Loshini Naidoo

Developing social inclusion through after‐school homework tutoring: a study of African refugee students in Greater Western Sydney

Schools represent the primary setting where refugee children learn about Australian life and culture. They serve as a broad context for acculturation not only for academic development and language acquisition but for cultural learning too. This paper focuses on the after‐school homework tutoring programme that uses University of Western Sydney (Australia) secondary teacher education students as tutors for African refugee students in secondary schools to facilitate their inclusion into Australian society. African refugees may receive lower returns for education in comparison with other Australian migrants. Using Bourdieu’s theory of social capital and cultural reproduction as a conceptual framework, this paper discusses the part played by schools in constructing barriers that prevent under‐represented groups such as refugees participating in the education process. It aims to explore the success of community engagement programmes like Refugee Action Support, which is designed to act in the interests of others (refugees) characterised as socio‐culturally disadvantaged.

Refugee Action Support: an interventionist pedagogy for supporting refugee students’ learning in Greater Western Sydney secondary schools

This paper discusses the role of community, non-government organisations and universities in assisting secondary schools meet the needs of refugee students. On arrival in Australia, many African refugee communities experience high levels of stress particularly in adjusting to their new environment. The parents and students unfamiliarity with the Australian educational system creates not only cultural and social barriers for African refugee students but linguistic barriers as well. Given the difficulties experienced by refugee students in making the transition to mainstream classes and the lack of adequate teaching and learning resources for teachers in schools, this paper takes as its primary focus the complex needs of refugee students, the role of community organisations in meeting these needs, the implications for teacher preparation programs in tertiary institutions and the benefits of interventionist mechanisms like the Refugee Action Support program for refugee students.

Educating refugee-background students in Australian schools and universities

The Australian federal government recently set a challenging national aim: By 2020, 20% of higher education enrolment at the undergraduate level will include students from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Although refugee-background students are often members of the targeted sub-population, their educational journeys frequently require special forms of support to ensure academic success. This article reports and discusses the findings of a multisite, qualitative study of refugee-background learners across three regional areas. Based on semi-structured interview data, participants from three universities and six high schools identified three primary domains that educators must address to promote student success: prior life experiences, language development and the culture of learning environments.

An Ethnography of Global Landscapes and Corridors

The chapters presented in this book draw on ethnography as a methodology in a variety of disciplines, including education, management, design, marketing, ecology and scientific contexts, illustrating the value of a qualitative approach to research design. The chapters discuss the use of traditional ethnographic methods, such as immersion, observation and interview, as well as innovative ethnographical methods which have been influenced by the new digital culture. The latter challenges notions of identity, field and traditional culture such that people are able to represent themselves in the research process rather than be represented. New approaches to ethnography also examine the use and implication of images in representation as well as critically examining the role and impact of the researcher in the process.

School to University Transitions for Australian Children of Refugee Background: A Complex Journey

Despite strong overall growth in Australian university participation, the representation of individuals from low-socio-economic status (SES) background, as a proportion of the total student population, remains below parity. Indeed, the proportion of domestic undergraduate students studying in Australia decreased between 2001 and 2008 (Universities Australia, A smarter Australia: an agenda for Australian higher education 2013–2016. Universities Australia, Canberra, 2013). As a result of this decline, the federal government adopted a target that by 2020, approximately 20% of all students would be of low-SES origin (Bradley D, Noonan P, Scales B. Review of Australian higher education: final report. Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra, 2009, recommendation 4). Many students in this low-SES category are of refugee backgrounds, and these numbers may accelerate in the future. For instance, in 2012–2013, 64% of applications for humanitarian status came from young people under the age of 30 (Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC), Australia’s offshore humanitarian program: 2012–13. Retrieved from https://www.immi.gov.au/media/publications/statistics/immigration-update/australia_offshore_humanitarian_prog_2012-13.pdf, 2013a, 2012–2013: annual report. Retrieved from http://www.immi.gov.au/about/reports/annual/2012-13/pdf/2012-13-diac-annual-report.pdf, 2013b, p. 1). Many refugee background students have high aspirations for educational attainment, a strong desire to succeed academically and demonstrate desirable attributes such as high levels of resilience and problem-solving capacities (Naidoo L, Wilkinson J, Langat K, Adoniou M, Cunneen R, Bolger D, Case study report: supporting school-university pathways for refugee students’ access and participation in tertiary education. University of Western Sydney Print Services, Kingswood, 2015). However, forced migration, interrupted schooling and significant differences in teaching pedagogy represent major barriers to mainstream pathways to higher education. The pedagogic experience is different for various refugee groups based on the complexity of their journey to Australia and their response to the changes in demography. Refugees are not homogenous, and their life histories therefore cannot be reduced to deficit thinking about their ability to transition. This chapter examines findings from a recent large study of school-to-university transition which examined the barriers and challenges faced by refugee background students transitioning from Australian secondary schools to university. In particular, it focuses on the kinds of enabling practices and structures at school level, which supported this transition, drawing on vignettes to illustrate these pathways. It concludes that although there are examples of exemplary school practices to support transition to university, these pathways are not systemic and are too often dependent on the knowledge, excellent practice and good will of individual schools and teachers.

Refugee action support : crossing borders in preparing pre-service teachers for literacy teaching in secondary schools in Greater Western Sydney

Abstract On arrival to Australia, many refugee background students experience difficulties adjusting to their new environment and to schooling in particular. This paper discusses the Refugee Action Support partnership program between school, university and community that is endorsed and supported by the institution (University of Western Sydney) with principles that: Argue for a move away from a ‘one-size fits-all’ approach to a more specialized, individualized approach for refugee background learners; recognize and celebrate the diversity of refugees and the specific barriers that refugees face in education access; links in with refugee community members and the institution; provides role models and mentors for students from refugee backgrounds in high schools; extends English language and literacy training so that students from refugee backgrounds can map a career path and provides cultural awareness training for both refugees and educators as well as resources for the engagement of staff (universities and schools) to support refugee access and to implement the strategies necessary to maximize retention in secondary schools. Finally, the paper explores the benefits for schools, teachers, pre-service teachers and refugee background students by analyzing data from a case study conducted with a participating school.

Educational Aspirations, Ethnicity and Mobility in Western Sydney High Schools

Superdiversity provides a conceptual framework for thinking through contemporary sociolinguistic and cultural complexity in urban globally mobile communities. In this chapter, we put it to work in a project that explored aspirations for higher education within public schools in a highly diverse area in western Sydney, Australia. While superdiversity was not the initial focus of our study, it became useful alongside theoretical work on imagination and school choice within global education markets and movements. Superdiversity is now a “constant characteristic of contemporary schools” (Gogolin 2011, p. 241), and schools are thus ideal sites for examining how young people and their families constitute themselves, and are constituted by, global and local mobility and how this impacts on desires for particular careers and pathways into the future.

Forced Migration and Displacement: Understanding the Refugee Journey

This chapter unpacks notions of forced migration and displacement, arguing that understanding different migratory patterns is crucial to locating the educational experiences of refugee youth globally. It will explore, through examples from UNHCR resettlement countries, how forced migrants are positioned as “the other” and are disconnected from the dominant discourse causing repercussions for education. It argues that policymakers and practitioners have a critical role to play in reframing thinking about education for forced migrants such as refugees, by helping to shape a narrative which incorporates and values the experiences of those affected by displacement.

Navigating the Terrain of Higher Education

This chapter highlights some of the challenges faced by refugee youth as they negotiate the alien terrain of higher education. Drawing on interviews and case studies of refugee-background youth and university staff (academic and support), we document the journeys of students through three phases of their tertiary education: getting in to university, getting through their tertiary studies and getting on to employment in their chosen career. We argue that despite high aspirations and a desire to transition to tertiary education, refugee youth at university face a range of challenges in relation to the directed support so necessary for successful transition and participation at university. These challenges are examined in terms of two of the six key themes that emerged in our case study of refugee youth pathways from school to university: aspiration and politics and policy .

Contextualising the Complex Spaces of Refugee Youth Transition into Higher Education

This chapter explores issues relating to the education of refugee youth through a rights-based framework to provide conceptual clarity and theoretical engagement about the development of human rights as a critical social justice instrument. The aim of this chapter is to trace the roots of rights-based education and to consider its changing conceptual frameworks. Such an insight would allow for the development of a critical pedagogical framework for human rights education. As such, the chapter explores the conceptual, historical development of rights-based education to transformative action in an open and democratic society. This chapter links an understanding of human rights to education as a humanising practice.