Webinar agenda In the Classroom and Beyond: Supporting Refugee Students 1. Presentation by Snežana Ratković , Research Officer and Instructor, Faculty of Education, Brock University, Canada 2. Interview by Stavroula Kaldi, Professor, Department of Primary Education, University of Thessaly, Greece in conversation Snežana Ratković 3. Q&A moderated by Kim Turner , Cities of Migration, Global Diversity Exchange, Ryerson University (Toronto, Canada) Webinar recording will be available on the website: www.citiesofmigration.ca This webinar is produced in partnership with Emerging Scholars and Practitioners on Migration Issues (ESPMI) Network.
Snežana Ratković Research Officer and Instructor, Faculty of Education, Brock University, Canada sratkovic@brocku.ca 2
IN THE CLASSROOM AND BEYOND: SUPPORTING REFUGEE STUDENTS Snežana Ratković, Claire Ellis, Dragana Kovačević , Courtney A. Brewer, Neelofar Ahmed, & Janelle Brady May 31, 2018
CANADIAN CONTEXT • Between January 2015 and July 2017, over 84,000 refugees resettled to Canada, including 43% of youth under the age of 17. • “Teachers are saying that they don't know how to respond to refugee children” (Dufresne, 2015, para. 4) . • School systems across the country lack policy guidance (Brewer, 2016).
PROJECT OVERVIEW We conducted a scoping review of Canadian literature and education policy in the last 20 years to • explore the extent, range, and nature of research activity in the field of refugee students’ education, resettlement, and wellbeing in Canada; • identify gaps in the existing literature and policy; • determine the value of undertaking a full systematic review; and • discuss implications for future research, practice, and policy. 6
RESEARCH QUESTIONS • How do refugee students experience transition to the Canadian K-12 education system? • How do teachers educate and support refugee students in their schools? • How do education policies guide and support refugee students’ education, resettlement, and well-being? • How do resettlement agencies support refugee students’ education, resettlement, and well-being?
FINDINGS: KEY MESSAGES • There are gaps in Canadian refugee education literature and policy. • Refugee students continue to experience socio- psychological challenges in the Canadian K-12 classroom. • Asset-based approaches to refugee student education enhance Canadian educational systems. • Well-being of a child is an important focus in practice and policy.
FINDINGS: GAPS IN LITERATURE AND POLICY • Limited research studies focusing on refugee student education and the strategies teachers, policy makers, and the communities utilize to smoothen the refugee student transition to Canadian schools (23 studies in the last 20 years) • Limited inter-provincial curriculum and policy dialogue and consultation • Limited Canadian sources informing Canadian educational policy • Limited knowledge about transnational 9 research and collaboration
• Fostering intensive language and differentiated instruction. • Facilitating multicultural story share. • Setting high expectations for all students. • Communicating verbal, clear, and consistent expectations. • Using creative arts, which encourage respectful connections FINDINGS: WHAT WORKS among students, as well as between the IN THE CLASSROOM students and the teacher. 10
• Developing collaborative multi- level approaches based on trust, community, and mutuality. • Implementing school based prevention programs, which alternatives to health services often underused by refugee youth. • Generating timely knowledge and sustainable teaching FINDINGS: WHAT WORKS praxis through proactive research and IN THE CLASSROOM instruction. 11
FINDINGS: PROMISING POLICIES • Provinces that provide an asset-based approach, and distinguish between immigrants and refugees, have more relevant policies and guides for educators. • Partnerships between policymakers, educators, and community services are emerging across Canada. • Some provinces are sharing resources and research findings.
Educators must ask themselves the following questions: • “Who benefits, and who is disadvantaged? • Who is included, and who is excluded? • Who is privileged, and who is marginalized? • Who is legitimated, and who is devalued? • To whom are we listening, and who are we not hearing? RECOMMENDATIONS • What data are we using for our decision making?” FOR EDUCATORS (Shield as cited in Nur, 2012, p. 39) 13
• Pursuing deep professional development. • Developing an asset-based approach to refugee student education. • Fostering an inclusive, anti-racist, and pro- diversity education. • Challenging white supremacy and othering. • Working with resettlement agencies and programs for refugee families. • Fostering bilingual education. • Scaffolding student learning. RECOMMENDATIONS • Implementing differentiated instruction. FOR EDUCATORS (CONT.) • Nurturing artistic expressions. 14
• Tutoring. • Providing extracurricular activities. • Creating flexible schedules. • Providing child care. • Learning from refugee student parents. • Learning from/with refugee teachers and their pedagogies. • Conducting longitudinal action research and comparative studies. RECOMMENDATIONS • Adopting a holistic, cross- FOR EDUCATORS (CONT.) cultural, and multi-sector approach. 15
POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS • Mobilizing policies and resources across provinces and territories. • Exchanging policies across national borders. • Providing training for all stakeholders in education. • Creating and supporting resettlement programs for refugee families. • Supporting existing and developing new cross-sector partnerships. • Mobilizing refugee teachers and their pedagogies. • Funding refugee education research.
POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS (CONT.) • Trickling down policies and resources from federal to provincial and territorial levels. • Providing online open access to policy documents across provinces. • Posting readable text. • Tagging existing documents properly. • Housing policy documents in a repository (Saskatchewan). • Providing education policies and community resources (Manitoba).
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
BIBLIOGRAPHY Arksey, H. and O’Malley, L. (2005). Scoping studies: Towards a methodological framework. International Journal of Social Research Methodologies, 8 (1), 19-32. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1364557032000119616 Brewer, C. (2016). An outline for including refugees in Canadian educational policy. Canadian Journal for New Scholars in Education, 7 (1), 133-141. Davis K, Drey N, & Gould, D. (2009). What are scoping studies? A review of the nursing literature . International Journal of Nursing Studies, 46 , 386 – 1400. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (2016a ). #WelcomeRefugees Phase 1: Identifying Syrian refugees to come to Canada . Retrieved from http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/refugees/welcome/phase1.asp Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (2016b). #WelcomeRefugees: Canada resettled Syrian refugees. Retrieved from http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/refugees/welcome/ Domon0ske, C. (2016). Refugees, displaced people surpass 60 million for first time, UNHCR says. The two way breaking news from npr. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo- way/2016/06/20/482762237/refugees-displaced-people-surpass-60-million-for-first-time-unhcr- says Dufresne, S. (2015, December 1). Canadian researcher worries teachers unprepared for Syrian students . CBC News. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/teachers- unprepared-syrian-refugees-1.3345253 Kovačević, D. (2016). Yugoslavian refugee children in Canadian schools: The role of transformative leadership in overcoming the social, psychological, and academic barriers to successful integration (Major research paper, Brock University, St. Catharines, Canada).
BIBLIOGRAPHY (CONT.) Levac, D., Colquhoun, H., & O’Brien, K. K. (2010). Scoping studies: Advancing the methodology. Implementation Science , 5(69). Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1748-5908-5-69 Nur, S. (2012). Leadership paradigms informing the way school administrators work with Somali immigrant students: Case studies of two high schools in an urban school district (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Illinois, Urbana, IL. Ontario Ministry of Education. (2013). The Ontario curriculum Grades 9 and 10: Canadian and world studies . Retrieved from http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/secondary/canworld.html Ratković, S. (2015). Militarism, motherhood, and teaching: A Yugoslav -Canadian case. In N. Taber (Ed.), Learning gendered militarism in Canada (pp. 147-172). Edmonton, AB: University of Alberta Press. Rousseau, C., & Machouf, A. (2005). A preventive pilot project addressing multi-ethnic tensions in the wake of the Iraq war. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 75 , 466 – 474. UNHCR. (2016, June 20 ). With 1 human in every 113 affected, forced displacement hits record high . Retrieved from http://www.unhcr.org/en-us/news/press/2016/6/5763ace54/1-human- 113-affected-forced-displacement-hits-record-high.html UNHCR. (2017). Figures at a glance: Statistical yearbooks . Retrieved from http://www.unhcr.org/figures-at-a-glance.html
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