Empowerment
Combining Language Training and Work Experience for Refugees with Low-Literacy Levels: a Mixed-Methods Case Study
Learning the host society's language and finding a job are important steps for the societal integration of refugees. Especially language proficiency is a key barrier for the integration of low literates. Often language training and gaining work skills are separated during the integration procedure. We investigated a 1-year pilot program for refugees with low-literacy levels in the Netherlands, which combined…
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
An ecological, multilingual approach to language learning with newly reunited refugee families in Scotland
Although academic literature and Scotland's refugee integration strategy recommend multilingual, decolonising approaches, language classes for refugees in Scotland usually focus only on the target language (English) and are predominantly teacher-led. This paper argues that newly reunited refugee families can be better supported through an ecological, multilingual approach by presenting empirical data from a five-month teaching study using qualitative methods (semi-structured…
2022
Accommodation, empowerment and disinvestment—Typical second-language learning trajectories of Syrian refugees in Germany
This paper asks how refugees' second-language learning processes are embedded in their lives in host countries. To address this question, the paper proposes the concept of second-language learning trajectories. These trajectories explain refugees' second-language learning as closely intertwined with learners' self-understanding, experiences and positioning in host countries. Using longitudinal narrative interview data from Syrian refugees in Germany, the paper identifies…
2023
The Rights Hero – Serious Games for Human Rights Education and Integration of Migrant and Refugee Children in Europe
Following the rise of migrant inflows in Europe since 2015, more than 210,000 unaccompanied children have arrived in Europe. This article argues that serious games can in principle fill the gap of human rights education that these children face and ultimately help them develop, but important issues and challenges need to be considered. The article follows the design and development…
2022
Belonging through Higher Education: The Case of Syrian Youth in Turkey
This article uses a refugee centred approach to explore experiences of belonging through higher education. It is based on fieldwork conducted during the fall of 2019 in Gaziantep, Turkey. This article aims to understand the factors that form refugees' sense of belonging and the degree to which the contextualized experiences of refugee youths influence their sense of belonging in the…
2022
Working With the Encounter: A Descriptive Account and Case Analysis of School-Based Collaborative Mental Health Care for Refugee Children in Leuven, Belgium
Scholars increasingly point toward schools as meaningful contexts in which to provide psychosocial care for refugee children. Collaborative mental health care in school forms a particular practice of school-based mental health care provision. Developed in Canada and inspired by systemic intervention approaches, collaborative mental health care in schools involves the formation of an interdisciplinary care network, in which mental health…
2022
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
Beyond the vulnerability paradigm: fostering inter-professional and multi-agency cooperation in refugee education in Italy
Children and families from a refugee background seem to escape the technical view usually adopted by educational and health practitioners, which is based on a mixture of diagnostic tests and special needs policies. This approach struggles to cope with the multiple needs–in terms of health, culture, language, and learning–involved in taking care of refugee children. Even though services multiply their…
2021
Empowerment of the refugee migrant community through a cooperation project on art education in Greece
This article contributes to the inclusion of the refugee community located in Polykastro (Greece) through an art cooperation project between the University of Seville and the NGO Open Cultural Center. We suggest that art education promotes the full development of the individual and the community. This study examines the identification stage which took place in October 2019. Using a Logical…
2021
Social inclusion of refugees into higher education: policies and practices of universities in Norway
Pursuing higher education is one of the top priorities of many refugees after settlement in host countries. However, refugees’ participation in the labour market is the prime focus of integration policies and practices in various host nations, including Norway. This coupled with some complex challenges embedded in institutional policies and practices impede social inclusion of refugees into higher education in…
2021
Educating ‘others’: Drawing on the collective wisdom of intercultural experts
Forty invited interculturalists (both academics and non-academics) from nine countries engaged in developing a coherent culture of dialogue and collective action to address the challenge of redefining intercultural education provisions with regard to the needs of refugee children. The method of cooperative inquiry to elicit theoretical and professional expertise from the participants was adopted. This inquiry was based on four…
2021
The effects of service-learning on physical education teacher education: A case study on the border between Africa and Europe
Recent studies, supported by the European project Europe Engage – Developing a Culture of Civic Engagement through Service-Learning within Higher Education in Europe, suggest that service-learning (SL) is an effective approach to develop personal and social learning linked to real contexts. This particular case study analyses the perceived effects of an SL programme implemented in Melilla (on the border between Africa…
2021
You and me, we’re the same. You struggle with Tigrinya and I struggle with English.’ An exploration of an ecological, multilingual approach to language learning with New Scots
Increased migration into Europe has placed integration and language learning for refugees at the centre of political and public discourses. Scotland’s Refugee Integration Strategy recognises the importance of linguistic diversity and academic literature also highlights the benefits of multilingual learning. However, most support for language learning for refugees is delivered monolingually, creating a gap between policy, literature, and practice. Research…
2020
Professional development of Syrian refugee women: proceeding with a career within education
This research investigates professional development with Syrian refugee women teachers settled in Lebanon and Sweden. Both countries offer professional training programmes for migrant teachers, enabling them to proceed with their careers. The purpose is to investigate how moving to a new country calls for an opportunity to engage in practice development and the role digital literacy plays in the refugees’…
2020
‘Sitting on a wobbly chair’: mental health and wellbeing among newcomer pupils in Northern Irish schools
Schools in Northern Ireland (NI) have become increasingly diverse with the numbers of newly arrived migrant pupils more than doubling over the past decade. While studies have shown an increasingly high prevalence of mental health difficulties among young people in NI generally, there is a paucity of research with at risk groups, including members of ethnic minority communities. This paper…
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
Parenting and education: The example of refugee parents in Greece
This article focuses on the interplay between parenthood and refugee status and documents the approaches that parents employ to become educational agents and enrich their children’s language knowledge and cultural capital while residing in refugee camps in northern Greece. It discusses the prominent role that encampment times play in structuring the disempowering refugee condition, and describes the parents’ strategies of…
2020
Social inclusion of refugees into higher education in Norway: A critical analysis of Norwegian higher education and integration policies
In numerous countries, the widening participation of underrepresented groups in higher education has become an official part of education policies. However, inequalities continue in some areas, including refugees’ participation. Norway hosts many refugees, but little is known about the social inclusion of refugees into higher education in the country. In this paper, three documents representing Norwegian higher education and integration…
2020
‘The other brick in the wall’: Integrating and empowering refugee students through intercultural education; a case study from greece
The refugee crisis, the largest migratory wave since the Second World War, has constituted a challenge for European societies, at an economic, social, but also moral level. In times of frustration, when European values appear more fragile than ever, education can play a key role in the management of the crisis and the prevention of discrimination. Greece has been one…
2017
Engaging Parents, Preparing Teachers and Understanding the Role of Mental Health in Learning – National Roundtable of England 2019
England did not participate in the 1st NRT round (2017-18: Setting the scene workshop). For this reason, the ‘Setting the scene’ stage was incorporated in the preparation activities of the 2018-19 workshop. Specific topics were identified as priority policy areas both through a review of the findings from recent research carried out in these areas and through consultation with a…
2019
Extending the welcome: Developing long-term solutions to supporting refugees and at-risk scholars
Taking place at the University of Edinburgh – a founding member of the ACU – from 7-8 March 2019, 'Extending the welcome' brought together academics, policymakers, students, and partners from across the Commonwealth and beyond to explore the role of universities in supporting displaced people worldwide. Providing a forum to share best practice, the event showcased innovative approaches to supporting…
2019
Supporting refugee children with special educational needs in Northern Ireland
Background: As of February 2020, Northern Ireland (NI) has welcomed 1,815 Syrian refugees, almost half of whom are under the age of 18 (NI Department for Communities, 2020), and many of whom have special educational needs. This study aims to explore the reasonable adjustments made by educational communities thus far, to minimise the impact of potential barriers to learning for…
2019
An alternative understanding of education and empowerment: Local-level perspectives of refugee social integration in the United Kingdom
This article draws on research with a group of refugee women who attend English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) classes at a community center in London. It considers the role education can play in their social integration processes, employing an approach that has been developed from feminist notions of empowerment and social practice theories of literacy and language use.…
2017
“They’ve no control over their lives at the moment”: An investigation into critical pedagogical approaches to refugee and asylum seeker English language classes in Ireland
This study investigates critical pedagogical approaches within local contexts of refugee and asylum seeker English language classes within Ireland. Intrinsic to this study is cognisance of the landscape of the setting both in Ireland and worldwide. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says that the current time is unprecedented in terms of the scale of displaced peoples, asylum…
2016