CC BY-NC 4.0 Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 InternationalSagan, OliviaPalombo, Gianluca2024-09-132024-09-132024-09-03Sagan, O. and Palombo, G. (2024) ‘Rupture, loneliness and education: Experiences of refugee and asylum-seeking people’, Equity in Education & Society, p. 27526461241280088. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/27526461241280088.https://eresearch.qmu.ac.uk/handle/20.500.12289/13855https://doi.org/10.1177/27526461241280088From Crossref journal articles via Jisc Publications RouterHistory: epub 2024-09-03, issued 2024-09-03Publication status: PublishedOlivia Sagan - ORCID: 0000-0001-6128-8499 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6128-8499Gianluca Palombo - ORCID: 0009-0009-5812-937X https://orcid.org/0009-0009-5812-937XThis paper explores the intrinsic links between rupture, loneliness, resilience and agency within the experiences of refugee and asylum-seeking people, drawing on a wider study conducted in Scotland during the COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020 and 2021. The paper then posits education, in its diverse forms, as a potential anchor, providing a sense of structure, belonging and purpose, thus serving as a bulwark against the negative impacts of rupture and loneliness. The findings presented here are based on 51 semi-structured interviews with people at different stages of the asylum process or with refugee status, offering insights into how educational experiences, both formal and informal, can act as a crucial support system during times of uncertainty and crisis. This exploration contributes to a deeper understanding of the challenges faced by refugee and asylum-seeking people, and the potential of education to foster resilience and integration within host communities.© The Author(s) 2024. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/article2024-09-13