By Rosemary (Rowe) Morrow
Refugees arrive in our classes with enormous educational and cultural differences. Whereas formal classes tend to have all students at the same standard and entry for study, refugees come in at all levels, and with diverse life experience.
In 2025, I taught with a P4R-PTT team in Lesvos to Palestinian refugees among other nationalities. It was the first time I had had Palestinians in a class. I realised they were responding differently to learning from other refugees I had taught. They did not necessarily have different responses to the content. Nor did they know more. They were more inclined to ask questions about content and to ensure they were getting it right.
During a break I sat with a student and said “Tell me about the Palestinian Education System”? The Palestine education system is English based with the standards and topics taught in the UK. Palestinians sit for the same or equivalent examinations as the Cambridge Overseas exams from the UK. This explained their interest in understanding the details. They already had a grasp of the general content.
When we asked students to reflect on their life paths so far, some Palestinian learners highlighted their educational achievements, such as Masters degrees, overseas study, and diplomas, as important milestones. Other students talked about life events marking their paths such as death of family members and so on. This too gave me insight into their responses to content.
The implications for teachers lie in recognising the learners’ prior educational and life experiences. Students familiar with structured education systems bring strong skills in following classroom processes, engaging with conceptual material, and navigating formal assessments. Others may have had their learning shaped primarily through practical, experiential, or community-based knowledge. Those learners with limited formal schooling or no exposure to certain subjects may need additional support to access concepts and develop foundational skills
For example, some Syrian learners were literate but had less exposure to science concepts, while other students had limited experience with art, map-reading, or book-based study. East Timorese learners, for instance, had little experience with indexes or content pages in books. These differences are not deficits, they reflect different educational histories and lived experiences.
Understanding these background differences is key to finding the best mix of approaches for teaching refugees. PTT teachers can go beyond the curriculum to deeper and wider concepts for peace aThere are those whose formal education is lacking because of culture or circumstance
- with little science or world knowledge
- strong local environmental knowledge but reduced book knowledge
- largely unschooled, not knowing where their countries are situated in the world
- their strengths are in ‘lived’ knowledge and often in-depth, such as useful species from forests or building skills with local materials
See their worlds through environmental lenses and often through their senses.nd co-operation for all learners. All backgrounds respond to the PDC and to the PTT but it is in the transmission of concepts and practices that teachers need to be skilled. No nation or ethnic group results in ‘better’ teachers because of their educational background.
Permaculture teachers need to note
There are participants who arrive from
- strong school and college formal backgrounds
- carry strong respect for academic knowledge and learning and see it as the key to their future
- strong formation in the sciences and the arts
- see their world through an ‘educational’ lens
Building on prior knowledge is key to reaching students
The key strategy in all courses, whether teaching teachers or students new to permaculture, is to ensure that each skill and technique is learned before moving on to the next. So, for example, students learn to do a sector analysis, then a water audit and soils, and so on until they are competent to draw a site plan. PTT teachers practice non-violent body behaviour, then language and finally language that works, in class until there is competence.
The content of the Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) course and the Permaculture Teacher Training (PTT) (taught through ethics and principles and strategies) is universally appropriate, but teaching techniques need to be tailored to participants.
Initially, teachers need to assess the levels and proper knowledge of particpants by identifying educational cultural and historical values, experience and attitudes they bring. Everyone is capable of learning permaculture when taught appropriately.
I cannot stress enough how important it is for teachers to modify their teaching methods to make the knowledge accessible without changing the content.
Rowe Morrow, January 2026