Pedagogy
Refugee Education: Theorising Practice in Schools
In the last five years, more child refugees have made perilous journeys into Europe than at any point since the Second World War. Once refugee children begin to establish their new lives, education becomes a priority. However, access to high-quality inclusive education can be challenging and is a social justice issue for schools, policymakers and for the research community. Underpinned…
2021
Music facilitator experiences of working in asylum seeker centres: Complexities, dilemmas and opportunities
Accommodation centres for those seeking asylum present particular contexts in which to facilitate music making. Contextual and systemic difficulties abound. An exploration of a music project within six asylum seeker centres in Ireland is presented with a focus on the experiences of the four facilitators involved. Data are presented from facilitator reflective logs, researcher observations and recorded professional development sessions…
2022
Experiences of forced migration: learning for educators and learners: a report
A combination of structural barriers, inadequate student welfare provision and the absence of psycho-social and academic support make higher education access for forcibly displaced students challenging. Many of these students will have experienced many stressful and potentially traumatic events that may have or may continue to impact their mental health and wellbeing. This article draws on reflections by educators and…
2022
Educators' positive practices with refugee pupils at two schools in England
Extensive evidence indicates that education is an integral part of the settling in process for refugee and asylum-seeking children. Furthermore, it has been suggested that positive teaching practice with refugee pupils should be asset-based and holistic in nature. The present study examines educators' positive practices with refugee pupils and explores factors that shape these practices. Data were collected through participant…
2022
Grappling with the transformative potential of translanguaging pedagogy in an elementary school with Syrian refugees in post-coup Turkey
Translanguaging pedagogies have been documented to support language minoritized students in various ways, such as supporting their academic learning, affirming their bi-/multilingual and cultural identities, and disrupting the colonial and monolingual ideologies dominating school curricula. Yet, very few scholars have pointed to the existing barriers in schools and societies hindering educators from fully achieving the transformative potential of translanguaging pedagogy.…
2022
Educators’ perspectives on translanguaging schoolscape and language education for refugee students in Greek educational settings
The past and current situation in Greece regarding the refugee crisis has created educators’ need to apply new educational strategies to address refugee students, such as the use of translanguaging, linguistic landscape and schoolscape as pedagogical tools. That is why the present study attempts to reveal the degree of educators’ employment of practices such as translanguaging and inclusion of students’…
2022
‘First and foremost, we are teachers, not refugees’: Requalification measures for internationally trained teachers affected by forced migration
This article looks deeper into the educational careers and barriers faced by internationally trained teachers with refugee backgrounds. Highly skilled teachers experience among others formal barriers due to the two-subject regime in Austria. This study analyses the barriers and measures that disable or enable the re-qualification of internationally trained teachers who wish to continue their profession in Austria. Guided by…
2022
Special Needs Assessment in Bilingual School-Age Children in Germany
Educational and (psycho-)linguistic research on L1 and L2 acquisition in bilingual children sketches them as a group of language learners varying in many aspects. However, most studies to date have based evaluations of language proficiency or new assessment tools on data from heritage children, while studies on the appropriateness of assessment tools for school-age refugee children remain a notable exception.…
2022
Promoting the mental health and well-being of first-generation immigrants, asylum seekers and refugee young people in schools: A participatory action research study
Background: There is a dearth of literature that reports on what first-generation immigrants, asylum seekers and refugee young people see as effective self-help tools in matters relating to mental health. Some 50 million first-generation migrant children and young people may have experienced violence, loss and displacement. This can lead to young migrants suffering with negative psychological and social impacts, and…
2021
Navigating university spaces as refugees: Syrian students’ pathways of access to and through higher education in Turkey
This paper aims to explore how refugee students construct pathways of access to higher education by drawing on interviews with 15 Syrian university students studying at different universities across Turkey. The research is located within a capabilities-based human development paradigm from which it outlines the factors that enable students’ transition into university and looks at how they navigate complex higher…
2021
The end(s) of inclusion: ungrounding globalization and ‘the migrant’ in dialogue with hospitality
This article reassesses globalization in light of research, policy, and reforms directed towards ‘the migrant’ during times of crisis. In dialogue with Derrida's discussion of hospitality, the article questions the grounds that figure ‘the migrant’ as a metonym for globalization's dangers–as excess mobility menacing the foundational sovereignty of nation-states. With Sweden as a point of reference, the article interrelates three…
2021
Pedagogical love in Finland and Australia: a study of refugee children and their teachers
After claiming asylum, refugee children work to re-build their worlds across three dimensions: safety, belonging, and success. This article examines the pedagogical practices that support this work arguing that a key, but under-examined practice draws on what we have termed pedagogical love. Building on a qualitative Finnish-Australian study, we suggest that as refugee students enter schools in their host countries,…
2021
Example of best practice: refugee teachers at the University of Potsdam. A requalification program for newly arrived teachers in Germany
The Refugee Teachers Program, established at the University of Potsdam, Brandenburg, in 2016, represents a successful model for training and integrating individuals with foreign teaching qualifications through an 18-month teaching and language course. Initially created to help meet the demand for teachers in Germany, the Refugee Teachers Program has been further refined over the course of the last three years…
2021
Three Contexts As The Post-Migration Ecology For Refugees: School Principals’ Challenges And Strategies In Turkey, Lebanon, And Germany
This article seeks to compare and analyze school-level challenges for school leaders and their responses to Syrian refugee education in Turkey, Lebanon, and Germany, drawing on the post-migration ecology framework developed and sensemaking processes in leadership. We utilized a comparative qualitative design within the realm of qualitative research. Findings revealed that the challenges are similar across the three contexts and…
2021
Visiting the forced visitors-critical and decentered approach to global citizenship education as an inclusive educational response to forced youth migration
-Migrant and refugee youth face complex challenges pertaining to educational and social inclusion in Europe and international contexts.-Global Citizenship Education (GCE) has gained increased prevalence as an educational response to globalizing processes such as forced migration and resulting cultural diversity.-It is argued that a critical and decentered model of GCE can be applied as an inclusive educational response to refugee…
2021
Translanguaging pathways to higher education: A transition program for highly educated refugees
The paper focuses on translanguaging practices of highly skilled refugees in a transition program in Dutch higher education. The pathways for refugees to enter higher education are full of obstacles. Acquiring the new language at a university level is one of the biggest challenges. Many institutions offer 'transition programs' to prepare refugees for their studies. These are mostly focused on…
2021
Culturally relevant/sustaining pedagogy in a diverse urban classroom: Challenges of pedagogy for Syrian refugee youths and teachers in Turkey
This study focused on whether and how teachers implemented the principles of culturally relevant and sustaining pedagogies and the challenges teachers faced while trying to implement these principles with Syrian students in Turkey. The study was built on the four components of pedagogies: academic achievement; cultural competencies; sociopolitical consciousness; and the sustainability of culture. Qualitative data were obtained through interviews…
2021
Theorising policy and practice in refugee education: Conceptualising ‘safety’, ‘belonging’, ‘success’ and ‘participatory parity’ in England and Sweden
Across the world, children are forced to leave their homes for far-flung destinations. This global phenomenon has particular impact in Europe, where there are now more child refugees than since World War II. Education plays an important role for children with extraordinary experiences seeking to build meaningful lives in their new context. This article offers a new theoretical approach to…
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
Experiences and expectations of successful immigrant and refugee students while in upper secondary schools in Iceland
The influx of refugees and immigrants into Iceland continues to affect the society socially, culturally, and politically. Like many other European countries, Iceland has become home to many refugees and immigrants, including young adults. This influx has affected the education system, and many schools have developed different models to serve the diverse needs of the increasing number of immigrant children…
2020
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
Refugees in neoliberal universities
Open Learning Initiative (OLIve) at the University of East London has been preparing forced migrant students for university in the UK since 2019. One of the main barriers for creating meaningful support for forced migrants is the hostile environment which shifts border control to educational institutions; ever increasing bureaucratic pressures to follow and document procedures; and the neo-liberalisation of universities…
2020
The effect of local discourses adapted by teachers on Syrian child refugees’ schooling experiences in Turkey
This critical ethnography explains how and why refugee children experience schooling in specific ways by examining teachers’ use and interpretation of local refugee accommodation policies. It argues that locals’ understanding of refugee protection framework to host refugees generates discourses such as brotherhood/sisterhood and guest and these discourses have an impact on the schooling practices and teachers’ approaches to educating refugee…
2020
Teaching non-italian students: Italian adaptation of the questionnaire on teachers’ perspectives * [Insegnare agli studenti non italiani: Adattamento in italiano del questionario sulle percezioni degli insegnanti]
The survey of teachers’ perspectives on the teaching of refugees and immigrant pupils by Kurbegovic (2016) is used to evaluate five dimensions of teachers’ self-perception: Self-efficacy, Implementation Practices, Cultural Competence, Competence/Preparation and Student Needs. The present study is aimed at analysing the self-awareness of primary school teachers of the teaching of refugee and immigrant students in Italy. The survey of…
2020
Educational leading as pedagogical love: the case for refugee education
From a normative perspective, education serves a double purpose, that is, to prepare students to live well in a world worth living in. The practices of educational leadership are crucial elements in achieving this telos. In this article, we reimagine leading practices as pedagogical love, orchestrating conditions which enable refugee students’ academic achievements and overall school wellbeing. The article draws…
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
The attitude of polish youth towards migrants, and educational process planning in geography teaching using the example of selected groups of students from poznań and warsaw
The political destabilization in the Middle East has caused such a significant wave of migration to European countries, that the situation has evolved into a migration crisis. Research on the awareness and opinions on mass migration conducted among a selected group of Polish youth show how differentiated attitudes are - from moderately positive to extremely negative. At the same time,…
2020
Inclusive Education for Disabled Refugee Children: A (Re)Conceptualization through Krip-Hop
Inspired by Hip-Hop pedagogy and the Krip-Hop movement, this paper aims to address the limits of inclusive education for disabled migrant students, by drawing on the community event “I am Hip-Hop” that took place in June 2019 in Italy. Through this community intervention, migrant and disabled migrant youth were provided a creative platform to reflect critically about their identity and…
2020
Cooperative learning in swedish classrooms: Engagement and relationships as a focus for culturally diverse students
The ongoing refugee crisis makes intercultural competence and culturally responsive education crucial issues in schools. At the same time, increased migration poses new challenges for social cohesion in countries around the world. How schools and classrooms can be fair and inclusive in terms of experiences and outcomes for migrant and refugee students is therefore a key question. This paper will…
2020
Possibilities for a liberating pedagogy: A critical exploration of an Icelandic course for asylum seekers
Second-language learning courses that are often offered to asylum seekers provide a unique opportunity for a pedagogy of critique to be implemented. However, there is essentially no existing research in Iceland, and very little internationally, that considers the practicality of implementing a pedagogy of critique within second-language classrooms for asylum seekers. Moreover, the experiences of teachers and students within these…
2019
Critical inquiry into the education for refugee and migrant pupils: The construction of primary teachers' practices in one city in Scotland
Schools and teachers play key roles in promoting positive re-settlement outcomes for refugees and migrants. As such, this requires schools and teachers to identify and respond to their diverse linguistic, cultural and emotional needs (Pastoor, 2015; Block et al., 2015; Hek, 2005). As a result, teacher roles can stem beyond their traditional expectations when presented with refugee and migrant pupils…
2019
Attitudes' analysis of fifth grade Spanish and Greek pupils towards refugee children: The cases of Granada and Alexandroupolis
In 2015, the largest refugee crisis since World War II occurred in Europe with a constant increase in the number of people crossing the Mediterranean Sea seeking protection. It is estimated that half of the refugees and asylum seekers are children. In order for these children not to lose opportunities, host countries worked to provide them access to education, both…
2019
Syrian refugee children in Australia and Sweden: Education and survival among the displaced, dispossessed and disrupted
Both Australia and Sweden are economically, socially and politically well-developed countries and each has responded to the Syrian crisis in its own way with features that define refugee children’s schooling trajectories for transition to life and work. Syrian Refugee Children in Australia and Sweden provides insights into policies influencing the education and schooling of Syrian refugee children in Australia and…
2019
Compensating for Conflicting Policy Goals: Dilemmas of Teachers’ Work With Asylum-Seeking Pupils in Sweden
This article examines challenges experienced by teachers of asylum-seeking pupils in Sweden, where the right to education is part of a policy of promoting “normal life” during the asylum process. A theoretical framework contributed a deepened understanding of the teachers’ experiences as street-level bureaucrats. Interviews indicated that institutional factors, lack of training, and insufficient support within the educational system constrained…
2019
Integration of learning for refugee and migrant students: VET teachers’ practices through practice theory lens
The study reported here used a practice theory lens to understand vocational education and training (VET) teachers’ current practices in supporting integration of learning in educational institutions and workplaces–specifically for refugee and migrant students. A case study was conducted with 10 teachers delivering aged care programmes in South East Queensland, Australia and in a municipality in West Sweden. During in-depth…
2019
Jihadists and refugees at the theatre: Global conflicts in classroom practices in Sweden
In democratic societies schools have an obligation to address complex societal issues such as ethnic/religious tensions and social conflicts. The article reports an exploratory study of how theatre plays were used in upper-secondary schools to generate pedagogically relevant platforms for addressing the current Middle East conflicts and their impact on European societies in the context of religious education and civics.…
2019
New immigrants. An incentive for intercultural education?
This study was inspired by an inclusive intercultural perspective on education, and developed empirical knowledge concerning the intercultural professional development of in-service teachers. The study was conducted during the first year of a newly-designed master’s programme that focused on “education for refugees”. In the Netherlands master’s programmes in education qualify in-service teachers to contribute to school development, together with giving…
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
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
Safe and enabling elementary education environment for refugee and asylum seeking pupils
In Serbia, relevant ministry and state institutions cooperated with NGO’s in the process of including refugee and migrant children into formal education. Save the Children has taken part in the process by advocating for educational opportunities for children on the move, working directly with children, parents, teachers, local communities, and cooperating with the Ministry of Education in assessing the needs…
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
Denied inclusion of migration-related multilingualism: an ethnographic approach to a preparatory class for newly arrived children in Germany
This article reports on the initial findings from an ethnographic study conducted in a preparatory class for young refugees in Cologne, Germany. Focusing on the current language policy which aims to integrate newly arrived children into the German society through language assimilation in schools, this study examines how such policies (re)produce the monoglossic hegemony. We hold that language policies at…
2018
A case study of English-speaking native-born German public school educators' experiences with refugee and immigrant students
Teachers worldwide are adapting to meet educational needs caused by increased immigration. Germany has many immigrant students and ranks high in international education. This case study investigated experiences of English-speaking native-born German educators in Germany’s public primary schools when responding to refugee and immigrant students. Experiences when responding means how educators interact with immigrant students in school settings and perceive…
2017
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
The role of arts in raising ethical awareness and knowledge of the European refugee crisis among social work students. An example from the classroom
This paper presents and discusses an arts-based project, carried out by the first-year students in the classroom, at the Department of Social Work, in Athens, Greece. The project was designed for raising ethical awareness and knowledge of the 2015 Europe’s refugee crisis among social work students. The purpose of this project was three-fold: (1) to help students to better understand…
2017
Working in Sex Education with Young Migrants: A Practical Insight [Sexualpädagogische Arbeit mit jungen Geflüchteten - Ein Praxiseinblick]
In this practical contribution two projects are presented that the authors conducted independently from one another and which are located chronologically before and after the noticeably major immigration wave in Germany in 2015: Christina Witz worked on the short film Good to know - an appointment with the gynaecologist with young farsi-speaking women in a long-term project at the media…
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
Rethinking refugee education: Principles, policies and practice from a European perspective
The significant increase in refugees in Europe and worldwide during 2015 challenges the paradigm of refugee education. For many decades, 'refugee education' has been primarily associated with the education of refugees in countries far-away as the majority of the world's displaced persons and refugees are hosted by countries in the Global South. However, the recent European 'refugee crisis', that is,…
2016
Towards a well-being focussed language pedagogy: enabling arts-based, multilingual learning spaces for young people with refugee backgrounds
Abstract: The following article explores the conceptual background and pedagogical realities of establishing a well-being focussed language pedagogy in the context of an informal educational event called ‘Language Fest’. The event was organised as part of the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded large grant project ‘Researching Multilingually at the Borders of Language, the Body, Law and the State’ –…
2016