Refugee Learners Research Articles

Breathing democratic air: North Korean refugees’ journey to sociocultural learning about democracy

This study investigates the acquisition of normative knowledge and values about democracy by North Korean refugees in the United States through everyday experiences and academic concepts. Drawing on Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory, which posits that knowledge is socially constructed and forms the basis of a society’s culture, an analysis is conducted on the sociocultural learning experiences of democracy among North Korean refugees. Utilizing Clarke’s situational analysis of interview transcripts, various scenes of sociocultural learning about democracy and the interpretation of these experiences by North Korean refugees compared to their past in North Korea are uncovered. A common space (e.g. ESL courses) for teaching refugees about democracy can serve as a valuable platform for non-traditional, adult refugee learners, regardless of their educational background, affordability or status. The study’s findings underscore the significance of providing refugees with opportunities for democratic education in a new cultural context, with potential implications for democratic citizenship education.

Planning for the Accelerated Education Programme for Refugee Learners in Uganda: Stakeholders Experiences

This study focused on Accelerated Education Programme (AEP) to develop planning and coordination models tailored to this kind of programme. The specific objective of the study was: To explore stakeholder’s experiences in planning for AEP to enhance transition of refugee learners to secondary education. The study sought to explore how stakeholders experience planning and how planning influences transition of refugees learners to secondary education based on grounded theory design. Data collection was done through in-depth interviews and constant comparison analysis were done. The findings indicate that planning for AEPs was based on the four major aspects: planning for programme support, the beneficiaries, stakeholder engagement and harmonizing the curriculum. However, there is a gap in how planning is done which negatively influences transition of AEP learners to secondary education. The above factors need to be taken into consideration right from the initial stages of the programme. A Community-Focused Planning Model was developed from the study- a model which upholds the significance of community focused planning with emphasis on taking into consideration the socio-ecological environment/community in which the child lives while planning for AEP. The study therefore contributes to improved planning of AEPs while taking into consideration the needs of refugee learners, the environment in which they live and collaboratively engaging communities in the design of AEP. Thus, leading to improved learning outcomes and transition of refugee children to secondary education

Reflective Case Study of a Literacy Instructor Teaching English to Refugee Adult Learners

The United States has been the global leader resettling refugees since the 1970s; its resettlement program is the largest in the world. The state of Texas has a high number of admissions and longstanding refugee programs which makes it a strategic site for research. This article reports findings of a reflective case study within an open enrollment literacy program in Central Texas. It describes the experiences of a literacy instructor teaching English to refugee adult learners for six years. The research questions guiding the study are: (1) what are the experiences of a literacy instructor teaching English to refugee adult learners? and (2) what can other English language instructors transfer from this reflective case study to their classroom settings when teaching refugee learners? To document the case study, it was important to keep a systematic account of facts and reflection. Thus, the instructor kept a reflective journal for a semester and participated in a series of conversational storytelling interviews to generate data for the study. Thematic analysis procedures guided the data analysis process and allowed for identifying five major themes to report study findings. These are: (1) traumatic stress, (2) classroom dynamics, (3) active listening, (4) flexibility for teaching and learning, and (5) curriculum challenges. Study findings provide examples and narratives that can be useful to practitioners interested in this topic. This article is an invitation to instructors of adult refugee language learners to engage in reflection and become more aware of their teaching practices.

Adult refugees' perspectives on the impact of trauma and post-migration hardships on learning.

Background: Research shows that adult refugees' well-being and future in the reception country heavily depend on successfully learning the host language. However, we know little about how adult learners from refugee backgrounds experience the impact of trauma and adversity on their learning.Objective: The current study aims to investigate the perspectives of adult refugee learners on whether and how trauma and other adversity affect their learning.Methods: We conducted in-depth interviews with 22 adult refugees (10 women) attending the Norwegian Introduction Programme (NIP). The participants came from six Middle Eastern, Central Asian, and African countries. Two questionnaires were included, one about past stressful life events (SLESQ-Revised), and one about mental health symptoms and current psychological distress following potentially traumatic experiences (PCL-5).Results: Participants held varying beliefs about trauma's impact on learning: that it had a constant impact, that it was situational, or that it had no impact. Other aspects they brought up as having an essential effect on learning and school attendance include psychological burdens from past and present school experiences, and post-migration hardships such as loneliness, depression, ongoing violence, and negative social control. Post-migration trauma and hardships exacerbated the burden of previous trauma and were frequently associated with a greater negative influence on learning.Conclusion: This study adds new insights from adult refugee learners themselves into how post-migration hardships as well as trauma can impact their learning, and the importance of recognising their struggles. A safe space is required for refugees to open up about their difficulties in life and with learning. This knowledge can be used to enhance teaching practices, foster better teacher-student relationships, and inform policy-making decisions, ultimately benefiting both individuals and society.

Refugees' gendered experiences of education in Europe since 2015: A scoping review

AbstractThis scoping review aims to explore the role of gender in refugees' educational access, experiences, and outcomes in Europe since 2015. Gender can act as a significant barrier to education, and gender stereotypes and bias can affect learning opportunities and outcomes. As a response, a scoping review was conducted to explore the role of gender in refugees' educational access, experiences, and outcomes in Europe since 2015. This review follows a systematic process of reviewing and synthesising texts compiled in the Hub for Education for Refugees in Europe (HERE) Knowledge Base to fill the gaps in knowledge about gender‐related post‐migration experiences of refugees and displaced individuals who have arrived in Europe. The review includes studies that focus on educational services for refugees in Europe and uses a meta‐ethnographic synthesis approach to data analysis and synthesis. Using a socio‐ecological framework, it was found that at the individual level, access and progression were shaped by previous educational attainment, health issues, survival tactics and future aspirations; at the micro‐level, by relationships with family, educators and peers; at the meso‐level, by public perceptions of refugee learners and home‐school interactions; and at the macro‐level, by administrative barriers, the asylum system, socio‐economic factors and the tailored opportunities and community support available. The majority of the studies referred to the experiences of women and girls.

“Equitable multilingualism” for equitable access to learning

Addressing the digital divide for refugee learners accessing higher education in displacement also involves addressing the linguistic divide, particularly as we live in a world of interlanguage inequality where academic digital resources and learning opportunities available largely require fluency in colonial languages like English, French, Spanish, etc. This paper focuses specifically on English as many connected tertiary programs available to refugees around the world are English-mediated. It is crucial that as connected higher education becomes a key strategy for access by the United Nations, INGOs, bilateral institutions, and private donors, universities involved in this work expand their use of technology to deliver programs to integrate technology-mediated language education for digital-skills, language awareness, and language development. This argument is based on an emancipatory approach that argues literacy (i.e., English literacy and digital literacy) only empowers people when it renders them active questioners of the social reality around them.

Social Emotional Learning with Refugees in East Africa

Social emotional learning (SEL) has become a popular trend in the field of Education in Emergencies (EiE). Many SEL programs targeting refugee learners aim to help individuals develop skills that are necessary for learning and development, as well as mitigate the adverse impacts of crisis and displacement. While nearly half a billion USD has been invested in SEL initiatives for refugee and crisis contexts world-wide, little evidence exists about the impacts of SEL interventions with refugee communities. As 20% of all refugees globally reside in East Africa, and it is estimated that over 152 million African children live in active conflict zones, this study set out to qualitatively examine understandings, implementation, and implications of SEL interventions across actors engaging refugee communities in the region. The results expose tensions, challenges, and complex dynamics related to culture, power, and the complicated reality of implementing refugee education initiatives in East Africa. While further research into this area of inquiry is needed and proposed, these study findings provide a stronger understanding of the refugee education landscape in East Africa and its current insufficiencies through the example of SEL, and serve to inform other topical EiE interventions and the broader uptake of SEL by education systems globally.

Second Language Refugee Learners in Egypt: Needs and Challenges

<em>The act of leaving one's country, home, friends, and family seeking a haven in another country is a traumatizing process that has a long-lasting impact on humans. Refugees always face a lot of challenges concerning the cultural, psychological, and educational aspects of the countries in which they seek refuge in. The case of refugees in Egypt is rather different from any other country. Egypt is the refuge for many neighboring Arab and African countries experiencing political and civil turmoil. Many of these refugees succeed in blending in Egyptian society, while others keep struggling. This paper aims at understanding the learning goals of refugees from different countries in learning English as a second language though English is not the first language in Egypt. The paper also aims at understanding the different needs of the refugees when learning English as a second language and the challenges they face. In addition, the paper seeks to understand whether the nationality of the teacher differs in the refugees’ perception of success in learning a second language. The paper employs both qualitative and quantitative methods in collecting data from displaced learners of English as a second language and the instructors who teach them to achieve a comprehensive view of the needs and challenges of refugees from different origins, nationalities, and circumstances. The results of the present study indicate that refugees in Egypt mostly learn English for relocation purposes which entails being keen on learning specific language skills more than others. In addition, both the views of the learners and the instructors differ regarding how effective they see the nationality of the instructor in the process of learning a second language. These results should be considered by curriculum developers, instructors, and NGOs to accommodate the refugees’ needs in learning a second language.</em>

A Will and a Way: Making Displaced Children’s Right to Education Enforceable

All children have the right to education without discrimination, but half of refugee children are out of school, far worse than global averages. Obstacles to education for refugee and migrant children include poverty and overstretched resources in host countries, and humanitarian donors and agencies have important roles and should ensure the right to education. However, policy barriers to education are key drivers of the education crisis facing displaced children. These policy barriers are internationally unlawful, but the children affected often lack standing under domestic law to demand a remedy. Countries with laws enshrining migrant, asylum-seeking, and refugee children’s rights to education and the European Union’s response to Ukrainian refugee learners provide examples that advocates can use to help raise the global floor for displaced children’s right to education. Advocates should press all countries to grant all children, including migrants and refugees, the enforceable right to education in domestic law.

The Role of Teachers in Building Resilience of Refugee Learners: A Case Study of Primary Schools in Nakivale Settlement, Isingiro District- Western Uganda

The Role of Teachers in Building Resilience of Refugee Learners: A Case Study of Primary Schools in Nakivale Settlement, Isingiro District- Western Uganda

The Role of Teachers in Building Resilience of Refugee Learners: A Case Study of Primary Schools in Nakivale Settlement, Isingiro District- Western Uganda

The Role of Teachers in Building Resilience of Refugee Learners: A Case Study of Primary Schools in Nakivale Settlement, Isingiro District- Western Uganda

Conceptualizing Education within a Thai Refugee Camp Based on a ‘for Them’ and a ‘by Them’ Paradigm

This study reveals the marginalized narratives in refugee education discourses by highlighting local perspectives on how education is formed, maintained, and conceptualized inside a refugee camp. Adopting a qualitative research approach, the data was collected during the author’s 5 months full-time stay between 2019 and 2020 inside the Mae La refugee camp, located on the Thai-Myanmar border. Focusing on the voices of various educational stakeholders from the community of Mae La, it expands the existing discourses of refugee education that have long been objectifying the refugee learners as beneficiaries, to encompass local perspectives that conceptualize the refugees as active participants. For scholars and practitioners in the field of refugee education, this study claims that education is not only provided and managed ‘for’ refugees, but ‘by’ refugees, where education plays a central role of enabling refugees to pursue nationhood and recognition, resulting various tensions and power dynamics.

Framing the education for gifted Lebanese and gifted refugees in Lebanon.

The paper provides a comprehensive conceptual model or framework for the identification and programming of gifted education in Lebanon. The model is evidence-based on the critical review of the literature on gifted education over the past two decades. The model discussed topics related to teacher conceptions, identification, preparation, and practices for the gifted in Lebanon. The development of a culturally appropriate conceptual model of gifted education is locally focused on Lebanese teachers' needs to identify and serve gifted Lebanese and gifted refugee learners. This framework provides a means for educational leaders in Lebanon to consider policy reforms that will benefit not only gifted learners but also gifted refugee learners in different educational settings.

Chatting with Your Peers across Modalities: Effects of Performing Increasingly Complex Written Computer-Mediated Tasks on Oral L2 Development

This study investigates whether peer interaction in a second language (L2) using written computer-mediated communication (CMC or text chat) may function as a bridge into oral performance. By designing and sequencing tasks according to the SSARC model of task complexity (we also examine its effects on L2 development. Finally, we explore the role of learners’ affective variables for L2 performance and development. Fifteen low–intermediate adolescent refugee learners of L2 English in the Netherlands participated in the study. Using a within-subject pre-test post-test design, we examined their language performance in both text-based CMC and face-to-face (F2F) tasks before and after a task-based classroom intervention. Results show that the intervention had a significant and strong effect on most of the linguistic measures of complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF). Similar gains in text chat and oral interaction provide evidence that a direct transfer of language experiences across modalities can occur. Together with the fact that most participants valued the use of written CMC in the classroom, our findings indicate that increasingly complex text chat tasks can be an effective way to promote the oral skills of language learners. We discuss our findings in light of how the design of written CMC tasks can afford L2 development across modalities.

Meaningful higher education in Kakuma refugee camp: A case study of why context and contextualization matter

In recent years, higher education in refugee contexts has begun to receive increasing attention within the humanitarian-development sector. Resource constraints, coupled with the technology and innovation zeitgeist in international development drives, have helped to create a higher education space where courses in refugee camps are typically delivered via online learning platforms directly from Western education providers. As the space develops, a shift in attention is beginning to occur, such that the legitimacy of online learning for refugees is now being questioned. At the heart of this question are the issue of contextualization and a call for greater emphasis to be placed on blended learning approaches that better reflect the realities of refugee learners. In this case study, the authors compare and evaluate a contextualized medical studies course that was delivered via blended learning in the Kakuma refugee camp in 2019 with a non-contextualized version of the same course that was delivered in the Dadaab refugee camp in 2018. The study explores the contextualization process and finds that the contextualized course achieved better learning outcomes than did the non-contextualized version of the course.

Issues in Education for Syrian Elementary Refugee Learners in Turkey: A Systematic Review

The provision of education for Syrian refugees is a major issue of concern for both the Turkish government and the population due to the immense number of refugees, the availability of resources and the complexity of the former’s educational needs. This review aims to synthesize the empirical quantitative and qualitative research, reports and literature related to the appropriateness of current educational practices catering for the educational needs of Syrian refugee children in Turkey, as well as the challenges facing these efforts. Related literature, previous studies and reports were systematically reviewed based on which a reflective analytical account of the actual educational practices and challenges were presented. Pertinent political, social & cultural aspects were further highlighted. By doing so, the researchers aim to determine which of the challenges are hindering the provision of education for refugee children based on the findings of related research. The results of the review indicated that most of the conducted research and reports have concluded that most of the educational practices dedicated to Syrian refugee children were far from being well constructed. The education provided was found to be remedial, spontaneous, reactional and of a tinkering nature. Therefore, a research gap was identified. It consists of the need to investigate other educational remedies to assist in tackling these challenges and to provide a more reliable and comprehensive education for emergencies to aid refugees in fighting back all forms of abuse and exploitation, as well as to facilitate the process of integration in host communities or repatriation to their motherland.

Supporting Adult Syrian Learners With Refugee Experience in Canada: Research-Based Insights for Practitioners

From November 2015 to October 2020, Canada had welcomed 44,620 Syrian refugees to more than 350 communities across the country. In 2019, it further surpassed the United States and Australia in the number of refugees settled. Lacking the necessary language skills for living and working in a new country is one of the most critical barriers refugees face. This paper aims to inform language-teaching professionals about pertinent linguistic and nonlinguistic issues as well as pedagogical implications associated with supporting adult Syrian refugee learners, drawing both on the literature more broadly and on the author’s research in the Canadian context.

Application of ‘Ġabra’ online dictionary for international adults learning Maltese

With the advancement of educational technologies, computer-assisted language learning (CALL) tools, like online dictionaries, are essential for acquiring a second language, especially new vocabulary. There has been no empirical focus on the usage of Ġabra online dictionary in learning Maltese, with a specific focus on international adults learning Maltese as a second language (ML2) and a lack of research in the pedagogy of e-dictionaries. This study aims to contribute to this research gap by exploring teachers’ perspectives and pedagogy of Ġabra for adults learning ML2, which could refer to any other second language. Unstructured interviews were conducted to obtain qualitative data from eleven teachers of ML2 adult learners including refugee learners. According to the study’s findings, Ġabra helps students learn new words, it is simple to use, it is a great resource and reference for ML2 learning, and it is convenient. The research also offers various pedagogical activities that illustrate how Ġabra is implemented in class. Another significant characteristic of Ġabra identified in this study is that students do not need to know the basic verb/noun/adjective to seek for a word, as they would in a traditional dictionary. Ġabra’s shortcomings were its incompleteness, no pronunciation feature, lack of sentence examples and its dependency on internet access. Although Ġabra’s benefits exceeded its disadvantages, it was recommended that Ġabra should continue to be corrected and to use artificial intelligence applications.

Supporting and Advocating for Immigrant and Refugee Students and Families in America’s Urban Schools: Educators’ Agency and Practices in Everyday Instruction

Persistent educational inequity for immigrant and refugee students and their families calls for instructional practices centering on access, quality, and social justice. Drawing on two qualitative case studies, this article examines how three U.S. urban school teachers attended to the systemic inequalities and unique challenges confronting immigrant and refugee students both inside their classrooms and outside the school. Our analyses show that the teachers strategically enacted various critical instructional practices, including linguistically responsive pedagogy, translanguaging, and sociopolitically responsive pedagogy. The teachers’ agentic practices have important implications for teacher education and professional development for immigrant and refugee learners in urban settings.

Language Learning Attitudes of Young Learners: Differences between Syrian Refugee Learners and Turkish Learners

Welcoming more than 1.7 million refugee and asylum-seeker children, Turkey has put a considerable effort in turning this tragedy into an advantage for these children in terms of their education. Language teaching has played a remarkable role in this effort. Turkey has offered both Turkish and English language courses to these people. Considering the significance of English as a global language for social integration and future studies, this study attempted to investigate young Syrian refugee students’ attitudes toward English language and their reasons to learn English. Moreover, their perspectives were compared with Turkish young learners. Thirty-eight Turkish and 26 Syrian 5th graders (aged 10–11) voluntarily participated in this study. The findings indicated that learning English makes Syrian students happy, whereas Turkish students enjoy the fun activities in English classes. Learning English is considered both relatively easy and important by both groups. Turkish and Syrian young learners’ reasons to learn English differed slightly. Suggestions were provided for refugee young learners to overcome the potential problems regarding language learning.