Displacement due to war, persecution, oppression, and economic reasons are on the rise in today’s world. Globally, as of 2023, there are an estimated 117.2 million people forcibly displaced from their homeland, including 29.3 million refugees and 5.6 million asylum-seekers (UNHCR, 2023). Children make up more than 40% of the refugee population (UNICEF, 2022). In Scotland, in 2022, there were 1,860 asylum seeker pupils and 3.502 refugee pupils (together made up 0.6% of all pupils) in government-funded Scottish schools (Scottish Government, 2022). Today, there is an increasing diversity of pupils in Scottish schools that changes and redefines the role of schooling and of educational stakeholders. As widely accepted schools play a crucial role in the resettlement of refugee pupils and teachers play an important role in resettlement of refugee pupils (Fazel, 2015; Hamilton, 2004; Hek, 2005a; McIntyre & Hall, 2018; Pastoor, 2015; Peterson et al., 2017a, 2017b; Rutter, 1994; Skovdal & Campbell, 2015). While literature has provided knowledge on the experiences of refugee learners and their stakeholders in the UK and Scotland, these studies were mainly conducted at the secondary or upper school level. Experiences of disabled refugee children at primary school level did not receive enough attention. Furthermore, the literature significantly lacked the studies focusing on the experiences of disabled refugee children (DRC) and their educational stakeholders. Therefore, the lack of research focusing on the intersections of disability and refugee status in primary classrooms in Scotland was one of the factors that drove this study. The current study listened to the views and experiences of educational stakeholders who were directly working with DRC and academics who were working in the fields of refugee education and additional support needs in order to understand the perspectives of the educational stakeholders towards DRC and the stakeholders’ perspectives to themselves as well as to understand the educational stakeholders’ experiences in their line of work. Therefore, this PhD thesis has explored how educational stakeholders conceptualise and perceive DRC; the experiences of educational stakeholders and DRC, and the challenges and opportunities in the Scottish mainstream primary classrooms through the perspectives of educational stakeholders. A qualitative methodological approach based on interviews was adopted for the current study. In addition, an analysis of the relevant documents was used to support the data provided by the interviews. 15 semi-structured online interviews were conducted with educational stakeholders who worked directly with DRC, such as teachers, support teachers, bilingual support assistants (BSA), visual impairment teachers (VI), teachers of the deaf, and English as an Additional Language (EAL) teacher. Furthermore, semi-structured online interviews were conducted with academics who indirectly worked and had working experiences with DRC. Additionally, a range of documents such as legislations, policies and strategies that may have an impact on the functioning of schools and experiences of DRC and their educational stakeholders were examined to support the data received from the interviews. The findings chapters explore (i) educational stakeholders’ perspectives and conceptualisations of DRC and their training to work with DRC; (ii) experiences of DRC in mainstream classrooms through their educational stakeholders’ observations; (iii) experiences of educational stakeholders in mainstream classrooms while working with DRC. The findings draw attention to the challenges that educational stakeholders and DRC faced in mainstream primary classrooms in working towards achieving social justice. This thesis highlighted the educational stakeholders’ conceptualisations of DRC and drew attention to the implications of these conceptualisations on the recognition of DRC. Drawing on the insights of the participants, this thesis highlighted various challenges that DRC faced in mainstream classrooms due to the lack of recognition, representation and consequent misdistribution of resources and support. Furthermore, this thesis highlighted the lack of background information, funding, and staff shortage that educational stakeholders faced in addressing the needs of DRC. Finally, this thesis highlighted the need to equip educational stakeholders with robust, structured and intersectional professional training, increased budget, increased opportunities for multi-agency, multi-disciplinary and home-school communication, and necessary support and services in order to address the needs of DRC in mainstream primary classrooms in Scotland.

Source: University of Edinburgh

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