Webinar agenda In the Classroom and Beyond: Supporting Refugee - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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.

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Snežana Ratković Research Officer and Instructor, Faculty of Education, Brock University, Canada sratkovic@brocku.ca

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%

• f 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.

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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

research and collaboration

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FINDINGS: WHAT WORKS IN THE CLASSROOM

• 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 among students, as well as between the students and the teacher.

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FINDINGS: WHAT WORKS IN THE CLASSROOM

• 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 praxis through proactive research and instruction.

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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.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR EDUCATORS

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?

• What data are we using

for our decision making?”

(Shield as cited in Nur, 2012, p. 39)

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RECOMMENDATIONS FOR EDUCATORS (CONT.)

• 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.

• Implementing

differentiated instruction.

• Nurturing artistic

expressions.

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• 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.

• Adopting a holistic, cross-

cultural, and multi-sector approach.

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RECOMMENDATIONS FOR EDUCATORS (CONT.)

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

• f 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

• f 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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Stavroula Kaldi Professor, Department of Primary Education, University of Thessaly, Greece kaldi@uth.gr

In Greece, 62.000 refugees are hosted and located. Among them, 20,000 children (0- 18 years old) and 3.150 unaccompanied children have been recorded (Source: http://gr.euronews.com/2017/06/20/refugees-integration-through-education)

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Refugees in Greece (2018)

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Fundamental Education Targets (Greece)

Right to education

Facilitation to education Integration & Psychological Support Educational Programme

(Source: https://government.gov.gr/wp- content/uploads/2017/04/gr_fact_sheet_refugee _print_19_01_2017-2.pdf)

Challenges (Greece). . .

Teaching Staff

Non permanent Non fully equipped Non fully informed in Intercultural Education

Teaching Staff

Specialized training by national universities or private institutions (e.g. http://www.press-eap.net/ & https://elearn.elke.uoa.gr/show_pr

• grams.php?catID=all&prID=736 ).

Students’ attendance

Unstable- non systematic Drop-out

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State

Difficult tasks and time pressure

Institution of Educational Policy (IEP) Educational

platform for refugee education

http://www.iep.edu.gr/el/component /k2/content/50-ekpaidefsi-prosfygon

Acknowledgments

In the Classroom and Beyond: Supporting Refugee Students

www.citiesofmigration.org

• Snežana Ratković, Research Officer and Instructor,

Faculty of Education, Brock University, Canada

• Stavroula Kaldi, Professor, Department of Primary

Education, University of Thessaly, Greece

• Kim Turner, Cities of Migration, Ryerson University,

Toronto, Canada