pdf https://doi.org/10.3167/9781800733114 https://cisac.fsi.stanford.edu/news/stanford_students_visit_refugee_camps_in_ethiopia_on_design_project_20130315 https://cisac.fsi.stanford.edu/news/stanford_students_visit_refugee_camps_in_ethiopia_on_design_project_20130315 http://everycampusarefuge.net/ https://doi.org/10.18060/24784 https://catalog.guilford.edu/student-handbook/mission-statement/ https://library.guilford.edu/c.php?g=656676&p=5029507 © The Author 2023. Published by the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities. www.cumuonline.org Metropolitan Universities | DOI 10.18060/26467| March 8, 2023 58 Jones, S. (2016). Stealth radicalism: Teaching refugee rights as human rights. Radical Teacher, 104, 62-72. https://doi.org/10.5195/rt.2016.258 Marx, K. (1867). Capital: A critique of political economy. Volume I: The process of capitalist production. Charles H. Kerr and Company. Matheis, C. (2016). Refuge and refusal: Credibility assessment, status determination and making it feasible for refugees to say “no.” In H. Bauder & C. Matheis (Eds.), Migration policy and practice: Interventions and solutions (pp. 17-35). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137503817 Matheis, C., Abdo, D., & Sapra, S. (2022). “Resettlement and Higher Education: A Typology. Every Campus a Refuge. http://everycampusarefuge.net/higher-education-and- resettlement-a-typology// Miles, M. B., Huberman, A. M., & Saldäna, J. (2020). Qualitative data analysis: A methods sourcebook (Fourth edition.). SAGE Publications, Inc. Rueckert, P. (2017, April 20). This college student visited refugee camps in Greece. Then, she decided to take action. Global Citizen. https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/college-student-michigan-refugees-migrants- stories/ Shannon, D. & Galle, J, eds. (2017). Interdisciplinary Approaches to Pedagogy and Place-Based Education: From the Abstract to the Quotidian. Basingstoke, U.K.: Palgrave MacMillan. Yamamura, E. K., & Koth, K. (2018). Place-based community engagement in higher education: A strategy to transform universities and communities (1st ed.). Stylus Publishing, LLC. Yamamura, E. K., & Koth, K. (2019). Leadership practices for place-based community engagement initiatives. Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, 23(1), 181-196. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1212504.pdf Yin, R. K. (2018). Case study research and applications: Design and methods (6th ed.). Sage. https://doi.org/10.5195/rt.2016.258 https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137503817 http://everycampusarefuge.net/higher-education-and-resettlement-a-typology/ http://everycampusarefuge.net/higher-education-and-resettlement-a-typology/ https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/college-student-michigan-refugees-migrants-stories/ https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/college-student-michigan-refugees-migrants-stories/ https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1212504.pdf © The Author 2023. Published by the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities. www.cumuonline.org Metropolitan Universities | DOI 10.18060/26467| March 8, 2023 59 Appendices Appendix A: Types of Campus Engagement with Refugee/Immigrant Communities Type Description Type 1: Services/ Service-Learning Campus personnel send volunteers to resettlement sites to do off-campus work with refugees and/or invite refugees on campus to access limited services. Type 2: Student Integration Campus personnel provide support services for enrolled students who were resettled as refugees; campus personnel facilitate educational access for refugees who have not (yet) been resettled. Type 3: Campuses to Camps and Temporary Accommodation Sites Campus personnel send faculty, staff, and students to refugee camps and/or temporary accommodation sites to provide services and/or conduct research where refugees are located while awaiting permanent resettlement. Type 4: Resettlement Campuses Campuses provide housing and personnel, and serve as sponsor sites for initial and medium-term resettlement (e.g. ECAR). © The Author 2023. Published by the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities. www.cumuonline.org Metropolitan Universities | DOI 10.18060/26467| March 8, 2023 60 Appendix B: Minor Phases Iteration Minor Title Timeframe 1 Every Campus A Refuge (ECAR) Fall 2017 - Spring 2019 2 Forced Migration and Resettlement Studies Fall 2019 - Spring 2021 3 Forced Migration and Resettlement Studies Fall 2022 - Spring 2024 © The Author 2023. Published by the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities. www.cumuonline.org Metropolitan Universities | DOI 10.18060/26467| March 8, 2023 61 Appendix C: Required Courses Code Course Title PPS 150 or 151 Forced Migration and Resettlement Studies I PPS 250 or 251 Forced Migration and Resettlement Studies II Varies One course focused on understanding the causes for forced displacement and (im)migration (many choices from offerings across the College). Varies One course focused on the voice, agency and perspectives of (im)migrants and displaced individuals (many choices from offerings across the College). Varies One course focused on building community, advocacy, organizing (many choices from offerings across the College). © The Author 2023. Published by the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities. www.cumuonline.org Metropolitan Universities | DOI 10.18060/26467| March 8, 2023 62 Appendix D: Readings Included in ECAR Minor Author Title Publisher Date Peter Gatrell The Making of the Modern Refugee Oxford University Press 2015 Zygmunt Bauman Strangers at Our Door Polity 2016 Linda Rabben Sanctuary and Asylum: A Social and Political History Washington Press 2016 Michel Agier On the Margins of the World: The Refugee Experience Today Polity 2008 Mary Pipher The Middle of Everywhere: Helping Refugees Enter the American Community Mariner 2003 © The Author 2023. Published by the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities. www.cumuonline.org Metropolitan Universities | DOI 10.18060/26467| March 8, 2023 63 Appendix E: Assignments Included in Required Courses Assignment Type Description of Assignment Assignment Objective Weekly 750- word journal entries Analyze and examine the most salient aspects of what they have learned that week from the readings, guest lectures and Skype conversations about refugeeism and resettlement. Explore the ways this information can be used towards building an ECAR community. Conversation Partner Through NaTakallam students connect virtually with displaced individuals all over the world for language practice and conversations. The Natakallam fee was paid by CPPS. Students were required to engage in 13 conversational hours, ideally one hour a week. NaTakallam matched students with conversation partners according to their interest and the focus of the course. As NaTakallam conversation partners, displaced individuals gain access to an income, staff training and marketable skills. The platform offers language instruction and both students and their conversation partners engage in a powerful intercultural exchange, frequently developing friendships between worlds often polarized in the media and political spheres. © The Author 2023. Published by the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities. www.cumuonline.org Metropolitan Universities | DOI 10.18060/26467| March 8, 2023 64 2,000-word project paper Identify and describe one aspect of refugee advocacy or resettlement practices that needs improvement and design (and possibly begin implementing) a project that improves that aspect. The project paper should address the following: a) What have they identified as an aspect of refugee advocacy and resettlement that needs improvement and what has led them to see this as a gap. In this section they need to describe the problem and explain where and how you see it manifesting. b) Why is addressing this gap, solving this problem, important. What will addressing it achieve? How can it improve refugee and resettlement issues? Which ones? c) What is their project? Describe in detail how they will be doing it and how they will go about accomplishing it. d) How does this project contribute to creating an ECAR community, especially as it connects to the College’s core values of community, diversity, justice, stewardship and integrity? e) Who will they talk to and whose expertise will you engage and research to strengthen their project? f) Have they begun the project? What have they done so far? What do they hope to do This project should build on their disciplinary skills and contribute to the building of an ECAR community as it connects to the College’s core values most related to this course. Our readings, guest lecturers and conversations will open up possibilities for engaging and selecting a project. Indeed, some of our guest lecturers would suggest and/or invite students to participate in particular projects. © The Author 2023. Published by the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities. www.cumuonline.org Metropolitan Universities | DOI 10.18060/26467| March 8, 2023 65 next semester to implement and complete it? g) How can future students build on their project? © The Author 2023. Published by the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities. www.cumuonline.org Metropolitan Universities | DOI 10.18060/26467| March 8, 2023 66 Final Project Based on their final paper, students generate and create the project they identified as a solution to a refugee advocacy or resettlement problem. Students must present on their topic at the Guilford Undergraduate Symposium (GUS) which takes place in the last week of every spring semester. Students were also provided with guidelines to follow for their GUS presentation: A. What is it? Describe what you did and provide documentation of your project. B. What aspect of refugee advocacy and resettlement does it improve and how? C. How does this project contribute to creating an ECAR community? D. How can future students build on your project? E. Which disciplinary and interdisciplinary skills did you use to create and implement this project? F. What did you learn from creating this project? Students can create public narratives, build on best practices, generate social media, participate in research and impact studies, outreach about ECAR/public policy issues, advocate for refugee and immigrant rights, fundraise, build/organize community partnerships, organize and hold educational events, etc. The problem- solving project must be one on which future students can build and which connects to one of the College’s core values of community, diversity, justice, stewardship, and integrity. © The Author 2023. Published by the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities. www.cumuonline.org Metropolitan Universities | DOI 10.18060/26467| March 8, 2023 67 Appendix F: Student Learning Survey Questionnaire 1. What is your Class Year? (drop down or open entry) 2. What are your Majors and Minors (if applicable)? 3. How much do you think you understood about refugees and refugee resettlement before you completed a course on the subject? (likert ranked responses) 4. Describe a learning experience in or out of class you had throughout the year that impacted your view of refugee issues. 5. Describe a learning experience in or out of class you had throughout the year that impacted your view of community engagement. 6. Describe a learning experience in or out of class you had throughout the year that impacted your view of citizenship. 7. Describe a time when you applied a concept from the course or minor to your personal, professional, or school life. 8. How would you describe your nationality / citizenship status and experience with immigration, refuge, and/or asylum? (e.g. citizen, permanent resident, refugee, asylum- seeker, etc.). Please provide as much or as little descriptive detail as you would like. 9. Is there anything else you would like to share about your experiences taking courses (s) in the Forced Migration and Refugee Resettlement/ECAR minor? 10. Please add your email address here, if you’d like to receive a $10 Amazon e-gift card for completing this survey. Optional Demographics Please provide any demographic information you are willing to share. Demographic information is entirely optional. The information helps the research team better analyze and understand the experiences of people from different backgrounds. Primary Affiliation (check all that apply) University/College Undergraduate student University/College Graduate student University/College Post-Doctoral Associate Practitioner / Working Primarily in Industry University/College Staff University/College Faculty University/College Administrator Government Employee / National Laboratory Staff Prefer not to disclose Other: Age Range © The Author 2023. Published by the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities. www.cumuonline.org Metropolitan Universities | DOI 10.18060/26467| March 8, 2023 68 18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65-74 75-84 85-94 95 or older Prefer Not to Disclose Racial/Ethnic Backgrounds (check all that apply) Asian Black/African American Latina/Latino/Latinx/Hispanic Native/Indigenous/First Nations Pacific Islander Middle Eastern/Arab South Asian White/Caucasian Prefer not to disclose Other: Sexual/Affectional Orientation (check all that apply) Aromantic Asexual Bisexual Demisexual Gay Heterosexual / Straight Lesbian Pansexual Queer Questioning Prefer not to disclose Other: Gender Identity/Expression (check all that apply) Agender © The Author 2023. Published by the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities. www.cumuonline.org Metropolitan Universities | DOI 10.18060/26467| March 8, 2023 69 Cisgender Genderfluid Genderqueer Man Non-Binary Third Gender Trans Two-Spirit Woman Prefer not to disclose Other: Disabilities (check all that apply) Yes - Visible Disability Yes - Invisible Disability No Prefer not to disclose Other: Religious / Spiritual Affiliations: [open-ended] Veteran Status Veteran Not a Veteran Prefer not to disclose Sonalini Sapra,1 Christian Matheis,2 and Diya Abdo3 Abstract Place-Based Pedagogy and Every Campus of Refuge Place-Based Engagement and the Principles Problem-Solving Experience (PPSE) Minor Research Question and our Positionality as Teacher-Scholars As we reflect, one common thread in our teaching is how little our current pedagogies center (i.e., to prioritize rather than place at the center with the dangerous potential of tokenizing and objectifying) Black Peoples, Indigenous Peoples, People(s)... Findings Theme Cluster 1: Career Development, Social Justice Commitments, and Skill-Building Theme Cluster 2: Enhanced Working Understanding of Causes of Global Refugee Crises, Experiential Knowledge of the Long-Term Impacts on Individuals and Families Theme Cluster 3: Improved Social Imagination and Strategic Understanding of What Post-Secondary Educational Institutions Can Immediately Do and Become Concerning Resettlement Lessons Learned Creating Strong Learning Communities Work Against Fetishizing the Refugee Experience Foster a Culture of Impact Evaluation Challenges Pedagogical Challenges Conclusion: Implications for Further Research and Practice References Appendices Appendix A: Types of Campus Engagement with Refugee/Immigrant Communities Appendix B: Minor Phases Appendix C: Required Courses Appendix D: Readings Included in ECAR Minor Appendix E: Assignments Included in Required Courses Appendix F: Student Learning Survey Questionnaire