Introduction

It has taken over 60 years of global goal setting for teachers to gain prominence, albeit weakly, in the global education agenda (Sayed and Ahmed, 2015). Yet there are many teachers, particularly refugee teachers and those teaching refugee learners, who linger on in the margin of policy discourse. This chapter focuses on such teachers adding to the limited knowledge about teachers and teaching in contexts affected by crisis and conflict (Mendenhall et al, 2015; Richardson et al, 2018; Falk et al, 2019).

Particular attention is paid to how teachers work and how teaching occurs in such specific material, institutional, and sociocultural contexts and how teachers understand their positioning and the support they can access to provide equitable and quality teaching and learning. In this chapter, we frame the work and positioning of teachers in conflict and fragile contexts through the lens of inclusion. This chapter therefore pays particular attention to teacher inclusion as access to tailored professional development support and an increased sense of belonging in the refugee-receiving country, fostered in an equitable and respectful space where each individual's voice is heard and needs are accommodated (Sayed and Soudien, 2010) in the contexts of Ethiopia and Somalia where the study of teaching and learning was conducted.

Ethiopia, with a long-standing history of receiving refugees, is currently one of the largest refugee-receiving countries in the world (UNHCR, 2020). At the start of 2020, Ethiopia received approximately 735,204 refugees (UNHCR, 2020). Of these, approximately 329,123 persons are from South Sudan, forming the largest refugee population (UNHCR, 2020), the majority of whom are hosted in the two regions of eastern Ethiopia, Gambella and Benishangul-Gumuz. In the Gambella region alone, there are currently seven refugee camps receiving approximately 373,294 refugees, accounting for 42.7 per cent of the total refugee population in the country according to the last census conducted in 2011 (see Sayed et al, 2023b). It is this region which is the focus of this chapter.

Somalia has grappled with civil conflict since the early 1990s, marked by the collapse of the central government and ongoing violence, poverty, and severe drought (UNESCO, 2022). Three decades of conflict, insecurity, and drought continues to exacerbate the refugee numbers in Somalia. The recent conflict against Al Shabaab by the government and regional authorities have increased people fleeing from active conflict with more than 1.4 million people being internally displaced (UNHCR, 2023).