Who We Are
The Refugee Educational Advancement Laboratory (REAL) has two primary goals:
- To facilitate the involvement of GW students as scholar-practitioners to learn about, research, publish, and become empowered to enact actionable change for the betterment of the lives of and opportunities for refugees and at-risk migrants anywhere in the world.
- To bring attention to a broad range of issues through joint research and advocacy projects that can affect positive change for refugee and at-risk migrant communities in the Washington, DC-Maryland-Virginia (DMV) area, throughout the U.S., and abroad.
While some of our focus has so far been on the most pressing ‘hot spots’ on the globe, such as displacement in and from Syria and Venezuela, we also seek to understand issues affecting refugee and migrant communities in Europe; in North, Central and South America; in parts of Asia and Oceania; and throughout Africa.
The REAL team is composed of a faculty advisor from the George Washington University (GW) Graduate School of Education and Human Development (GSEHD) and students from GSEHD, the Elliott School of International Affairs (ESIA), and the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences. We focus our research on education at all levels, from primary education, through secondary and higher education, to life-long learning. Through our short- and long-term research projects, our ongoing review of current scholarship and new studies, and the analysis of data we collect or synthesize by others, we seek to serve as change agents and a touchpoint for stakeholders, research and advocacy organizations, policymakers, and other interested parties.