Cross-Cultural Approaches to Mitigating the Immigrant Student Performance Disadvantage

Abstract

Human migration continues to be an important aspect of our global society. Nevertheless, the flow of migrants is changing and the shift in migration patterns are resulting in significant challenges for school systems around the world. Building on the previous chapters presented in this book, this final chapter provides a summary of the experiences of different education jurisdictions to address the changing landscape of immigrant children in schools. These experiences have resulted in a variety of educational policies and practices to support immigrant children and educators. The subsequent analysis of the preceding chapters identified some of the existing barriers to effective immigrant education policy as well as promising policies and practices that appear to be mitigating the commonly found immigrant student disadvantage. Along with first and second language support, these practices suggest a continued focus on social integration, acceptance of cultural diversity, and equity efforts. Collectively, these policies appear to harken back to some of the seminal work of Ogbu and his efforts to understand the achievement gaps found for sub-populations of students. As a final word, the chapter highlights the potential to enhance the educational outcomes of immigrant students and our continuing need to further our research efforts and educational initiatives to meet the needs of all of our students.