Teacher’s stories about teaching newly arrived refugee youths at a vocational upper secondary school in Sweden

Abstract

This article presents the stories of four teachers teaching newly arrived refugee youths at a vocational upper secondary school. The youths came to Sweden in 2015 and later, and they live in a so-called vulnerable area. This is a period when many unaccompanied children and adolescent refugees arrived in Sweden. The study aims to contribute to knowledge about teaching newly arrived refugee youths and the way these youths can influence teaching in a vocational school. The methodological and theoretical starting point for the study is based on a narrative perspective. The stories are analysed thematically and show that these students have great solidarity with each other, are ambitious, and create a good mood in the classroom. In addition, there is always “someone” who does not believe in democratic values, although most of the students value the Swedish democracy and equality between men and women. The expulsion decision that some students receive affects the teachers’ teaching as well, since it means that they also have to deal with teaching situations where their students’ lives and deaths are involved in the sense that they are refugees threatened by expulsion.

Thrown in at the deep end? Perceptions of burdens, gains, and contributions to the integration of refugee students among teachers with(out) target group-specific professional knowledge

“…However, since our findings are in line with findings in other German federal states for vocational schools (Simml, 2019 ; Reinke and Goller, 2022 ) as well as for elementary schools (Karakayali et al, 2017 ), they can be combined to form a bigger picture. This picture is also consistent with findings from other countries, where teachers teach refugees under often very different conditions (e.g., Khansa and Bahous, 2021 for Lebanon; Asghari, 2022 for Sweden). All studies share the finding that teachers in preparation classes enjoy teaching refugee students and are successful with their students, even if the less than optimal organizational conditions could be improved.…”

“…Though, criticism of working conditions, similar to Karakayali et al ( 2017 ), and of students' behavior such as their lack of discipline and punctuality (Reinke and Goller, 2022 ), are significantly more in focus. This points to the fact that additional aspects of class composition, such as high turnover in classes (Scheiermann and Walter, 2016 ; Karakayali et al, 2017 ; Asghari, 2022 ), are also relevant and should be given more attention. On the macro level, the results can also confirm critical voices from the literature that regard preparation classes for refugees as a low-cost solution not necessarily meeting the prerequisites and needs of the students (Glorius and Schondelmayer, 2019 , p. 225).…”

“…Thus, many studies focus on refugees themselves as the target group to be educated (e.g., Calmbach and Edwards, 2019;Maué et al, 2021). In contrast, there has been little research on the teachers of refugees in terms of the challenges the teachers face or regarding positive aspects they relate to their job (e.g., for Germany: Karakayali et al, 2017; for Lebanon: Khansa and Bahous, 2021;Weiß et al, 2021; for Sweden: Asghari, 2022; for the U.S.: Damaschke-Deitrick et al, 2022;Reinke and Goller, 2022). Yet, it is the teachers who support refugees in their education and their progress toward an independent life in the host society.…”

أثر التباينات الثقافية على التحاق الأطفال اللاجئين السوريين برياض الأطفال المصرية The Impact of Cultural Differences on the Enrollment of Syrian Refugee Children in Egyptian Kindergartens

“…), MacLeod (2013),Aydin et al (2017),Bianco et al(2017) ,Alshoufani (2018), Claudia. (2018,Adelman (2019),Ager et al (2019),Atalay (2022),Asghari (2022), blogs.worldbank.org/ar/voices/qmt-n-ras-almal-albshry-tbrzalhajt-aly-alastthmar-fy-alatfal-alsghar .…”