Legally Statused Realities in the Racialized World: Educational Implications for Refugee Children

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

The largest refugee crisis (UNHCR, 2015) since the conception of the refugee status itself (UN, 1951) displaces unprecedented numbers of children, who join educational systems in host countries under growing political pressures (Strekalova-Hughes, Erdemir, & Nash, 2017; Strekalova-Hughes, Bakar, & Erdemir, Nash, in progress). This session explores educational implications of racializing and legally sanctioning refugee children. First, we offer a conceptual lens that interrogates systems producing refugees and interfering with their post-resettlement success (RefugeeCrit). Second, we share empirical research that uncovers damaging metanarratives surrounding refugees in children’s literature, implicit school curriculum, and educational policies. Finally, we draw implications to shift educational praxis and policies that reflect refugee children’ potential to enrich the culturally and linguistically pluralistic “democratic project of schooling” in host societies (Paris, 2012, p. 93).

Sub Unit

• SIG-Critical Examination of Race, Ethnicity, Class, and Gender in Education

Chair

• Ekaterina Strekalova-Hughes, University of Missouri - Kansas City

Papers

• Refugee Critical Race Theory in Education: An Emerging Ontological and Epistemological Lens - Ekaterina Strekalova-Hughes, University of Missouri - Kansas City; Kindel Turner Nash, The University of Missouri-Kansas City; Ersoy Erdemir, Bogazici University

• Representation of Refugee Children in Picture Books: A Qualitative Content Analysis - Ekaterina Strekalova-Hughes, University of Missouri - Kansas City; X. Christine Wang, University at Buffalo - SUNY; Kylee Lewman, University of Missouri - Kansas City

• Discursive Constructions of Refugee Status and Citizen: A Critical Curriculum Analysis - Lindsay Jarratt, The University of Iowa

• In the Era of Bans and Walls: The Intersection of Education and Immigration Policy and the Success of Refugee Students - Asih Asikin-Garmager, University of Iowa; Duhita Mahatmya, University of Iowa; Leslie Ann Locke, University of Iowa; Ain A. Grooms, The University of Iowa

Discussant

• X. Christine Wang, University at Buffalo - SUNY