Issues in Teaching Refugees in U.S. Schools

Abstract

The schooling experience of refugee 1 students in the United States is inherently complex and demonstrates tensions between students' high aspirations and true opportunities present within the host culture. The majority of refugees view education as the key to economic mobility and hope for the future. However, the literature on refugee achievement demonstrates that, for refugees, academic success is rife with challenges and often illusory. Many of these challenges arise from class and racial struggles. Educators play an essential role in supporting refugee students and their families in attaining their goals. This chapter focuses on various refugee groups in U.S. schools and draws from educational experiences of refugee students in the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. It illustrates how refugees are often treated as one homogeneous group, positioning "refugee-ness" as a condition to be overcome, even while individuals recognize the diversity of refugee backgrounds. Two additional themes emerge from existing research: (1) the inherent isolation of the refugee experience and (2) the agency of both refugee youth and parents. The last section of this chapter presents a number of promising practices and recommendations for educators. BACKGROUNDThis section presents a cursory look at statistics on refugees in the United States, the role of schooling within the refugee experience, and

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