Teachers for Immigrant Students: A Systematic Literature Review Across Hong Kong, Turkey, and the United States

Abstract

Background: Diversity across the world is changing, given the growing number of immigrant children in schools. These increases in transnational mobility have teachers struggling to reconsider their everyday practices to accommodate many more newcomers in their classrooms. The need for teachers to become more responsive to changing social conditions and student populations is gaining urgency. Purpose: Our purpose in this study is to gain insight into what the literature says about educating immigrant children through the lens of social justice in Turkey, the United States, and Hong Kong, as each context presents a distinct case of immigration. Research Design: We conduct a systematic literature review on 87 articles, selected from teaching and teacher education journals. In light of documented inequities experienced by immigrant children, we conduct our review within a framework of teaching immigrant students globally within, versus parallel to, the field of teaching for social justice. Findings: Through cross-jurisdiction inquiry, our findings reveal both examples and counterexamples of teaching for social justice, categorized into three cross-cutting themes: (a) Ways of Teaching, (b) Ways of Knowing, and (c) Ways of Seeing. Among the literature, we found a significant focus on language acquisition in the teaching of immigrant students. Another pattern was the ways in which teachers and teacher education value (or not) immigrant students’ funds of knowledge by building on (or rejecting) what students and their communities bring to their learning. Finally, our review demonstrated how teacher educators and teachers encourage, challenge, and teach preservice teachers and students to work against institutional and societal structures that are oppressive for immigrant students. Conclusion: The global reality of superdiversity among immigrant students calls on teachers to be pedagogically adept to respect and support multiple ways of teaching, knowing, and seeing. Research on social justice education for immigrants needs to move beyond language acquisition/deficit as the primary lens for analysis to consider the assets that immigrants bring to classrooms. Despite the differences in the experiences of (im)migrant students in each of the national contexts, social justice must be embedded in teacher education to ensure inclusive and culturally responsive teaching for all.

Navigating collaborative learning across national boundaries: a comparative study of educators’ perspectives in Israel and Turkey

“…Moreover, as the findings pointed out, the need for more flexible curricula that allow autonomy in teaching methods without time constraints should be considered. Research in Turkey already supports the need for preparation programs to focus on developing assetsbased perceptions, pedagogical approaches for refugees, and culturally relevant curricula (Lee et al, 2021). Policymakers should consider the need for more flexible curricula that allow educators to explore innovative teaching methods without feeling constrained by time pressures.…”

“…Furthermore, research indicates a gap between awareness and the knowledge and skills necessary for managing multicultural and diverse class environments (Aslan, 2017). Despite Turkish teachers expressing a positive view of multicultural and pluralistic settings environments (Başarır, 2012;Özdemir and Dil, 2013;Demircioğlu and Özdemir, 2014;Aslan, 2017), they do not feel adequately prepared to address the needs of culturally diverse classrooms (Lee et al, 2021).…”

Teacher Education Reimagined: A Letter to Teacher Educators on Preparing Teachers to Educate Refugee Students

“…Currently, there is silence on the perspectives and experiences of teacher educators regarding the preparation of teachers who can teach all students including refugee children. This silence may lead to the perpetuation of deficit-based portrayals, characterizing refugee students as others, deprived, and deficient (Baak, 2019;Goodwin et al, in press;Hummelstedt, Holm, Sahlström, & Zilliacus, 2021;Lee, Akin-Sabuncu, Goodwin, & McDevitt, 2021). In this context, this research is among the first studies which explore teacher educators' perspectives on preparing future teachers in the context of refugee education from a theoretical standpoint.…”