HERE Database
Gender-related challenges in educational interventions with syrian refugee parents of trauma-affected children in Turkey
Since 2012, more than three million Syrian refugees have fled to Turkey. While these refugees vary in socioeconomic background, it is notable that 50% of Syrian refugee children in Turkey display symptoms of post-traumatic stress and that more than 663,138 of these children between the ages of six and seventeen are not enrolled in school. For those children who are…
2019
Culturally relevant school leadership for Syrian refugee students in challenging circumstances
This article presents two rich case studies of schools catering for Syrian refugee students in the Turkish city of Ankara. The article attempts to identify the challenges facing the two schools in this complex reality and the strategies developed by the two principals and their teaching staff to cope with academic, pedagogic and administrative functioning difficulties. Qualitative data collection and…
2019
Integration of Syrian Refugees in Turkey: Understanding the Educators’ Perception
The main objective of this research is to analyze the perception of pre-service teachers’ attitudes towards Syrian refugee children, who migrated to Turkey after the outbreak of the war in Syria. A factorial design is used to compare the independent and interactive effects of pre-service teachers’ attitudes on Syrian refugees. Participants consisted of 353 senior-level university students. This study finds…
2019
Similarity attracts: The role of personality in similarity perceptions and children’s attitudes towards refugees
Previous research has shown that children's intergroup similarity judgements are based not only on ethnicity but also on other dimensions such as sports interest. The present research investigates the role of personality in perceived similarity between ingroup children and refugee outgroup children. A study was conducted among 9- to 12-year-old children (N = 124) at two elementary schools in the Netherlands. It…
2019
Living with difference: Refugee education and school segregation processes in Greece
Global challenges and recent changes in conflict areas in the Middle East, Asia and Africa are reasons for the contemporary forced migration into European countries, which have become places of destination or transit posts for a great number of refugees. Cities have become the focus of the socio-spatial debate, as the main units for receiving refugees, either in state camps…
2019
Refugee women’s experience of the resettlement process: A qualitative study
Background: Resettlement can be particularly challenging for women as having a lower socioeconomic status and language barriers, may impede women's access to education, employment opportunities, health-care services, as well as the cultural, social, material and resilience factors that facilitate adjustment and adaption. Thus, the aim of this study is to further explore the perception of refugee women in Sweden concerning…
2019
How the different policies and school systems affect the inclusion of Syrian refugee children in Sweden, Germany, Greece, Lebanon and Turkey
Since the war in Syria started in 2011, many children left their war-torn country, alone or together with their families, and fled to neighboring countries in the Middle East, to Turkey or to Europe. This article will compare how Syrian refugee children are included – or not - in school systems both in Europe (Sweden, Germany and Greece) and outside…
2019
Young refugees in education: the particular challenges of school systems in Europe
The article confronts comparative research outcomes on factors that helped or hindered the educational success of immigrant youth and second generation in the past decades in several European countries with the institutional responses of European educational systems to the challenges of integrating a substantial number of refugee and other newly arrived children since 2014. Especially studies on the second generation…
2019
Syrian Refugees Minors in Turkey. Why and how are they Discriminated Against and Ostracized?
This qualitative study aims to explore the extent to which 8–15-year-old Syrian children in Turkey face discrimination and ostracism at school and in the community, as well as to reveal what they think about their life in Turkey. The study group was 22 Syrian refugee children, recruited using criteria sampling by taking into account such personal data as age, gender,…
2019
Being a Syrian University Student in Turkey: Intergroup relations, psychosocial issues, and boundary formation
This article reports on a qualitative study that investigates the experiences of Syrian university students in Izmir, Turkey using in-depth semi-structured interviews with 15 informants. The research is geared towards exploring the social, academic, and linguistic issues emerging in the acculturation period; factors moderating the integration process as well as students' coping strategies. The results are discussed within the framework…
2019
Frugal MOOCs: An adaptable contextualized approach to MOOC designs for refugees
There is a growing body of literature that recognizes the role Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) can play in improving access to education globally, and particularly to thousands of people in developing and developed countries. There is increasing concern, however, that the millions of displaced refugee learners throughout Europe, the Middle East, and other regions are still disadvantaged when it…
2019
A mobile learning platform to guarantee education continuity for unaccompanied foreign minors and refugees
Between 2014 and 2017, around 623,000 people arrived by sea in Italy. This has led to a huge problem for guarantee quality instruction for migrants, especially young people; research carried out by UNICEF has shown that young migrants represent the desire to be able to resume regular education as soon as possible. The answer to these new education challenges finds…
2019
Teachers as frontline agents of integration: Finnish physical education students’ reflections on intercultural encounters
Background and purpose: This article focuses on how future Physical Education and Dance teachers may be better prepared to work in increasingly diverse education environments. It also discusses how tertiary institutions might address issues of social inclusion and cultural pluralism within their programmes, courses and assignments. The authors critically reflect on an experiential learning intervention in Jyväskylä, Finland, in which…
2018
Second language acquisition effects of a primary physical education intervention: A pilot study with young refugees
Background: A physical education (PE) intervention for young refugees was designed combining physical activity within the context of primary PE games with second language learning activities in German. The intervention was based on theoretical implications from the field of second language acquisition and evidence for positive effects of physical activity on cognitive outcomes (e.g. language acquisition). The aim of this…
2018
Multi‐country Partnership to Enhance the Education of Refugee and Asylum‐seeking Youth in Europe – PERAE
The ‘Multi‐country Partnership to Enhance the Education of Refugee and Asylum‐seeking Youth in Europe ‐ PERAE’ was initiated by the SIRIUS Network – Policy Network on Migrant Education in 2016 with the support of the Mercator Foundation. The initiative builds up on the SIRIUS ‘Agenda on Migrant Education’ (SIRIUS, 2014) and the Statement on Urgent Response for the Education of…
2018
#Back to School – A Comparative Overview of the Current Situation of Asylum Seeker and Refugee Children having Reached Compulsory School Age in Seven EU Member States
Education could pave the way towards a more stable and brighter future for children seeking and benefiting from international protection, after often several years of flight and insecurity. Many of them see education as an opportunity to re-build their lives in a new environment and they typically arrive highly motivated to continue school after long periods of absence. Still, law,…
2018
The educational needs of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in UK in one local authority in England: Professional and child perspectives
This two-part small-scale research is positioned within a social constructionist interpretive epistemology. Both parts of the research used qualitative methods. Part One explores the perspectives of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) in relation to their educational experiences in the UK. It also considers the experiences, opportunities and challenges for school and college staff with supporting the educational needs of UASC in…
2018
Language education
England
Curriculum
Participatory action research
Thematic content analysis
Socio-emotional learning & development
United Kingdom
Interview
Integration & assimilation
Inclusion
English
Access & participation
Unaccompanied & separated children
Secondary data analysis
Formal education
Tertiary education
Without home, without homeland. Without school, too? The right to inclusive education of refugee children
Each year the number of displaced people grows rapidly creating an urgent humanitarian situation in most places of the world. Among them a huge amount is children, children who are helpless and most of the times hopeless for their future. Education stands out as their only way of dreaming and feeling safe again after all the atrocities they experienced in…
2018
More than a game? Exploring sport’s role in refugee and asylum-seeker settlement in Glasgow, Scotland
Up until recently, refugees and asylum-seekers, and even more so, the relationship between sport and settlement, has generally been written out of discussions surrounding sport for development (SFD). This study seeks to fill some of this lacuna through a critical analysis of a grassroots, community football club for male refugees and asylum-seekers - United Glasgow FC (UGFC). Drawing on fieldwork…
2018
An investigation of the difficulties faced by Syrian asylum seekers and Syrian refugees in acquiring a second language and the possible solutions from refugees’ perspective
The current dissertation sheds light on the difficulties that Syrian refugees and asylum seekers face in acquiring the languages of the countries they had to flee to. To do so, this qualitative research investigated the experience of 45 Syrian refugees and asylum seekers who were hosted by 9 different countries around the world (Germany, Turkey, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, France, Malay,…
2018
The Resilience of Students with an Immigrant Background: Factors that Shape Well-being
Migration flows are profoundly changing the composition of classrooms. Results from the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) reveal that in 2015, almost one in four 15-year-old students in OECD countries reported that they were either foreign-born or had at least one foreign-born parent. Between 2003 and 2015, the share of students who had either migrated or who had…
2018
Education for unaccompanied migrant children in Europe: Ensuring continued access to education through national and school-level approaches
This policy memo provides a brief overview of national and school-level approaches to the inclusion of unaccompanied migrant children in formal education systems across EU Member States. The memo also discusses wider policy responses to the integration of these children into the host societies.
2018
Teachers of Refugees: A Review of the Literature
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that 65.6 million people are forcibly displaced, having either crossed national borders or become internally displaced within their own countries. Of this estimate, over 22.5 million are refugees. Over half of the world's refugees are children. With an average length of displacement of approximately 20 years, the majority of these children…
2018
Education for a Bright Future in Greece
After a decade of severe fiscal crisis also impacting education, Greece is looking ahead. Now is the time to invest effectively in education and define a forward-looking path for Greece. Building on the current reform agenda, this report offers an analysis of the context and underlying policy issues that once addressed, can contribute to raising the quality and equity of…
2018
How do refugee children experience their new situation in England and Denmark? Implications for educational policy and practice
As the number of individuals who have been forced to flee their homes and country of origin has increased rapidly in recent years, the need to understand how best to support such individuals, especially the youngest of them, becomes pressing. This study presents findings from interviews with adults who had arrived as asylum-seekers in one of two countries, Denmark or…
2018
Free digital learning for inclusion of migrants and refugees in europe: A qualitative analysis of three types of learning purposes
The increasing number of migrants and refugees arriving in Europe places new demands on European education systems. In this context, the role that free digital learning (FDL) could play in fostering inclusion has attracted renewed interest. While the existing literature highlights some general design principles for developing FDL for migrants and refugees, there is little information on the use of…
2018
The processes of integration and education: The case of Syrian refugees and Syrian refugee children in Turkey
The Syrian migration is the second-largest mass movement of people in the world’s history that causes almost half of the Syrian population to be displaced since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in March 2011; half of the population affected by the Syrian conflict are children. Syrian children still face many barriers to attending schools in Turkey. Among 2.7…
2018
The education of refugee children: Human rights enactment and educational policy discourses in Italy and the UK
Europe is currently experiencing what the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)1 defines as the largest refugee crisis since the end of World War II. An estimated 700,000 refugees and migrants have arrived in Europe in the last year along dangerous land and sea routes, from Syria, Eritrea, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (UNHCR,…
2018
Education for syrian refugees: Problems faced by teachers in Turkey [Suriyeli Öğrencilerin eğitimi: Türkiye’de Öğretmenlerin karşılaştığı Sorunlar]
Purpose: Providing educational services for Syrian refugee children is a new fact of life in Turkey, and the teachers who work at public schools and temporary education centers encounter some difficulties. The main purpose of this paper is to describe the problems faced in the process of educating Syrian refugee children as well as the solutions to such difficulties recommended…
2018
Refugee-background students: Critical issues and dynamic contexts
This collection of empirical work offers an in-depth exploration of key issues in the education of adolescents and adults with refugee backgrounds residing in North America, Australia and Europe. These studies foreground student goals, experiences and voices, and reflect a high degree of awareness of the assets that refugee-background students bring to schools and broader society. Chapters are clustered according…
2018
Violence Experience among Immigrants and Refugees: A Cross-Sectional Study in Italy
The objectives of this cross-sectional investigation among a random sample of immigrants and refugees in Italy were to gain an insight into the extent and type of the episodes of violence and to assess their association with different characteristics. Data was collected from September 2016 to July 2017 using a face-to-face structured interview. A total of 503 subjects participated. Overall,…
2018
Intertwined journeys of a PhD student and unaccompanied minors: Autoethnography of research with vulnerable participants
Aim/Purpose The aim of this article is to discuss a PhD student's experience of working with unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors, amidst a rapidly changing global situation. The focus is on how the research process influenced the novice PhD student, and how the student's subject position influenced the research. Background The incentive for this article comes from an examiner's comment, which argued…
2018
The crisis on the border of turkey: An analysis of syrian refugees’ education, shelter and healthcare
The year 2011 witnessed a series of social movements against ingrained authoritarian regimes in the Arab world, starting in Tunisia. At least 500,000 people, lost their lives in the internal turmoil that started in Syria on 15 March 2011, when the belated local version of the ‘Arab Spring’ escalated into a violent civil war. In this period, 13.5 million people…
2018
The problems that school administrators and Syrian teachers encounter during the educational process of Syrian Refugee children: Ankara-Altindağ example
The aim of the study is to determine the problems that school administrators and Syrian Teachers encounter during the educational process of Syrian Refugee Children continuing their education in basic education institutions Ankara-Altındağ province. So as to identify and diagnose in detail the views of the school administrators and Syrian teachers in basic education institutions regarding the problems they face…
2018
Rethinking education policies within the axis of being a refugee: Refugees and multiculturalism – proposals for Turkey
In this chapter, concept of refugees, legal status of refugees, educational rights of refugees, concept of multicultural education are discussed. This section on refugees and immigrants in Turkey, multiculturalism, multicultural education concept aims to investigate basic human right of the refugees, immigrants and asylum seekers, right of education. Principles and recommendations should be produced on structuring and management of multicultural…
2018
Turkey’s basic education policies for Syrian refugees under temporary protection
Migration and asylum are common historical facts in our geography. Therefore, Turkey faces one of the greatest migration movements of its history. The number of asylum seekers exceeding the estimates, uncertainty of the asylum period and a greatly uncertain process necessitate attaching great importance to education dimension of the problem. The problem of Syrian asylum seekers whose official number is…
2018
War-induced immigration and education: Syrian refugees’ education in Turkey
This study aims to make clear the matter at hand that of the educational status of the Syrian refugees in Turkey. Turkey has become one of the countries that felt the impact of the war in Syria the most. In a very short period of time 1.5 million students have been added to the current 20 million students. The interviews…
2018
Attitudes toward refugees and inclusive European citizenship. Analysis for an intercultural educational proposal with teachers in training [Actitudes hacia personas refugiadas y ciudadanía europea inclusiva. Análisis para una propuesta educativa intercultural con el profesorado en formación]
The recent migratory crisis has multiplied the number of school age people that are forced to immigrate. The integration of the minors in host countries demands not only schooling, but also an inclination of the educational community to accept the said reality and critically manage European immigration policies. At the European level there is a growing rejection toward the migratory…
2018
Addressing refugees and non-refugees in adult education programs: A longitudinal analysis on shifting public concerns
The paper analyses mainly non-vocational courses offered by a sample of 47 out of the approximately 900 public adult education centres (Volkshochschule-VHS) in Germany. The focus is on courses, events or other learning forms dealing with refugees in Germany from 1947 to 2015. Refugees can be taught in all-refugee or in mixed-groups, but it can also mean that flight and…
2018
Competing motivations in Germany’s higher education response to the “refugee crisis”
In 2015-16 Germany was confronted with over 1 million new refugees, which challenged public and private institutions alike and increasingly divided public sentiments. This article investigates the cultural, political, and economic dynamics as they were in Germany in 2015-16 and in particular how its higher education sector responded. The discussion covers a comprehensive review of media debates, public and private…
2018
Developing intercultural education [Razvoj medkulturne vzgoje in izobraževanja]
Developing Intercultural Education The paper discusses the role of teachers in the inclusion of migrant students and provides some suggestions for the active engagement of teachers in developing intercultural education, with examples from Slovenia. To support teachers who develop intercultural competence among all students, it is important to include concrete learning objectives in the syllabuses, in the framework of which…
2018
Fostering foreign language acquisition in young refugees using mobile devices: The yourni project experience
Integration of technology into foreign language learning could extend the opportunities for language contact and better retention in the context of newly arrived refugees in the European countries. Research has shown that technology increases the motivation in foreign language learning and also fosters learner autonomy by allowing the learners to personalise the learning and enables them to self-regulate. The use…
2018
Digital game-based education for Syrian refugee children: Project Hope
Turkey is the top refugee-hosting country in the world, with more than three million registered Syrian refugees. An international research team was the first to document the educational and mental health needs of Syrian refugee children, finding that an overwhelming majority are not enrolled in school in Turkey, partly as a result of language barriers, and that about half suffer…
2018
Syrian Mothers Producing Counterstories in Co-Constructed School Spaces: Rethinking the Role of Schools in Engaging Refugee Families
This ethnographically informed field study, drawing on a blend of feminist theories and cultural learning pathways framework, reveals that Syrian mothers show strong presence and readiness to take active roles when opportunities present themselves in alternative spaces in the public schools of Turkey. As mothers produce counterstories in relation to their gendered, religious, and ethnic identities, they talk back to…
2018