Refugee-background students in New Zealand and the United States: Roots and results of educational policies and practices

Both the United States (US) and New Zealand (NZ) have been resettling refugees since the Second World War. As such, and because of several international treaties signed by both countries, they must concern themselves with the education of resettled refugee students in their nations. In this study, the researchers examine the international agreements and national resettlement policies that shape these nations’ refugee education policies. Second, educational practices for refugee students in the US and NZ using phenomenological qualitative research based on observations, interviews, and focus groups with teachers and refugee students are examined. The researchers conclude that the more systematic methods of resettlement and educational tools available to teachers in NZ through consistent national policies provide better opportunities for success than policies and practices that vary widely from state to state and even within states in the US.

Educators’ Perceptions on Refugee Students’ Identity Challenges Following Higher Education Through Virtual Learning

Refugees experience specific challenges when transitioning into higher education influenced by socio-cultural issues (Kong et al., 2016). Moreover, online learning may impact identity formation leading to duelling identities (Brunton et al., 2019). As virtual learning prevails in higher education due to the globalisation of new technologies, academic needs and competition with international institutions (Olaniran & Agnello, 2008), marginalisation of socially excluded groups such as refugees may surface (Crea & Sparnon, 2017).The purpose of this study is to explore educators perspectives of challenges and opportunities refugee students’ face when following higher education via a virtual space that impedes these specific students identity and sense of belonging. This paper provides the concept based on Erickson’s psychosocial development theory to extend this area of investigation by assessing the impact of learning via online spaces on identity.Five educators working within higher education were interviewed using a qualitative phenomenological methodology to generate an in-depth, unique perspective on the challenges and opportunities observed by teaching refugee students’ and focusing on identity formation. The data generated were transcribed verbatim and analysed using a computer-assisted data analysis software (CAQDAS), NVivo 12 Plus, to classify group-specific codebooks emerging from the data collection.The finding suggests that refugee students’ studying via a virtual space face specific challenges linked to their lived reality; however, pedagogy and educators need to be more culturally responsive to support students from diverse backgrounds and aid in the identity transition. Moreover, opportunities gained through online learning allow a sense of belonging to a global education and skills fostered will prove fruitful academically and beyond. This study concludes with implications for professional practice within the higher academic setting.

Special Needs Assessment in Bilingual School-Age Children in Germany

Educational and (psycho-)linguistic research on L1 and L2 acquisition in bilingual children sketches them as a group of language learners varying in many aspects. However, most studies to date have based evaluations of language proficiency or new assessment tools on data from heritage children, while studies on the appropriateness of assessment tools for school-age refugee children remain a notable exception. This study focuses on the standardized assessment tool BUEGA for primary school children, which is, among others, a widespread tool for the assessment of pedagogical support or special needs (SN) in Germany. We compare the performance of 12 typically developing monolinguals (Mo-TD: 7;3–12;1), 14 heritage-bilinguals (BiTD: 7;1–13;4, L1 Turkish and Arabic), 12 refugee- students (BiTD: 8;7–13;1, L1 Arabic), and 7 children with developmental language disorders (DLD: 7;7–13;9) on the subtests of grammar, word-reading, and spelling. Overall results show that refugee-BiTDs perform in the (monolingual) pathology range. No significant differences emerged between students with DLD and typically developing (TD) refugee students. Considering the assessment of school-related language performance, bilingual refugees are at risk of misdiagnosis, along with the well-known effects of educational disadvantage. This particularly applies to children with low socioeconomic status (SES). Looking beyond oral language competencies and using test combinations can help exclude language disorders in school-age children with limited L2 proficiency.

The (In)Efficient Curriculum: An Overview of How Canadian Education Has Historically Failed to Welcome Black Refugee Students

For at least a century, educators have sought to define what education should look like, its purposes, content and approach, and how it could be delivered in the most efficient way. However, when looking at some of the most pre-eminent approaches in the history of curriculum studies, it is possible to observe how each of those “efficient” methods have not been able to welcome the uniqueness of Black refugee students. Despite claims of “diversity celebration”, when educators do not challenge and resist White structures and assumptions, even the most “efficient” curriculum falls short of being responsive to the Other, serving, rather, as another disguise to racism, which has long structured Canadian education. I argue that rather than an efficient ready-made set of rules, education must be conceptualized as an act of unconditional openness to the unknown Other, however uncomfortable and “inefficient” that may sound.

Ethnic diversity fosters the social integration of refugee students

Refugee migration has become a global megatrend, and many asylum seekers are school-aged. As social integration is a key to their well-being and success, it is pivotal to determine factors that promote the social integration of refugee youth within schools. Using a large, nationally representative social network dataset of 39,154 students in 1,807 classrooms across Germany, we examine the social relationships of refugee adolescents with their peers. We find that, overall, refugee adolescents are less accepted by their classmates than their peers from other minority groups and the German majority. Crucially, however, ethnic diversity is a success factor in refugee students’ social integration: they have more friends and are less often rejected as desk mates in more diverse classrooms. Descriptive and multivariate methods for social network analysis reveal that this effect results from two basic processes: 1) more opportunities to meet other ethnic minority peers, who are more accepting of refugees in general, and 2) a significantly higher acceptance of refugee adolescents by ethnic majority peers in more diverse settings. This work provides a scientific basis for organizing future allocations of young refugees to classrooms in ways that promote their social adjustment and mitigate the negative consequences of prejudice and intergroup bias.