Early childhood education
Loneliness, lack of support, and educational challenges: Teachers’ experiences working with refugee children
For the first time, Lithuania has faced such a flow of refugee families with children, and it is natural that until now there is not enough experience and research in the education of refugee children in Lithuania. Until now, the focus has been on the integration and socialization of refugees, with very little attention paid to the education of refugee…
2025
Safety, belonging and success in education for refugees in Europe: A systematic review
This systematic review aims to explore refugees' educational access, experiences and outcomes in Europe since 2015. The 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 gaps in knowledge about the educational trajectories of learners of refugee and forced migrant backgrounds who have arrived…
2024
The relationship between teachers’ cultural intelligence and multicultural education attitude: The mediating role of intercultural sensitivity
In this research, the relationship between teachers’ cultural intelligence and multicultural education attitude was investigated with the mediating role of intercultural sensitivity. The main research aim was to contribute to the cultural intelligence and multicultural education literature. The research was conducted with a cross-sectional correlational method, and the data was gathered from 600 teachers working in the six of the…
2024
Assessing polish teachers’ competencies in working with Ukrainian refugee students: A comparative study across different contexts
The rapid influx of refugee students from Ukraine has posed challenges to the education system and teachers in Poland. In the current study, we aimed to determine how teachers in Polish schools, at various stages of education, assess their own competencies to work with Ukrainian refugee students. The sample consisted of 684 teachers who declared that they worked with refugee…
2024
Linking with technology in the education and adaptation processes of refugee children
In this section, the needs of refugee children are discussed within the framework of Maslow's hierarchy and family systems theory, and explanations of children's participation in educational processes, the use of technology in educational processes, and teacher guidance are given. In addition, the study aims to determine the knowledge, awareness, and experiences of preschool teachers in Turkey about integrating technology…
2024
Kids in limbo: War, uncertainty, and the school experiences of Ukrainian refugee students in Poland
Russia's invasion of Ukraine begun on February 24, 2022. By December 2022, approximately 8 million Ukrainians left their homes seeking safety in other countries. One million Ukrainian refugees (mostly mothers and children) settled in Poland and 200,000 Ukrainian refugee children attended Polish schools in July 2023. Based on the interviews conducted with Polish speaking teachers and Ukrainian mothers in Poland,…
2024
Building bright futures: What is needed to expand early childhood education and care for Ukraine’s refugee children
Nine out of every 10 refugees arriving in host countries from Ukraine are women and children. Only 1 in 3 of Ukrainian refugee children are enrolled in early childhood education and care services. This emphasizes the need for expanding and strengthening early childhood education systems to ensure sufficient access for all children, and the integration of Ukranian refugee children in…
2023
Unlocking learning: The use of education technology to support disadvantaged children’s language learning and social inclusion in Italy
In Italy, more than 700,000 asylum seekers and migrants arrived in the country between 2014-2020. Newly arrived children including refugees and migrants need to quickly acquire Italian skills to succeed in school and society. To help address this urgent need, the Akelius digital learning application was introduced in Bologna and Rome for Italian and English language learning in the 2021/22…
2023
Building bright futures: How to integrate Ukraine’s refugee children through early childhood education and care
Nine out of every 10 refugees arriving in host countries from Ukraine are women and children. Only 1 in 3 of Ukrainian refugee children are enrolled in early childhood education and care services. This emphasizes the need for expanding and strengthening early childhood education systems to ensure sufficient access for all children, and the integration of Ukranian refugee children in…
2023
Pre-schoolers’ images, intergroup attitudes, and liking of refugee peers in Germany
There is extensive research on children's intergroup attitudes, but their perceptions of refugee children have rarely been studied. We conducted a study with 5- and 6-year-old children (N = 60) in Germany following the arrival of unprecedented large numbers of refugees in 2015 and 2016. Children completed a set of three tasks that measured their perceptions of refugee children (minority…
2023
Child refugee’s social skills and resilience: Moderating effects of time in refugee camp, parental education, and preschool attendance
In this cross-sectional study, we examine the relationship between social skills and resilience and the moderating effects of time spent in a refugee camp, parental education, and schooling on Syrian children who have been forcibly displaced to Turkey. Five hundred and twenty-six preschool-aged children (56.3% female, M-age = 5.79) were recruited to participate in this research. The Turkish version of…
2023
The value of Catholic early childhood education – the role of parents and kindergarten as perceived by Ukrainian women
The article addresses the role of Catholic early childhood education, the parents and the kindergarten in setting the developmental background for the child's future life perspectives and personal development. This research subject is analysed in the context of the situation in Ukraine, and the article focuses on how the respondents - Ukrainian female refugees - perceive the value of the…
2023
Where do Critical Pedagogy and Language Needs Analysis meet? English as an Additional Language for Adult Refugees and Migrants in Greece: A Case Study
Background. Language classes organized for adult refugees and migrants are heterogeneous. Students in these educational settings differ across a number of various aspects, including language competences, educational background and levels of literacy. Seen through the Critical Pedagogy lens language is considered not simply as a means to express or communicate, but as a product constructed by the ways language learners…
2023
Implementation and quality of an early childhood education program for newly arrived refugee children in Germany: an observational study
Early childhood education [ECE] can foster the social-emotional adjustment and development of young refugee children. Still, the large numbers of newly arriving refugee families challenge the ECE capacities of host countries. In Germany, state authorities have subsidized flexible ECE programs for refugee children in response to this situation. The goal of this study was to examine the implementation and quality…
2023
The Requirement of a Situated Approach in the Treatment of Preschool Children with a Refugee Background: Discussion of a Case Study [Die Notwendigkeit eines situierten Ansatzes bei der Behandlung von Vorschulkindern mit Fluchthintergrund: Diskussion eines Fallbeispiels]
In recent years, increasingly more German-born preschool children of refugee parents have been referred to the 'specialized consultation service for refugee minors' of the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University Hospital Munster. This 'change' in the use of the above-mentioned consultation service could be understood as a 'natural' consequence of the family life cycle of forced migrants…
2023
Refugee Children’s Early Development during Attendance of Specialized Preschool Programs and Transition into First Grade in Germany
Research Findings: We assessed socio-emotional behavior, nonverbal reasoning, German receptive language, and motor skills of refugee children attending early childhood development [ECD] programs and of those who did not (N = 207, mean age = 69.4 months). Young refugee children overall demonstrated lower levels of development and more socio-emotional behavior problems. Attendance of preschool-based ECD programs was inconsistently linked to…
2022
Teacher’s beliefs and flexible language strategies in a monolingual preschool classroom
This study aims to examine teacher’s beliefs about Syrian children’s Turkish language learning and teacher’s language strategies in a monolingual preschool classroom located in a multilingual city, Siirt Turkey. This ethnographic study was conducted between October 2019 and January 2020 in a multilingual city. The data included fieldnotes kept during participant observations of children’s interactions and interviews with the teacher.…
2022
Summer Preschools for Syrian Refugee and Host Community Children in Turkey: A Model of Contextually Sensitive Early Intervention
Research Findings: This study evaluated the impacts of the Summer Preschools Program on 5-to-6-year-old Syrian refugee and local children from vulnerable communities of Turkey. Developed as a community-based contextually sensitive early intervention model, the program aimed to promote developmental well-being and school readiness of children from forced displacement and abject poverty backgrounds by supporting cognitive, language, and socioemotional development prior…
2022
Educational Integration from the Perspective of Refugee Parents and Children [VKLJUČEVANJE V VZGOJNO-IZOBRAŽEVALNI SISTEM IZ PERSPEKTIVE STARŠEV IN OTROK BEGUNCEV]
This article is based on a research project executed by the authors in 2021. It revolves around the experiences of refugee children and parents within the Slovenian educational system. Data was acquired from twelve families. Interviewees spoke about the positive and negative aspects of educational integration. Those mainly consisted of language difficulties, learning difficulties, and discrimination. The presented research aims…
2022
German Language Acquisition of Refugee Children—The Role of Preschools and Language Instruction
Mastering the language of the destination country is key to immigrant and refugee children's educational success. Refugee children typically face the challenge of starting or continuing their educational carrier in a completely new context and in a completely new language. In this study, we examine the role of preschool attendance and formal language instruction in supporting young refugee children to…
2022
Refugee women’s establishment in the rural north of Sweden: cultural capital in meeting local labour market needs
This paper investigates opportunities and obstacles refugee women face in establishment in rural areas. Drawing on ethnographic research in three rural municipalities in northern Sweden, including interviews with refugee women, local employers and educational staff, I analyse the women’s space for agency and opportunities to use and capitalise on different resources in relation to the local labour market and belonging.…
2022
An interpretive perspective on co-production in supporting refugee families’ access to childcare in Germany
The arrival of large numbers of refugees in Germany since 2015 has led to unprecedented levels of civic participation in service delivery. This is supported in integration policy, including through local coordination. We connect this empirical case with the conceptual debate on co-production, adopting an interpretive approach. We explore how volunteers and local coordinators interpret encounters between civic and state…
2022
Uncovering Community Cultural Wealth Through an Early Intervention Program: Syrian Refugee Children Speaking
The voices of young refugee children are often unheard and unacknowledged in early childhood research. Deficit views that perpetuate their vulnerability and victimization pervade research and media. Such omnipresent views need to be challenged by foregrounding and capitalizing on the strengths, agency, and resilience of refugee children. Grounded in the Community Cultural Wealth framework, this study aimed to explore the aspects of…
2022
Labour market marginalisation in young refugees and their majority peers in Denmark and Sweden: The role of common mental disorders and secondary school completion
Background Due to the circumstances of their early lives, young refugees are at risk of experiencing adverse labour market and health outcomes. The post-settlement environment is thought to play a decisive role in determining how this vulnerability plays out. This study compared trends in labour market marginalisation in young refugees and their majority peers during early adulthood in two national…
2022
Non-verbal cognitive development, learning, and symptoms of PTSD in 3- to 6-year-old refugee children
As IQ tests are commonly used as key assessment method, we address the question whether our commonly used standardized IQ tests are appropriate for children from families of diverse cultures and different educational levels in a refugee population. We examined 109 refugee children aged 3–7 years (M = 5.10 years, SD = 1.25) with the “Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children “ (KABC-II;…
2022
Plener P.L.
Fegert J.M.
Mall V.
Hahnefeld A.
Sukale T.
Weigand E.
Dudek V.
Münch K.
Aberl S.
Eckler L.V.
Nehring I.
Friedmann A.
Primary education
Experimental & quasi-experimental study
Early childhood education
Special education
Cognitive learning & development
Randomised control trial
Correlational analysis
Caregivers
Gender
English
Mental health & psychosocial well-being
Assessment
Camp setting
Formal education
Language education
Germany
Home-Based Early Education for Refugee and Local Children via Mothers: A Model of Contextually Sensitive Early Intervention
Contextually sensitive home-visiting programs can foster positive parenting and enhance child development and learning especially among vulnerable families exposed to armed conflict, forced displacement, and poverty. Developed based on ecological model and family resilience theories, the Home-Based Early Childhood Education (HECE) program provided an 11-week home-visiting intervention to Syrian refugee and local Turkish mothers in impoverished host communities of Turkey.…
2022
Ensuring Quality Early Childhood Education for Refugee Children: A New Approach to Teacher Professional Development
The provision of early childhood education (ECE) for refugees is extremely limited in many settings. Where it does exist, programmes are often poorly resourced. While all refugee education is underfunded, ECE is particularly underfunded and under-supported. High-quality ECE can be a powerful avenue for helping young refugee children manage their trauma and for supporting their well-being in the short and…
2021
Becoming the teacher of a refugee child: Teachers’ evolving experiences in Turkey
Anti-immigrant discourses are sweeping across the globe while forced displacement brings educational, political, economic, and social challenges in many countries. Turkey’s latest initiative is the inclusion of almost one million school-aged Syrian children into the public education system. In this research, we aim to understand the evolving experiences of teachers of Syrian refugee students in relation to inclusive education in…
2021
Instating settings of emergency education in Vienna: temporary schooling of pupils with forced migration backgrounds
In the year 2015, Austria was one of the main European destinations of displaced persons. According to education authoritiesaround 15,000 children with a forced migration background of school age who arrived in Austria over the course of a few months from late2015 to the beginning of 2016 called for immediate and partly temporary solutions. Due to Austrian legislation and unlike…
2021
Multilingual childhoods of refugee children in Icelandic preschools: educational practices and partnerships with parents
Many refugee families face challenges in their new educational environments. This qualitative research study aims to explore the experiences of six Syrian refugee families who arrived in Iceland from Lebanon in 2016 and settled in three municipalities (Stjórnarráð Íslands 2019) and their children in their preschool settings; and to explore the experiences of staff in their preschools. The theoretical framework…
2021
Children’s narratives on migrant refugees: A practice of global citizenship
Globalisation has brought about great social and economic impact, as well as great challenges. Major developments have taken place in the mobility of capital and, to a lesser extent, of goods; not so in the mobility of people seeking asylum due to persecution and war. This article approaches the phenomenon of migration, particularly of refugees, as learning content for early…
2021
Pre-school Teachers’ Stereotypes and Self-Efficacy are Linked to Perceptions of Behavior Problems in Newly Arrived Refugee Children
Introduction: Since 2015, increased numbers of refugee families with pre-school-aged children have arrived in Germany. In pre-schools, teachers' professional competence for teaching those children and adapting to their socio-emotional needs has become increasingly important. Previous research linked teachers' stereotypes and cultural beliefs to their self-efficacy and enthusiasm when teaching immigrant children. This study investigated the links between domains of pre-school…
2021
Randomised control trial
Socio-emotional learning & development
Regression analysis
Vocational & technical education
Adult education & training
Caregivers
Teachers & educational staff
Gender
English
Germany
Experimental & quasi-experimental study
Surveys & questionnaire
Early childhood education
Cross-sectional study
The effect of early childhood education and care services on the integration of refugee families
Devising appropriate policy measures to integrate refugees is high on the agenda of many governments. This paper focuses on the integration of families seeking asylum in Germany between 2013 and 2016. Exploiting regional differences in early childhood education and care (ECEC) services and dispersal policies as exogenous sources of variation, as well as controlling for local level heterogeneity that could…
2021
Integration of Recently Arrived Underage Refugees: Research Potential of the Study ReGES – Refugees in the German Educational System
With the strong immigration of refugees at the end of the last decade, many minors came to Germany. Their integration into the German educational system will be one of the central tasks of German society and is important for the medium- and long-term integration of incoming young refugees in various areas of society. Data from the ReGES panel study enable…
2021
Moderating Uncertainty: The Reception of Refugee Children in the German Early Childhood Education and Care Sector
Located at the crossroads of integration and early childhood education and care (ECEC) policies, this article draws on empirical research conducted from the perspective of ECEC centres to provide insights into the local reception of refugee children in Germany. In recent years, the ECEC sector in Germany has faced the challenge of organizing access to childcare for many newly arrived…
2021
Adjustment of syrian refugee children into pre-school education in Turkey
A qualitative case study was used in this study in order to determine the pre-school education adjustment problems of a Syrian child refugee who had fled from his homeland and took refuge in Turkey. The research participants were the child’s family, teachers, and the principal of the school where the child was educated at pre-school. For the purposes of the…
2020
Refugee families in Iceland: opportunities and challenges in schools and society
In 2016, a group of 55 Syrian quota refugees arrived in Iceland from Lebanon and settled in three municipalities. There were 11 families comprising 20 adults and 35 children. This study1 aimed to critically explore the experiences, opportunities and challenges of these children, their parents, their teachers and principals in the municipalities of their resettlement since their arrival in Iceland.…
2020
Encouraging intercultural attitudes and practices in contemporary ECEC services. Insights from A research conducted in Italy, Spain, and Hungary
This paper presents the results of a European survey that was part of a European funded project, entitled ‘Multicultural Early Childhood Education’, carried out between 2017 and 2018, in three countries: Italy, Spain, and Hungary. The goal was to explore the intercultural training needs of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) professionals, to support them to meet the needs of…
2020
‘I can’t sit here and cry with you, I have to play’. Strategies by very young children in refugee collective accommodation
Little is known about the everyday life of very young children in refugee collective accommodation centres, hosted together with their parents. Access to high-quality provision of early education and care is not implemented. Against this background, the paper explores young children’s everyday life practices in these specific centres. This paper presents findings from an explorative ethnographic research project in refugee…
2020
Mental Health Needs of Refugee Children in Specialized Early Education and Care Programs in Germany
Refugee children are at risk to develop mental health problems, which have rarely been investigated in educational contexts. We conducted three studies in childcare programs for refugees in Germany. Children’s behavior was assessed by educators on site (n = 84) and online (n = 50) using a two-stage-cluster sampling and on site (n = 107) using complete samples. In Study…
2020
Transformation of teachers’ understandings of refugee families’ engagement: multilingual family mathematics spaces
Today in many countries, teachers working with children with refugee status are seeking ways to practice inclusive family engagement. In our two-year-long project, we worked with early childhood teachers serving refugee students in public schools in Turkey, which hosts the world’s highest number of child refugees. Our project focused on creating equitable mathematics teaching and learning opportunities and developing a…
2020
Refugee children’s integration in Greece: training future teachers to face new educational challenges
The aim of this paper is to present an action research project focusing on refugee children’s integration to the formal Greek education system as it relates to their mothers’ Greek language learning. Drawing on the interrelation between formal and non-formal education, this project took place at the Open Reception facility of Eleonas in Athens and addressed graduate and postgraduate students,…
2020
Feasibility of a trauma-informed parent–teacher cooperative training program for Syrian refugee children with autism
Although the number of Syrians affected by the civil war rises, little work has been done to address the needs of Syrian refugee children with autism spectrum disorder. This research aimed to test the feasibility and acceptability of a culturally sensitive intervention developed specifically for children with autism spectrum disorder affected by trauma. Local partners advised the program team on…
2019
Secondary data analysis
Intervention
Non-formal education
Socio-economic status
Early childhood education
Special education
Housing & accommodation
Interview
Urban setting
Caregivers
Teachers & educational staff
Gender
English
Access & participation
Resilience & adaptation
Mental health & psychosocial well-being
Türkiye
Investigation of peer relations of preschool refugee and non-refugee children
The purpose of this study is to compare the peer relations of refugee and non-refugee children in preschool period. The study has a causal-comparative design. The study sample included a total of 40 children, of whom 20 were refugee children and 20 were non-refugee children. In the study in which the random sampling and purposeful sampling method were used, the…
2019
Responding to the ECEC needs of children of refugees and asylum seekers in Europe and North America
In Europe and North America, the arrival of heightened numbers of refugees and asylum seekers in recent years has challenged the ability of governments and service providers to both meet initial reception needs and provide effective long-term integration services. Young children make up a significant share of these newcomers. As a result, there is a pressing need for early childhood…
2018
Supporting early childhood teacher’s competences in the encounter with refugee children and their families [Die unterstützung der kompetenzentwicklung von kita-teams in der begegnung mit kindern und familien mit fluchterfahrung]
Children and families with experiences as refugees bring out a challenge for the professionals in early childhood institutions (kindergarten). A curriculum to strengthen the competencies of early childhood teacher teams in the encounter with children and families with flight experiences was developed, implemented and evaluated. The article shows the objectives of this curriculum and the first evaluation results. The evaluation…
2017
International Perspectives on the Pedagogies of Educational Transitions
There has been a great deal written recently about children starting school, particularly primary school. All of the stakeholders in these transitions to school have been considered, along with matters of readiness – for the child, family, educators, schools and communities; adjustment and adaptation; continuity and change in curricula and learning; and the opportunities, aspirations, expectations and entitlements encompassed in…
2017
Painting trees in the wind: socio-material ambiguity and sustainability politics in early childhood education with refugee children in Denmark
In this article, we explore new materialist ‘common world’ approaches to early childhood environmental and sustainability education and the ambition of these approaches to challenge social–material and nature–culture dichotomies often taken for granted in Western education systems. Firstly, we point out the socio-cultural inequalities inherent in taken-for-granted approaches to children and nature in Denmark, and argue that attention to children’s…
2020
Academic Achievement and Psychosocial Adjustment in Child Refugees: A Systematic Review
Child refugees are at high risk for problems with academic achievement and psychosocial well-being. We aimed to review the literature concerning these outcomes in primary school–aged child refugees. This study was a systematic review and included studies that reported on outcomes of interest in child refugees between 5 and 12 years of age. Our search generated 3,172 articles; we selected…
2020