Global displacement and local contexts: a case study of U.S. urban educational policy and practice

Abstract

ABSTRACT A growing corpus of interdisciplinary scholarship focuses on migration, particularly the increasing intensity of forced migration, or displacement, and the sociocultural, political, and symbolic dimensions of global resettlement. Yet, there are limited empirical studies on how U.S. educators in urban contexts address these processes, including but not limited to displacement-based trauma and associated student needs. While educational scholarship has examined structural issues affecting increased educator burnout, a research paucity also exists regarding how educators experience relevant stress related to these dynamics. This article presents findings from a multi-method qualitative case study that examined how high school educators leveraged available educational policy and practice supports to address refugee and hurricane displaced student needs. Our research underscores multi-level system complexity that influences school-related resettlement processes, and specifically as relevant to supporting student mental health and mitigating educator stress. Utilizing a critical and social ecological theoretical approach, our findings offer a framework for anti-deficit, cultural and linguistically responsive, and trauma-informed student practices, who in rebuilding a new home in the U.S., can experience continued and new forms of marginalization. Implications for educational research and leadership practice are discussed.