Divergent paths, same destiny: A Bourdieusian perspective on refugee families' negotiation of urban school transition in the US

Abstract

This article documents five refugee families and their children's efforts to reestablish themselves in an urban school context in the US. A thematic analysis of the families' negotiation with the urban school system, the language programmes and their home engagement practices suggests that they were subjected to symbolic violence brought upon by the precarious context of reception, the monolingual ideologies and the hegemonic practices of the urban schools and resettlement policies and agencies. Such symbolic violence systematically fractured their language learning, educational success, and upward social mobility. Therefore, despite their divergent paths of immigration and resettlement, the children shared similar stories of system blockage, inertia, and fragmentation. These shared trajectories suggest the need for multi-layered changes to remove blockages in the education and immigration system, transform the dispositions and practices of the key players, including policy makers, school administrators and teachers, and raise critical consciousness among the refugees. 470 |

What Attitudes Toward Refugees Do Future European Teachers Have? A Comparative Analysis between France and Spain

“…The role of teachers seems to be one of the keys to the process of welcoming and integrating refugees. Studies carried out in different locations show that teachers are not still well prepared to welcome refugees, showing a lack of knowledge about their situations, and negative attitudes towards them, and acting with low empathy and intercultural competence [8,9]. In places with a high percentage of newly arrived refugees, such as Turkey, young and future teachers show a less caring and empathetic perspective to new refugees, with high levels of social refusal [10,11].…”

Stopped Listening

“…Education is seen as a vehicle for social mobility, adding pressure on refugee-background learners to succeed (Li, 2018). Learners with extensive obligations of school, family, and work may see extra-curricular activities as leisure they cannot afford.…”

The Socio-Educational Adaptation of Secondary School Migrant Students in Sicily: Migrant Generation, School Linguistic Mediation and Teacher Proactivity Factors

“…It must enroll and educate immigrant students with or without language proficiency and also adapt the curriculum contents and didactic strategies to the needs of these students (Babane 2020;Cavicchiolo et al 2020) so that they acquire essential instrumental learning and social skills that facilitate the ability to develop in the new environment (Soriano Ayala et al 2019). This complicated situation, coupled with the lack of willingness of teachers (Murua-Carton et al 2012) and their limited training to deal with new multicultural contexts (Rizova et al 2020), makes it difficult to act in these new multicultural contexts (Rizova et al 2020), or improve the integration of this group (Jolliffe and Speers 2016;Li 2018).…”