Situated social learning and the wellbeing of mothers seeking sanctuary in Wales

This paper examines the role learning plays for mothers seeking sanctuary in Wales. It explores how mothers seeking sanctuaryFootnote1 in Wales engage in formal and informal learning practices to support identity reconstruction, psychosocial wellbeing, and community participation. Drawing on feminist, trauma-aware, and participatory epistemologies and methodologies, the study explores learning as a relational and multimodal process, embedded in diverse contexts including caregiving, education, and social support networks. Data were generated through interviews and creative elicitation (drawings and photographs) with 27 mothers across five Welsh regions, analysed using thematic and narrative methods informed by a social theory of learning within a broader intersectional conceptual framework. The findings illuminate how mothers navigate and experience both formal educational pathways and informal community-based learning environments, demonstrating how learning functions as an ongoing process of survival, adaptation, and social contribution. The study advocates for lifelong education frameworks that embrace integrated trauma-aware, culturally sustaining, and representationally just approaches, supporting women seeking sanctuary to participate across multiple educational sites.