Family-professional partnerships between resettled refugee families and their children’s teachers: exploring multiple perspectives

Abstract

ABSTRACT Family-professional partnerships are linked to student success, yet little research has explored the nuances of such partnerships with refugee families new to the U.S. school system. To explore this phenomenon, we conducted an embedded case study through which we qualitatively examined the family-professional partnerships between 10 newly resettled refugee families of adolescents and their children’s teachers in the U.S. We found a lack of meaningful relationships among the participating families and teachers and identified many factors that affected family-professional partnerships with refugee families, including (a) assumptions teachers and families held about each other, (b) communication challenges, and (c) different perceptions of student achievement and progress. Using the equity literacy framework, we convert our findings to implications for practice, including school systems’ prioritization of family partnership with refugee families, and implications for research, including the replication of this study with more families across a longer timeframe and researching promising techniques to build stronger relationships.