Eleni Oikonomidoy

Zooming Into the School Narratives of Refugee Students

The experiences of immigrant and refugee students in schools have been explored by two primary frameworks. The first is informed by sociology and attends to the macro-level adaptation of students in schools and in the host country. It is proposed that the process of social integration of immigrant and refugee students is mediated by the impact of multiple intersecting structural forces such as race, ethnicity, gender, class, geographic location, and resources in the ethnic community (Castles, 2003; Portes & Rumbaut, 1996). The impact of these forces is continually negotiated in the daily exchanges of students in schools, as well as in other key societal spaces. In regards to schooling, an assumption of these studies is that the social experiences of students in schools influence the views that they hold towards education and consequently have a direct impact on their academic achievement (Noguera, 2004). The population of these studies expands from the first to subsequent generations of typically one distinct ethnic and cultural group. The second framework is informed by linguistics and attends to one micro-aspect of the students’ adaptation in school; that is their language learning experiences. Although socio-cultural tenets have entered educational research with immigrant and refugee students, the focal point remains their language acquisition experiences (Faltis & Coulter, 2008; Valdés, 1998). Immigrant students in education are still largely defined by their linguistic identities and language learning remains a key area of research with them. These studies focus mainly on the experiences of newcomer students, sometimes irrespective of ethnic and cultural background. These two levels of analysis (the macro-social and the microlinguistic) have enhanced largely our understanding of newcomer students’ experiences.

‘I see myself as a different person who [has] acquired a lot …’: Somali female students’ journeys to belonging 1

How do refugee students construct their lives in school in their host country? What are some difficulties that they face and how do they respond to those? Findings of a qualitative study conducted with female refugee students from Somalia indicate that students are to varying degrees active agents in the construction of their lives in a US urban school. Although they do experience religious discrimination, they find creative ways to respond to it and, despite the fact that learning English is an initial obstacle in their lives in their host country, they tend to be successful in acquiring the new language. These findings problematize the perception of students as passive victims of the structural forces that inform their lives. At the same time, they challenge educators to seek ways that could make schools positive contexts of reception of refugee and immigrant students. Although the study focuses on the experiences of refugee students with distinct cultural characteristics in the US, the issues raised may provide a window to understanding the experiences of newcomer students in other parts of the world.

The multilayered character of newcomers’ academic identities: Somali female high‐school students in a US school

Drawing from the findings of a qualitative study with female refugee high school students from Somalia in the US, this paper attempts to provide a window to understanding the multilayered character of newcomer students’ academic identity construction. The students’ micro‐level processes of creating spaces for belonging at school are linked to their macro‐level extra‐educational connections at the societal and global levels. The framework presented attempts to sensitise educators to increase their attention to the global‐socio‐cultural contexts of education and strive to create spaces within schools for the recognition and facilitation of students’ complex identities.

Sociocultural Boundary Formations in College Life and Intercultural Capital Development

Based on selective findings from a qualitative study with first generation college students, this article presents the contradictory and complex ways in which the participants perceived sociocultural diversity on campus and their place within it. The students’ narratives both affirmed existing boundaries of social belonging based on the conventional categories of race, ethnicity, and social class and transcended them. Cross-border alliances were being built on campus at the same time that new boundaries were forming in unconscious ways. The discussion focuses on the implications of this study for intercultural capital development.

Reinventing Aspects of Multicultural Education under the Shadow of Globalisation.

Drawing insights from the imaginary journey of an international education student, this essay aims to sensitise multicultural educators to attend to three dimensions that could be considered critical for the reinvention of aspects of the field under the pressures of globalisation. These dimensions include: (1) the promotion of multicultural education’s informed spatial flexibility; (2) the utilisation of dialectic critical views as navigation tools; and (3) the endorsement of cosmonaut identities for teachers, at the educational and cultural levels. The essay concludes with practical implications of the proposed framework for multicultural education classes and with questions for further debate.

Demos as an Explanatory Lens in Teacher Educators' Elusive Search for Social Justice.

Borrowing insights from the Ancient Greek ideal conceptions of a democratic civic space (demos), this article examines the applicability of this framework to four teacher educators’ journey to implement social justice in their programs. It is proposed that the three constitutive dimensions of demos (freedom of speech, equality to vote and hold office, and equality against the law) could provide explanatory lenses to bottom-up collaborative projects in teacher education and beyond, through the illumination of both successes and failures.

Ethnic Attitudes of Hungarian Students in Romania

Participants in this study were ethnic Hungarian secondary students attending high schools in Romania in which Hungarian was the primary language of instruction. Attitudes of participants toward ethnic and cultural groups were measured using a variation of the Bogardus (1933) Scale of Social Distance. Results were consistent with predictions based on Allports intergroup contact theory. Students reported a wide range of tolerance levels for majority and minority ethnic groups with which they were likely to have contact in Romania. However, the students reported little difference in tolerance levels for groups that are not a recognized part of the Romanian cultural landscape, such as people of Hispanic origin, and Native Americans.

Newcomer Immigrant Students Reinventing Academic Lives Across National Borders

Relocation across national borders poses unique challenges and possibilities to newcomer immigrant students who enter diverse urban high schools. Based on focus group data with 27 newcomer students, in this article the author attends to the ways in which these students begin to counteract the challenges that relocation poses for them by recognizing the benefits of their new lives and envisioning routes to future academic/professional lives that transcend cultural, structural, and spatial boundaries. The author concludes with the implications of the analysis for educational theory and practice.

Enemies or Friends? Newcomer Immigrant Students Developing Conceptions of Diversity in High School

Drawing insights from a qualitative study with 15 newcomer immigrant students, this article examines the students’ developing understandings of the meaning of diversity in school. Although contradictory, the students’ collective narratives reveal a keen analysis of a complex social setting, in which race, language, and nationality are seen simultaneously as sources of tension and as opportunities for growth. It is proposed that by identifying and linking similar discourses at multiple levels of schools, we could create webs of resistance to frameworks that tend to categorize and exclude.

College academic identities situated in interlocking contextual blocks

ABSTRACT Through an examination of 13 first-generation college students’ views, this paper aims to provide one possible lens to viewing the complex social and academic landscapes that impact on students’ academic identity construction. Academic and social experiences within and beyond the safety net of a mentoring program are explored. The paper concludes with recommendations for campus-wide initiatives for the support of the focal students.