“When I Am a President of Guinea”: Resettled Refugees Traversing Education in Search of a Future

Dryden‐Peterson, Sarah; Reddick, Celia

doi:10.1080/10564934.2017.1344865

Cited by 46 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…Resettlement comes with a high degree of permanency, including a pathway to citizenship unavailable to the vast majority of refugees in neighboring host countries. Refugees, who increasingly find themselves in protracted displacement, often perceive resettlement as the ultimate future, especially in terms of educational possibilities (Dryden-Peterson and Reddick 2017). None of the nation-states in our study are sites of resettlement.…”

Section: Purposes Of Refugee Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Purposes of Refugee Education: Policy and Practice of Including Refugees in National Education Systems

Adelman²,

et al. 2019

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This article explores the understood purposes of refugee education at global, national, and school levels. To do so, we focus on a radical shift in global policy to integrate refugees into national education systems and the processes of vernacularization accompanying its widespread implementation. We use a comparative case study approach; our dataset comprises global policy documents and original interviews ( n = 147) and observations in 14 refugee-hosting nation-states. We analyze how the purposes of refugee education are understood and acted upon by actors occupying diverse positions across these nation-states and over time. We demonstrate that the articulated purposes of refugee education are oriented toward possible futures for refugees, and they presuppose refugees’ access to quality education, social belonging, and economic opportunities. Yet we find that across nation-states of exile, refugees’ access to these resources is tenuous. Our findings suggest reconceptualizing refugee education to reflect how refugees are simultaneously embedded within multiple national contexts and to address the exclusions they face within each one. This study of refugee education has implications for understanding the purposes of education in other ever-more-common contexts of uncertainty, including the rapid economic and social changes brought about by migration, globalization, and technology. Empirically, understanding the purposes of refugee education is critical in a time of unprecedented forced migration.

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Section: Purposes Of Refugee Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Purposes of Refugee Education: Policy and Practice of Including Refugees in National Education Systems

Adelman²,

et al. 2019

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“…In the following sections, we identify vital knowledge and skills Kakuma youth require in order to intentionally draw on existing opportunities to shape their desired futures. In linking abstract hope to the local and global power structures that shape and constrain opportunities in exile, "critical hope" (Duncan-Andrade, 2009; also see Christens, Collura, & Tahir, 2013;Dryden-Peterson & Reddick, 2017) became construed as usable knowledge, reinforcing youth agency and underscoring the ways in which youths' understandings of their context allowed for intentional educational planning. In this sense, enacting the right to research was both a means and an end to youth participation in this context.…”

Section: Author Manuscriptmentioning

confidence: 99%

Youth aspirations in Kakuma Refugee Camp: education as a means for social, spatial, and economic (im)mobility

Bellino

2018

Globalisation, Societies and Education

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This study explores the role of academic and social support on young people's educational pursuits in Kenya's Kakuma Refugee Camp. Pairing ethnographic methods with youth participatory action research, we find that support often manifests as abstract, decontextualized encouragement with little grounding in the educational opportunity structure. We argue that this motivational discourse generates information gaps, fueling aspirations that neither prepare youth for understanding, nor navigating the constraints they will encounter. In response, we designed a social media platform orienting Kakuma youth to the opportunity structure, while encouraging them to set realistic goals and plan accordingly. Designing a resource by, for, and with Kakuma youth, we illustrate that refugees have the rights and means to access information on which their everyday wellbeing and futures depend. This study illustrates that critical understanding of local and global opportunities can empower, rather than demoralize, young people as they shape their futures in exile.

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“…In addition to the work school and district leaders can do to become more responsive, equitable, and culturally sustaining—as described in the work of Khalifa et al (2016), Riehl (2000), Scanlan and López (2012), and Theoharis and O’Toole (2011)—and the work that can be done to create programming and teaching that best meets the needs of refugee students—as explored in the studies of Dryden-Peterson and Reddick (2017) and Mendenhall and Bartlett (2018)—there are a few concrete actions school and district leaders can take to best utilize the assets in their communities, including the talents and positionalities of boundary spanners, such as mentors. As this study indicates, some district actors, namely mentors, live on the boundaries of multiple entities and institutions, including district offices, schools, community organizations, and family homes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pushing the Boundaries: Education Leaders, Mentors, and Refugee Students

Koyama

Kasper

2020

Educational Administration Quarterly

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Purpose: In this study, we trace the work of refugee student–family mentors (mentors) in an Arizona school district who work across school–family boundaries. Utilizing boundary spanning theory, we examine how education leaders—teachers, school principals, assistant principals, and district administrators—work with the mentors. We document the interactions between the school leaders and the mentors and compare them with the interactions between the refugee families and the mentors. Research Methods/Approach: We draw on data collected in a 3-year ethnography of refugee networks and on a related set of extended interviews with refugee parents. Data includes interviews with refugee mentors, school leaders, and refugee parents, as well as interviews with staff members of refugee support organizations, resettlement agencies, and state programs. Observational fieldnotes and documents were also collected. Data analysis included emergent coding and theme comparison across all data. Conclusions: We demonstrate that the refugee parents respect and depend on the mentors, while school leaders often treat them as “helpers.” We analyze how the mentors are delegitimized by the actions of education leaders in schools, and also by their marginalization in the school district. We recommend additional research be conducted on how school districts interact with refugee students and families. We suggest that education leaders better support the work of staff who work with refugees and other culturally and linguistically diverse students by taking a resource inventory, clarifying staff roles, including parents in decision making, and making a commitment to build inclusive school communities.

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“When I Am a President of Guinea”: Resettled Refugees Traversing Education in Search of a Future

Cited by 46 publications

References 42 publications

The Purposes of Refugee Education: Policy and Practice of Including Refugees in National Education Systems

The Purposes of Refugee Education: Policy and Practice of Including Refugees in National Education Systems

Youth aspirations in Kakuma Refugee Camp: education as a means for social, spatial, and economic (im)mobility

Pushing the Boundaries: Education Leaders, Mentors, and Refugee Students

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