Research Paper on "Teaching Strategies to Integrate Refugee Students"

Research Paper 14 pages (4591 words) Sources: 14

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Teaching Strategies to Integrate Refugee Student

a) Research Purpose

According to the United Nations high Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the number of refugees at the end of 2005 had reached an estimate of 8.4 people worldwide. In Africa, at least half of these refugees are under 18 years of age. Young children have very specific needs in terms of nurture, development, and education. However, the refugee status of this population makes it difficult or impossible to adequately meet these needs. For this reason, many young refugees that enter democratic countries such as the United States and Australia are ill prepared to enter established education systems.

The purpose of this research is therefore to investigate the plight of refugees in Western schools by particularly investigating examples in the United States and Australia. In addition to the challenge of increasing diversity in schools that relate to culture, language, and learning as a result of immigration and differences among individuals, schools and teachers are also faced with children arriving in schools as a result of their refugee status. While bringing with them all the above-mentioned differences, they are also challenged in terms of the years of schooling and socialization they received as well as potential emotional and mental challenges that relate to the experiences they underwent during their flight from their own countries. Many of these students receive little or no education and very little "normal" socialization as a result. Hence, multiple facets need to be addressed when considering effective education for these students.

A secondary purpose of this research is therefore to investigate and compare strategies for helping these students not only to cope with the effects of their former situation and status in their countries of origin, but also to help them obtain an effective education to a degree at which they can become productive citizens in their new society.

To fulfill these purposes more specifically, a comparison will be made of programs implemented to target older students, at the secondary or post-secondary level, who have received minimal education in their home countries. These students arrive in their target countries with minimal abilities in terms of education and language, along with potentially significant emotional scars from their experiences as refugees from their countries of origin. It is therefore important to address and meet the needs of these students to ensure that they become productive members of their target societies, rather than unnecessary drains upon the economy.

b) Significance of the Research

The significance of the research extends to both the requirements of humanity and the general values of living as citizens of the world and of Western society and those of ensuring that all citizens in the democratic world receive the tools they need to pursue their own independence and lives.

One of the core values of democratic society today is the right to pursue gainful employment that would allow the individual to make a living and contribute to his or her society in a way that fits well with his or her talents and interests. To this end, the research aims to investigate effective strategies and make significant suggestions for future directions.

c) Background

As mentioned, the two countries to target for this investigation will be the United States and Australia. According to the country's Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (2008), there were more than 1600 refugee students enrolled in government schools in Victoria. It is therefore vital that this demographic and its needs be addressed to ensure that the citizenry that influx in this way become significant contributors to the country's economy. As the new decade progresses, the influx of refugee students into Victorian schools have grown to more than a third of all recently arrived students. The growing population of these students emphasizes the importance of addressing not only their existing plight, but also the educational needs that this entails.

The same situation exists in the United States, where refugee children below the age of 18 have the right to enter American schools free of charge (Refugee Council USA, 2012). While attempting to be free from discrimination at any level, this policy, however, creates an unwitting divide between refugee children and those in general public schools. Refugee children have specific needs that will not necessarily be addressed by the general school system.

A case in point emerges from the complaints of the refugees themselves, as cited by Garrett (2006, p. 7). While refugees tend to value education for their children highly, they find the system in the United States intensely frustrating. Despite the effort to put their children in what is perceived to be the best schools, even if they must pay for these, refugee parents become frustrated when their children fall behind. One major obstacle is the language barrier, as it is in Australia as well. Children are placed in the same classrooms as their American peers, but fail to understand either the culture or the material as a result of both the language and the vast cultural and ethnic differences from those they grew up with. This is a particularly difficult issue for older children as well. Many children who suffer from a sense of displacement because of this cope by joining gangs or engaging in other illegal or harmful activities, since this creates for them a sense of acceptance that they cannot find among the mainstream school population.

On an emotional level, refugee students often come from an environment where they were subject to significant hardships, such as years in refugee camps, subject to torture and trauma, and loss of family members. Certainly, this is not an environment that is conducive to a significant level of effective schooling. Simply integrating them into government schools where programs mainly cater for mainstream children and non-refugee immigrants is simply not an effective strategy. This is a major concern in the United States as well, where authors such as Morse (2006) use the term "newcomers" to group immigrants and refugees in the same status group. Other reports, such as that by Ruiz, Kabler and Sugarman (2011), that concern the United States and programs the country offers for its non-American citizens often consider both refugees and immigrants in the same reports, with only brief distinctions between them. This does not, however, mean that there are no merits to the suggestions made.

The danger is that refugee students will simply drift through their school years without truly benefiting in the way that they are intended to. This is particularly heart-breaking in the case of older students, who by rights should have completed their school career and gone on to choosing careers and universities for themselves.

To address this concern, the Australian government has implemented several programs from simple ESL to more intensive schooling efforts to help refugee students become part of Australian society. These are part of the Victorian Government policy known as A Fairer Victoria (Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, 2008, p. 6). The primary aim of this policy is to improve access to services, reduce barriers that students might face to opportunity, and ensure that all people in the country receive the assistance they need at critical times in their lives.

In addition to the numerous programs available for younger children at the primary level, the policy also includes programs to address the transitional needs of older children at the secondary or post-secondary level of school.

One significant factor is that the situation for children from refugee camps are often such that they do not attend a formal school system, even if this is offered at the camps. Furthermore, it is seldom the case that secondary, and much less tertiary, education is offered at such camp sites. Hence, children who enter the government education system are ill prepared to face the rigors and demands of an organized classroom, such as concentrating for hours at a time, socializing with classmates, and even the simple practice of sitting still and listening (Department of Education and Early Child Development, 2008, p. 9).

For older learners, the AFV policy includes programs such as the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL). This program caters specifically for refugee young people at the age of 15 or older, whose schooling has been severely disrupted (Department of Education and Early Child Development, 2008, p. 20). Because of this situation, such students are faced not only with a severe deficiency in their education, but also a lack of language skills to achieve any level of acceptable education for their age group. As an alternative to the standard educational pathway followed by students to complete a Victorian Certificate of Education, this program offers the opportunity to help students establish the skills they need to enter standard tertiary education and ultimately become gainfully employed.

Specifically Debney Park Secondary College, Forest Hill College, Broadmeadows Secondary College, and Cleeland Secondary College have established transitional VCAL programs for their refugee students. These programs were implemented to target both the level of English and the level of educational disruption each… READ MORE

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