Schulunterricht mit Flüchtlingen– eine Herausforderung für Lehrerinnen und Lehrer

Abstract

Teaching young refugees at schools - A challenge for teachers. Specifics and characteristics of refugee education, required skills and possible education opportunities for teachers The number of (un)accompanied refugee minors in Germany has reached an unrivaled level as has the number of them in the German education and school system. Neither the current state of research nor the education of teachers meet this constantly growing target audience. The present study attempts to characterize the process of teaching young refugees as pupils in German schools and to discover the skills which teachers are required to have for the purpose of teaching refugee minors in the German education system. The intention of the study is to reduce the academic void in the research field of educational science and to set the scientifical foundation for future education opportunities for teachers who work with young refugees in Germany. To answer the research questions 16 guided interviews have been conducted with 8 teachers of minor refugees and 8 experts who are associated with the research topic. The analysis of the interviews was implemented by the use of qualitative content analysis. The results of the analysis are five specific characteristics of school teaching for refugee minors in Germany: (1) highly motivated students, (2) conflicts in the classroom, which are often a result of the precarious circumstances of the students’ backgrounds, (3) impacts of the students‘ experiences and their current situation (traumatization, asylum procedure, housing situation, etc.), (4) the students’ language skills and the focus on acquisition of German as a erudite language as well as (5) strong heterogeneity in the classroom concerning various aspects. The explored teacher skills like frustration tolerance, flexibility, conflict management, handling of heterogeneity and intercultural competence already exist in general models concerning teachers’ skills or recommondations for required teachers’ skills and knowledge. There is one field of competence which can be described as exclusively important for teachers who educate refugee minors: the knowledge of and the consideration for the current situation and the former experiences of the young refugees. This field of competence can be split up into three category groups: (1) escape, traumatization and possible results of experiences, (2) migration experience and process as well as integration in Germany together with (3) living conditions and circumstances in Germany as a young refugee (housing situation, asylum procedure, legal situation, youth welfare services, right of education). The results indicate that the skills teachers should be required to have for educating students – no matter if they are natives, migrants or refugees – are not considered in the academic training for teachers. Especially the lack of practical relevance and orientation has become evident. Furthermore it became clear that the fields of competences which are exlusively confined to the target group of young refugees are not very wide. Against this background of the idea of inclusion those previously mentioned competences should be integrated into regular teacher education in order to root inclusion in the German school system. For following studies it is suggested to also include the perspectives of the students themselves by interviews and scientific participant observations of school teaching for refugee minors. Furthermore long-term studies could contribute to minimalize the blind spot in educational science concerning young refugees in the German educational and school system.