Sarah Dryden-Peterson Associate Professor, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Sarah Dryden-Peterson (@drydenpeterson) is an Associate Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She leads a research program that focuses on the connections between education and community development, specifically the role that education plays in building peaceful and participatory societies. Her work is situated in conflict and post-conflict settings in sub-Saharan Africa and with African Diaspora communities. She is concerned with the interplay between local experiences of children, families, and teachers and the development and implementation of national and international policy. Her research reflects connections between practice, policy, and scholarship and is strengthened through long-term collaborations with UN agencies, NGOs, and communities. Dryden-Peterson’s long-term research on refugee education has played a critical role in shaping global policy on the importance of quality, forward-looking education in all phases of conflict. Her critical review of refugee education formed the basis of the 2012-2016 UNHCR Education Strategy. Her recent research is published in Educational Researcher, Comparative Education Review, and Curriculum Inquiry, and preliminary findings from on-going research appear in a Brookings blog series. Raised in Toronto, Canada, Dryden-Peterson taught primary school in Madagascar, South Africa, and the United States and founded education non-profits in South Africa and Uganda.

Abstract: Imagining the Future through Refugee Education: Tensions between policy and practice