BALANCING WHOLE-SCHOOL AND SPECIALIST APPROACHES: “BEST PRACTICE” FOR REFUGEE LITERACY EDUCATION BETWEEN 2006 AND 2020

Harrison James Spratling

Abstract


Arguably the most important aspect of education for students from refugee backgrounds is literacy, so it is important for educators to be aware of best-practice approaches to literacy education for these students. By analyzing themes of best practice for refugee literacy education found in pre- and post-2011 academic literature, this study aims to detect shifts in what academics deem to be “best practice” in this field over time. The study finds evidence of a general shift towards holistic education as best practice for refugee literacy education; however, specialized intervention has grown in emphasis amongst academics focusing on non-classroom interventions such as mental health support and pre-mainstream literacy courses. This means schools and educators must maintain robust connections with external service providers and continuously improve their own professional practice in line with current best-practice pedagogies.


Keywords


Refugee education; literacy; best practice; whole-school approach; specialist approach; refugee education; pedagogies; educational chronology

Full Text:

PDF

References


Block, K., Cross, S., Riggs, E. & Gibbs, L. (2014). Supporting schools to create an inclusive

environment for refugee students. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 18(12), 1137-1355. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2014.899636.

Braun, V. & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3, 77-101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa.

Brown, J., Miller, J. & Mitchell, J. (2006). Interrupted schooling and the acquisition of literacy: Experiences of Sudanese refugees in Victorian secondary schools. Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 29(2), 150-162. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/ielapa.157075354919791.

Bruinenberg, H., Sprenger, S., Omerović, E., & Leurs, K. (2021). Practicing critical media

literacy education with/for young migrants: Lessons learned from a participatory action research project. International Communication Gazette, 83(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/1748048519883511.

Cranitch, M. (2010). Developing language and literacy skills to support refugee students in the transition from primary to secondary school. Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 33(3), 255-267. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03651838.

Dooley, K. T. & Thangaperumal, P. (2011). Pedagogy and participation: Literacy education for low-literate refugee students of African origin in a western school system. Language and Education, 25(5), 385-397, https://doi.org/10.1080/09500782.2011.573075.

Dwyer, E., & McCloskey, M. L. (2013). Literacy, Teens, Refugees, and Soccer. Refuge:

Canada’s Journal on Refugees, 29(1), 87–101. https://doi.org/10.25071/1920-7336.37509.

Ferfolja, T. & Vickers, M. (2010). Supporting refugee students in school education in Greater

Western Sydney. Critical Studies in Education, 51(2), 149-162. https://doi.org/10.1080/17508481003731034.

Ferfolja, T., & Naidoo, L. (2010). Supporting Refugee Students Through the Refugee Action

Support (RAS) Program: What Works in Schools. University of Western Sydney. Retrieved from https://researchdirect.westernsydney.edu.au/islandora/object/uws:26717.

Ferreira, J., Kendrick, M., & Early, M. (2022). Migrant and Refugee Background Students

Learning Through Play. Reading Teacher, 75(4). https://doi.org/10.1002/trtr.2072.

Gándara, P., & Contreras, F. (2022). 5. Inside the Lives of Puente Students. In The Latino

Education Crisis. https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674056367-006.

Gömleksiz, M. N., & Aslan, S. (2018). The Views of Secondary School Teachers about

Refugee Students. Education Reform Journal, 3(1), 32-44. https://doi.org/10.22596/erj2018.0301.32.44.

Hsieh, H. F., & Shannon, H. E. (2005). Three approaches to qualitative content Analysis.

Qualitative Health Research, 15(9), 1277-88. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732305276687.

Kaplan, I., Stolk, Y., Valibhoy, M. & Tucker, A. (2015). Cognitive assessment of refugee

children: Effects of trauma and new language acquisition, Transcultural Psychiatry, 53(1), 81-109. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363461515612933.

Kaukko, M., Wilkinson, J., & Kohli, R. K. (2021). Pedagogical love in Finland and Australia: A study of refugee children and their teachers. Pedagogy, Culture and Society. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681366.2020.1868555.

Kaysılı, A., Soylu, A., & Sever, M. (2019). Exploring major roadblocks on inclusive education of Syrian refugees in school settings. Turkish Journal of Education, 8(2), 109-128. https://doi.org/10.19128/turje.496261.

Leskinen, K. (2023). Refugee-background students negotiating academic literacy practices in L2: A dialogical and nexus analytical approach. European Journal of Applied Linguistics, 11(1). https://doi.org/10.1515/eujal-2021-0005.

Lynch, D. (2006). Enhancing literacy education for refugee children. In Rose, 2006, Literacy and Social Responsibility: Training Teachers to Teach Reading Across the Curriculum. Public lecture for Literacy and Social Responsibility lecture series, University of Sydney. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/239925163_Literacy_and_Social_Responsibility_Training_Teachers_to_Teach_Reading_Across_the_Curriculum.

Maguire, M., & Delahunt, B. (2017). Doing a thematic analysis: A practical, step-by-step guide for learning and teaching scholars. All Ireland Journal of Higher Education, 9(3). https://ojs.aishe.org/index.php/aishe-j/article/view/335/553.

Matthews, J. (2008). Schooling and settlement: Refugee education in Australia. International

Studies in Sociology of Education, 18(1), 31-45. https://doi.org/10.1080/09620210802195947.

McBrien, J. L. (Eds.) (2019). Educational Policies and Practices of English-Speaking Refugee Resettlement Countries. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004401891.

McIntyre, J., & Abrams, F. (2020). Refugee Education: Theorising practice in schools (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429263811.

Meloche, A., Provinzano, K., Sondergeld, T., & Moy, M. (2020). Examining academic, non-

academic, and college readiness outcomes of urban immigrant and refugee youth (IRY) in full-service community schools. Children and Youth Services Review, 119. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.105489.

Merga, M., 2020. “Fallen through the cracks”: Teachers’ perceptions of barriers faced by

struggling literacy learners in secondary school, English in Education, 54(4), 371-395, https://doi.org/10.1080/04250494.2019.1672502.

Midgette, E. & González, J. (2023) "Trauma-Informed Teaching of Literature to

Multilingual Learner Refugees: In Search for Balance between Cultural Responsiveness and Curriculum Sensitivity," Journal of Multilingual Education Research, 12(11), 11-38. https://doi.org/10.5422/jmer.2022-2023.v12.11-38.

Miller, J. & Windle, J. (2010). Second language literacy: Putting high needs ESL learners in the frame. English in Australia, 45(3), 31–40. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/ielapa.732612145078267.

Miller, J. (2009). Teaching refugee learners with interrupted education in science: Vocabulary, literacy and pedagogy. International Journal of Science Education, 31(4), 571–592. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500690701744611.

Miller, J., Mitchell, J. & Brown, J. (2005). African refugees with interrupted schooling in the

high school mainstream: Dilemmas for teachers. Prospect: An Australian Journal of TESOL, 20(2), 19-33. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/aeipt.145113.

Miller, E., Ziaian, T. & Esterman, A. (2018). Australian school practices and the education

experiences of students with a refugee backgrounds: A review of the literature. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 22(4), 339–359. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2017.1365955.

Morrice, L., Tip, L. K., Brown, R., & Collyer, M. (2020). Resettled refugee youth and education: Aspiration and reality. Journal of Youth Studies, 23(3), 388-405. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2019.1612047.

Naidoo, L., (2012a). United by Language, Literacy and Learning: Creating spaces in schools to support refugee literacy. PRISM: A Journal of Regional Engagement, 1(2). https://encompass.eku.edu/prism/vol1/iss2/5.

Naidoo, L. (2012b). Refugee action support: Crossing borders in preparing pre-service teachers for literacy teaching in secondary schools in Greater Western Sydney. International Journal of Pedagogies and Learning, 7(3), 266-274. https://doi.org/10.5172/ijpl.2012.7.3.266.

Nation, P. (2022). Learning vocabulary in another language. Cambridge UK: Cambridge

University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139524759.

Nation, P., & Macalister J. (2020). Teaching ESL/EFL reading and writing. New York &

London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203891643.

Olioumtsevits, K., Papadopoulou, D., & Marinis, T. (2023). Vocabulary Teaching in Refugee

Children within the Context of the Greek Formal Education. Languages, 8(1). https://doi.org/10.3390/languages8010007.

Prentice, C. (2022). Educators’ interactions with refugee pupils: Knowledge, attitudes, and

practices [Doctoral dissertation]. University of Oxford. Retrieved from https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:6e82d545-a1d5-406d-801c-3afa47131664/download_file?file_format=application%2Fpdf&safe_filename=Prentice_2022_interactions_refugee_pupils.pdf&type_of_work=Thesis.

Rose, D. (2006). Literacy and Social Responsibility: Training Teachers to Teach Reading

Across the Curriculum. Public lecture for Literacy and Social Responsibility lecture series, University of Sydney. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/239925163_Literacy_and_Social_Responsibility_Training_Teachers_to_Teach_Reading_Across_the_Curriculum.

Rousseau, C., Gauthier, M. F., Lacroix, L., Alain, N., Benoit, M., Moran, A., Rojas, M. V., & Bourassa, D. (2006). Du jeu des identités à la transformation de réalités partagées : un programme d’ateliers d’expression théâtrale pour adolescents immigrants et réfugiés [Playing with identities and transforming shared realities: Drama therapy workshops for adolescent immigrants and refugees]. Ethnopsychiatrie, 32(2), 135-52. https://doi.org/10.7202/014808ar.

Shah, S., Siddharth, M., & Yun, K. (2014). Health issues in refugee children. In A. Annamalai (Ed.) Refugee health care (pp. 215–234). New York, NY: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-0271-2_16.

Simsir, Z., & Dilmac, B. (2018). Yabancı Uyruklu Öğrencilerin Eğitim Görduğu Ökullarda

Öğretmenlerin Karşılaştığı Sörunlar ve Çözum Önerileri [Problems Teachers' Face and Solution Proposals in the Schools Where the Foreign Students Are Educated]. Elementary Education Online, 17(3), 1719-37. https://doi.org/10.17051/ilkonline.2018.466425.

Spratling, H. (2022). Towards The Whole-School Approach: The Changing Nature of “Best

Practice” For Refugee Education in Australia. International Journal of Educational Best Practices, 6(1), 68-97. http://dx.doi.org/10.31258/ijebp.v6n1.

Street, B. (1993). Los Nuevos Estudios de Literacidad [The New Literacy Studies]. In Zavala,

V., NiÑo-Murica, M., & Ames, P. (Eds.) (2004). Escritura y sociedad: Nuevas perspectivas teóricas y etnográficas (pp. 81-107). Red para el Desarrollo de las Ciencias Sociales en el Perú, Network for the Development of Social Sciences in Peru, Lima. Retrieved from https://www.estudiosdelaescritura.org/uploads/4/7/8/1/47810247/zavala_et_al_2004_escritura_y_sociedad.nuevas_perspectivas.pdf.

Taylor, S., & Sidhu, R. K. (2011). Supporting refugee students in schools: What constitutes

inclusive education? International Journal of Inclusive Education, 16(1), 39–56. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603110903560085.

Windle, J. & Miller, J. (2012). Approaches to teaching low literacy refugee background

Students. Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 35(3), 317-333. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.793977780022509.

Woods, A. (2009). Learning to be Literate: Issues of Pedagogy for Recently Arrived Refugee

Youth in Australia. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 6(1-2), 81-101. https://doi.org/10.1080/15427580802679468.

Young, H. A. (2022). Building Intercultural Capacity in School Teams to Support Refugee

Students. The Organizational Improvement Plan at Western University, 272. Western University. Retrieved from https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/oip/272.




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.31258/ijebp.v8n1.p103-125

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2024 International Journal of Educational Best Practices

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.