While much has been achieved in this country to bring about equality for many groups, for refugees it has been a struggle. This chapter explores the state of refugee education in terms of definition and impact for children and families, including coordination constraints. It provides a program-model for working with refugee students and their families within a culturally responsive partnership at Washington Elementary School District, Arizona, USA. In addition, challenges are addressed leading to constant adapting, changing, and improving the program model over time based on the needs of the refugee students and their families.
In this chapter, the authors tell the story of the GÖÇ-MAT project in Turkey, a two-year professional learning project designed to foster early childhood education teachers' development of competencies for teaching students with refugee status. The authors elucidate the different aspects of the GÖÇ-MAT project implementation and some of their findings from the research with teachers and with families having refugee status. Their goal, then, is to provide a possible roadmap for programs of professional learning in other settings around the globe. The authors hope to motivate other educators to take inspiration from the lessons learned in the GÖÇ-MAT project in Turkey to create professional learning spaces for teachers adapted to the unique contexts in which they are working. These professional learning spaces can support teachers' development of new ways to provide inclusive and equitable quality education for students with refugee or migrant statuses.
Refugee children and families’ positioning within resettlement and early childhood education policies in Aotearoa New Zealand
