Educational experiences and achievements of war-zone immigrant students in Canada

Abstract

This study examined the educational experiences and achievements of immigrant students who entered the Canadian educational system from global war-zone (WZ) countries or regions experiencing extreme conditions of civil unrest and destabilization. As exposure to traumatic experience of various types is known to affect the well‐being of individuals, questions about the potential learning challenges that exposure to the traumatic events of war posed to students provided some of the impetus for this study. The research compared backgrounds, academic achievements, school experiences and self-perceptions among three groups of high school students: 245 students from WZ regions around the world, 272 non-war-zone immigrant students from other global regions and 276 Canadian-born (CB) students. Indices of academic performance, participation, engagement and self-rated competencies were obtained from a Statistics Canada database of 15-year-olds. The overall results of this study revealed that adolescent immigrant students from WZ areas around the world were participating successfully in the Canadian educational system. The findings indicated that WZ students were performing as well as other immigrant and CB students on many indices of scholastic achievement, and in some areas were surpassing them. As well, the results revealed that immigrant students in general and WZ immigrant students in particular were connected to and engaged with their school environment and their learning. A number of limitations of the study are discussed.