Learning and Teaching With Loss: Meeting the Needs of Refugee Children Through Narrative Inquiry

Abstract

Providing refugee students with a safe and welcoming classroom environment is critical for school success but largely dependent on teachers' knowledge, values, practices, and attitudes. This qualitative study juxtaposes the experience of one refugee students' experience in the school system and one beginning teachers' experience in working with and meeting the psychosocial and educational needs of refugee students in the classroom. Using narrative inquiry, from the perspective of a refugee student and a beginning teacher, this study identifies themes and key issues related to teaching refugee students. These experiences are compared to the current literature on refugee education to highlight the beliefs and values that teachers bring to their practice. Findings reveal that there are gaps in beginning teachers' knowledge about who refugees are, their experiences, and how best to support them in the classroom. Some teachers also held negative attitudes and perspective of refugee students and failed to develop a nuanced perspective of diversity and multiculturalism. This study also shows how narrative inquiry, in the formal of a personal history account, can be used as tool to surface, challenge, and overcome negative stereotypes, biases, and assertions that prevent teachers from effectively supporting their students.

“The Teacher is not a Magician”: Teacher Training in Greek Reception Facilities for Refugee Education

“…Unfortunately, when teachers have not been properly trained so that they understand the difficulties and experiences of refugee children, they often misinterpret the efforts of the students and their families to adapt to their new environment (Hones, 2002;OECD, 2018). Misunderstandings due to cultural differences result in prejudice and discrimination (Kovinthan, 2016). As a consequence, students who are already trying to overcome language and cultural difficulties have to try to also overcome these negative attitudes (Fisher, Wallace, & Fenton, 2000;Wingfield & Karaman, 2001).…”

Breaking silence: The voices of Syrian refugee children in the Canadian classroom

“…The perceived disconnect between instruction and students' learning needs is reflective of the challenges experienced by ELLs in previous studies: limited scaffolding and engagement, teacher-directed instruction and discussion, difficulty understanding instruction and content, and lack of personally relevant tasks and resources (Cummins et al, 2012;Windle & Miller, 2012). Participants who shared their experiences and concerns regarding instructional strategies, as well as their request for classroom management, suggested the need for greater teacher awareness towards instructional approaches and students' learning styles and needs (Kovinthan, 2016). This echoes findings in the literature, which assert teachers have a part in how the academic and social components of schooling are experienced by students (Cummins et al, 2012;MacNevin, 2012).…”

“It’s Just Not What We See”

“…Block et al (2014) report findings on a holistic school based model where teachers are trained through a series of professional development workshops on the kinds of stressors refugee students might face and how to provide socioemotional support in the classroom. Other researchers highlight the importance of teachers creating environments where refugee students can best learn, which includes sensitivity to possible traumatic exposure during the pre-, trans-, and post-migratory stages and creating empathetic and strong relationships to students (Block et al, 2014;Kovinthan, 2016;Stewart, 2012). Indeed, teachers must be equipped to be able to identify and help support the students who would benefit from trauma-informed practices and traumacentered supports (Sadler & Clark, 2014;Stewart 2011).…”

“…Nastasi, Overstreet, and Summerville (2011) suggest additional professional development support needs to be put in place for teachers, writing, "Teachers expressed concern that they might not always know what to say in response to students sharing their feelings, that they would become overwhelmed with their own feelings, and that the curriculum was an additional demand being placed on them during an already challenging year" (p. 546). Many have called for teachers to become more central in trauma-informed schools and to be provided with better training for facilitating healthy classroom environments for refugee students (Clark, 2017;Gormez et al, 2017;Hadfield, 2017;Kovinthan, 2016;Montero et al, 2012;Stewart, 2011Stewart, , 2012Sullivan & Simonson, 2015).…”

“…Despite the need for teachers to be trained to best support refugee students, research demonstrates that training is often inadequate or completely absent for Canadian teachers (Clark, 2017;Hadfield, 2017;Kovinthan, 2016;Montero et al, 2012;Stewart, 2011Stewart, , 2012. Importantly, the writing on the importance of training teachers often provides scant details on what trainings currently exist, what trainings they would propose, and what teachers themselves find to be the most helpful aspects of trauma training.…”