Views of Adolescent Bhutanese Refugees on Home Learning During School Shutdown Across the Period of COVID-19

Abstract

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is now a global crisis, resulting in the intermittent closure of many schools, worldwide. The school closures are believed to have affected adolescents’ education, particularly for vulnerable adolescents including those from a refugee-background. The study explores the home learning experiences of adolescent Bhutanese refugees in Tasmania, Australia and draws on social capital theory to interpret findings. Interviews with adolescent Bhutanese refugees revealed four overarching themes: disengagement from learning, the experience of isolation, the complexity of family relationships and motivation through relationships. This article makes an important practical and theoretical contribution to home learning through challenging Putnam’s binary distinction between bonding and bridging and suggesting alternative conceptualisations based on the role of bonding in the creation of bridging social capital. These findings have potential implications for the development of mitigation measures to support refugee-background students under extraordinary circumstances.

“We will need to build up the atmosphere of trust again”: Service providers’ perceptions of experiences of COVID-19 amongst resettled refugee adolescents

“…While the compounded impacts of the pandemic on the health and socioeconomic well-being of immigrants and refugees in the U.S. have been highlighted previously [46], the present data reveal the extent to which service providers struggled to identify and employ approaches to adequately address these challenges for their students. These findings are also echoed in research on adolescent resettled refugees' experiences in Canada and Australia during the pandemic [36,47], as well as other resettled refugee populations in the U.S, such as Rohingya refugees [48].…”

“…Although research on COVID-19's impact on refugee mental health is limited, there is some evidence which suggests that COVID-19 has triggered traumatic memories in refugees, worsening their overall mental health [33], while some adolescent refugees, particularly those from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region already face higher risks of experiencing suicidal ideation associated with migration and stressful life events [34]. Alongside reinforcing existing health and social inequities, there is a risk that COVID-19 school closures disproportionately impact students who are already disadvantaged in terms of material support and personal and academic preparedness for home learning [24,35,36]. Disproportionate learning loss and educational attainment largely attributed to language barriers may contribute to the phenomenon of non-English speaking students in English-dominant communities being 50% more likely to be categorized as academically low-performing during the COVID-19 pandemic [24,[36][37][38][39].…”

“…Alongside reinforcing existing health and social inequities, there is a risk that COVID-19 school closures disproportionately impact students who are already disadvantaged in terms of material support and personal and academic preparedness for home learning [24,35,36]. Disproportionate learning loss and educational attainment largely attributed to language barriers may contribute to the phenomenon of non-English speaking students in English-dominant communities being 50% more likely to be categorized as academically low-performing during the COVID-19 pandemic [24,[36][37][38][39].…”

Urban Refugees’ Digital Experiences and Social Connections During Covid-19 Response in Kampala, Uganda

“…Social capital is thus derived from an individual's observations, attitudes, and behaviors, identification with or in networks through participation and civic engagement, community activities, connections in work, religious and political environments, volunteering, social movements, and online platforms, as well as through symbolic relations of exchange. Mudwari et al (2021) state that recent scholars of social capital have expanded the concept to allow for more nuanced interpretations of bonds, bridges, and links (see also Putnam, 2000). Bonding social capital emerges from supportive relationships between people within a family, group, or co-ethnic community as a form of belonging.…”

Učenci s priseljenskim ozadjem pri pouku na daljavo v drugem valu epidemije bolezni Covid-19 v Sloveniji

“…Kot posebej ranljivi pri šolanju v pandemiji koronavirusa so se v različnih državah po svetu pokazali otroci begunci (npr. Edmonds & Flahault, 2021;Mudwari et al, 2021;Primdahl et al, 2021). Neustrezno odzivanje šol in podpornih institucij na ovire (materialne, jezikovne in socialne), ki so UPO dodatno onemogočile vključenost v izobraževanje na daljavo v prvem valu epidemije, nakazujejo povečanje tveganja za neenake možnosti in izide izobraževanja zanje, tako v Sloveniji (Gornik et al, 2020) kot v drugih evropskih državah (Van der Graaf et al, 2021: 91-100).…”