Transitions, Learning, and Material Culture
Ukrainian War Refugees and the Objects They Carried
Chad Hoggan author Tetyana Hoggan-Kloubert author
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd
Publishing:26th Aug '26
£171.99
This title is due to be published on 26th August, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
This book examines how Ukrainian refugees experience learning, transition, and transformation as they adapt to life after displacement. Drawing on interviews and photographic data, it follows the journeys of 21 women forced to flee their homes after the 2022 Russian invasion.
The text explores the practical and emotional challenges that refugees face: navigating language barriers, processing trauma, finding new ways to work and care for family, and integrating into unfamiliar cultures. These narratives are elicited from personal objects the women brought with them as they fled—physical items that serve as tools for memory, reflection, and learning. By focusing on material culture, the book shows how the objects that surround us are tied to our social and cultural identities. They are more than just possessions; they act as symbolic connections to home, security, loss, and the ongoing process of change.
This collection will be highly valuable for researchers in Adult and Continuing Education, Transformative Learning, Migration Studies, Trauma-Informed Education, and Comparative Education, as well as professionals and policymakers working with refugees.
"If you had only minutes to leave your life behind, what would you take? Through the stories of twenty-one Ukrainian women who faced that question in 2022, this book shows how ordinary objects become vessels of memory and hope. It offers a compelling account of how learning unfolds in conditions of rupture. Reframing familiar portrayals of refugees, not as victims, but as agents of change and resilience in civic life, it affirms the power of narrative in rendering experience visible and affirming human dignity."
Edward W. Taylor, Professor Emeritus Lifelong Learning and Adult Education, Penn State University
"Heart-wrenching experiences of women who fled the horrors of war—and the cherished belongings they lost, remembered, or managed to save—form the focus of this book. Chad Hoggan and Tetyana Hoggan-Kloubert give voice to the stories of refugees, interpret their learning processes with great sensitivity, and bring together three theories that have rarely been considered in combination. They combine profound insights with clear and accessible language. In a world marked by war and its victims, the significance of this book extends far beyond the flight from Ukraine to Germany."
Dr. Arnd-Michael Nohl, Professor of Education and Systematic Pedagogy, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Helmut Schmidt University, Germany
ISBN: 9781032990446
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
260 pages