The symposium addresses the global challenges of migration and the role of organizations as actors of organizing equality, social justice, and inclusion. How do organizations deal with (in)equality, social (in)justice, social exclusion, and inclusion? In this ECER network 32 symposium, we will focus on answering this critical question, how can equality, social justice, and inclusion for refugees be supported by organizational education research, organizational intervention, organizational innovation strategies and organizational change?

Refugees are usually facing major social exclusion as well as global inequity in the fields of public representation and acceptance, participation and acceptance (Abedi Farizani, 2021). As well in the specific fields of education, the health care crisis due to the Covid-19 pandemic contributed to even make challenges bigger (Bhaskar et al., 2020), as inequalities in the world post-Covid-19 are massively increasing (Mangrio et al., 2020). Organizational education theories address organizational learning, organizational change and social innovations (Göhlich et al., 2014; Weber, 2015). How can organizations act as relevant societal actors to transform societies towards social inclusion (Wieners and Weber, 2020)?

To overcome the global challenges of migration, the role of organizations becomes crucial for limiting and transforming social exclusion and global inequity for refugees. In this symposium, we discuss theoretical perspectives, empirical results, and conceptual insights of research on social injustice and social exclusion and alternative openings for societal transformation. How can organizational education perspectives themselves support social equality and inclusion in the field of (forced) migration? From an organizational education perspective, we discuss organizational mechanisms and practices of social (in)justice and social exclusion – and the potentials for and practices of social inclusion.

The first presentation relies on the concept of nationalism. It focuses on hostility towards immigrants and refugees. It addresses countering the nationalistic hostility of refugees in educational spaces where young people have their own space and time to think critically about issues of global power and justice. The paper discusses the kind of education which may prepare children for welcoming of otherness.

The second abstract addresses the concept of forced migration in the time of the Covid-19 pandemic with the focus on organizational learning and empowerment of subalterns. The contribution uses concepts of organizational learning in confined educational spaces. It discusses organizational intervention to initiate learning processes that lead to empowerment and self-determination of refugees.

The third paper is based discusses the empirical data from 27 male and female immigrant and refugee students’ interviews in upper secondary schools in Iceland. The paper examines the role of educational institutions on the academic and social success of upper secondary students in Iceland. The main goal of the project was to identify factors that support the academic and social success of immigrants and refugee students in upper secondary schools. The project also focuses on students’ experiences as well as sharing their experiences and applying them in different learning spaces.

The fourth contribution employs Foucauldian discourse perspective reflecting on organizational intervention and organizational innovation strategies. It focuses on the fluid spaces of self-organizing using their potential to organize self-help and professionalize in a train the trainer approach.  Strategies of self-organization and empowerment professionalization of refugees can support labor market integration and social inclusion in new home societies.

Abedi Farizani, S. (2021). Towards Diversity and Intercultural Opening? Shifting the epistemic Boundaries of the Institutionalized Gaze. In Organisation über Grenzen (pp. 247-260). Springer VS, Wiesbaden. Bhaskar, S., Rastogi, A., Menon, K. V., Kunheri, B., Balakrishnan, S., & Howick, J. (2020). Call for action to address equity and justice divide during COVID-19. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 11, 1411. Göhlich, M., Weber, S. M., Schröer, A., & Schwarz, J. (2014). Organisation und das Neue: Beiträge der Kommission Organisationspädagogik. Mangrio, E., Paul-Satyaseela, M., & Strange, M. (2020). Refugees in Sweden during the Covid-19 pandemic-the need for a new perspective on health and integration. Frontiers in Public Health, 8. Wieners, S., & Weber, S. M. (2020). Athena’s claim in an academic regime of performativity: Discursive organizing of excellence and gender at the intersection of heterotopia and heteronomia. Management Learning, 51(4), 511-530. Weber, S. M. (2015). Aesthetic imagination, organizational transformation and organization research. Knowledge Cultures, 3(03), 159–174.