Educating refugees and displaced students
Displaced by global conflicts beyond their control, resettled refugee youth and their families face distinct hurdles as they navigate education systems and adapt to their new lives in the United States.
While many are multilingual and eager to learn, these students are often challenged by limited and interrupted schooling in their uprooted lives. To better prepare K–12 educators who work with refugee students and other culturally and linguistically diverse students, Arizona State University’s Mary Lou Fulton College for Teaching and Learning Innovation is offering a series of professional learning online courses, available through the ASU Professional Educator Learning Hub, on assets-based pedagogies in refugee education, including an introductory micro-course that is being offered at no cost.
MLFC Professor Jill Koyama, who is vice dean of MLFC’s division for advancing education policy, practice and leadership, spoke about the college’s collaboration with Childhood Education International, her own research into educating refugees, migrants and other culturally and linguistically diverse learners, and why this course is needed to support their talent and great human potential.
What are the unique challenges faced by refugee students in adapting to schools?
It’s important to first recognize that students who arrive as refugees are as eager as any learner to grow to their fullest potential. Throughout history, refugees have gone on to become active contributors to the economy, global leaders and innovators. The process of getting to the United States can take many months, and even years. During that time period, their education may be inconsistent or disrupted. Upon their arrival, many refugee students face language barriers, cultural challenges and trauma from the conditions that contributed to and sustained their displacement. In U.S. schools, they may be placed into English language learner programs, which may not recognize the students' multilingual capabilities. These policies can further marginalize refugee students by placing them in remedial tracks, isolating them from their peers, and limiting their access to a broader range of learning opportunities. Students who are resettled in other parts of the world face similar challenges.
What role does language play in the marginalization of refugee students?
Many resettled refugees speak multiple languages, yet they are often identified primarily as English learners in U.S. schools, where they are placed in English language development classes and discouraged or restricted from using their languages of origin. Language and voice are a part of our identities, and the effect of these policies can add to their trauma as it can feel to these students that they are losing their cultural connections and identities. Educators and school systems should seek ways to ensure that these students are learning English quickly, while also respecting their stories of resilience, displacement and hope by creating spaces for them to integrate their past experiences into their new educational contexts. (Julie Kasper, director of teacher learning and leadership with Childhood Education International, and I explored this in our research: Transworlding and translanguaging: Negotiating and resisting monoglossic language ideologies, policies, and pedagogies).
How can educators create spaces that better support the needs of these students?
Schools can identify ways to integrate these students into the classroom and strengthen their connections with peers while ensuring their access to advanced academic content. Some of this insight comes from the research I did on Coloniality and Refugee Education in the United States that included between 771 and 1104 refugee students who came from 52 different countries. We found that the former refugee students were often limited in their movement in the schools. For example, they were discouraged from going to parts of campus to avoid getting lost, or to prevent bullying situations. While this may have been meant as a safety measure, it’s important to understand that former refugee students come from situations where they may have had lack of control or exertion of power by others. Such practices can reinforce feelings of exclusion and hinder both social and academic development.
How did the idea for this professional learning course emerge?
The course is developed from years of research and direct experience with organizations that work with refugee populations. It started to come together over the past few years, as part of the MLFC Learning Futures Collaborative project. The collaborative that I am a part of is called Learning and educating across refugee/(Im)migrant networks. Julie Kasper (who is also part of the collaborative) and I started to contribute to the collaborative’s activities by holding webinars that were well attended, and that evolved into the idea for a professional learning specialization. For the purposes of the courses we are offering, the term refugee refers to anyone who has been forcibly displaced from their home country and has migrated to and/or been resettled in a new country. We plan on expanding the course offerings over time, and we see it as being of use to educators who work with culturally and linguistically diverse learners but who are not recognized legally as refugees but who face similar issues.
What are some specific takeaways that educators and others can learn from this course?
Educators, as well as those who work with refugee students in other capacities, can take certain approaches at the classroom and community level to support the learning and well-being of refugee students and families. The courses we are offering explore how to integrate refugee students' languages and experiences into the curriculum and avoid practices that isolate them. Educators can also find ways to involve former refugee families in decision-making processes, as studies show that family engagement leads to higher student engagement and retention. Through the use of assets-based pedagogies, the course emphasizes ways to leverage teaching approaches that focus on the strengths, skills, and cultural knowledge that students bring to the classroom.
Learn more about assets-based pedagogies in refugee education
Take an introductory “power-up” course, available at no cost, to learn more about ways to support K–12 refugee students in educational settings. The one-hour "power-up" is one of several short micro-courses.
Explore the full offerings of micro-course and specialization options at the ASU Professional Educator Learning Hub, which include facilitated (instructor-led) or self-paced offerings.
Start working toward a specialization. More courses will be added in spring 2025 to the Assets-Based Pedagogies in Refugee Education specialization. Current specialization-related offerings include:
- Apply assets-based pedagogies in refugee education: Leveraging student strengths. This course introduces and/or deepens educators' understanding of assets-based pedagogies and why they are effective for supporting the learning and well-being of refugee students and families. Available in a facilitated, asynchronous course format.
- Assets-based pedagogies in refugee education: Celebrating students’ strengths: This course introduces and/or deepens educators’ understanding of how to apply assets-based pedagogies, especially in the context of serving students and families of refugee backgrounds.