A study of university students’ attitudes towards stateless ‘Bidoon’ children’s rights in Kuwait

Abstract

This research looks into what Kuwaiti University students think about the rights of stateless kids, focusing on how much students support these rights. Even though students show strong support, the Education Ministry in Kuwait says stateless kids can only go to school if they have a special ID card. This rule leaves out stateless people who do not have this card, stopping them from getting important services, jobs, and basic rights. The study asked 1135 Kuwait University students for their opinions, aiming to challenge this rule by showing that students really care about the rights of stateless ‘Bidoon’ kids. The results say that students do not agree with the government’s decision made after 1985 that affected stateless people. They maintain that these children should be secure in general and abused. This exploration features how significant it is for policymakers and school pioneers to figure out this problem.

Keywords:

• Childhood
• without-nationality
• stateless
• Bidoon
• children’s rights
• early childhood

REVIEWING EDITOR:

• Arif H. Kabir, Senior Editor, School of Education, Deakin University School of Education, Kuwait

SUBJECTS:

• International Comparative Education
• Multicultural Education
• Childhood
• Education-social Sciences
• Cultural Studies

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Laila Saud Alkhayat

Dr. Laila Saud Alkhayat teaches basic education as a subordinate professor at Kuwait University. She graduated from the College of Alabama in Birmingham with a PhD in ECDE. Her most recent work examines the effects of technology and screen time on children’s social and spiritual development. She has researched a variety of topics, including how Kuwaiti children use YouTube and Netflix, the distinctions between public and private education, human rights education, and the effects of screen usage on autistic children. In a study of the difficulties Bidoon kids encountered during COVID-19, she applies her proficiency to comprehend their circumstances. She cooperated with the ‘Kuwait Volunteer Women’s Association’ for Community Service during the pandemic in 2020 and 2021. For the purpose of enabling stateless youngsters to learn online, they gave them computers and tablets. Due to her profound contribution to Kuwait’s schooling scene and local area work, she realizes that there may be predispositions in her examination. To tackle this, she takes a thoughtful approach. She acknowledges her position and possible biases as someone who has worked in Kuwaiti schools. By being open about this insider perspective, she aims to make her research more honest and trustworthy. Throughout her research, she stays aware and uses thoughtful methods to lessen how much her perspective might influence the study’s results and conclusions.

Nawaf Alanezi

Nawaf Alanezi earned his Ph.D. from the Department of Educational and Policy Studies at Oklahoma State University, specializing in sociology and human rights education. He is currently an associate professor in the Department of Foundations of Education at Kuwait University. His recent research interests include citizenship and human rights education as well as social and cultural foundations of education. His previous publications have examined the social construction of gender roles in Kuwait, educational policy, religious and human rights education, and educational and social experiences of cultural minority students.