Teachers' Experiences in Meeting the Educational Needs and Challenges of Somali Refugee Students

• In Event: 75.042 - MTCC Roundtable Session 34
  In Roundtable Session: 75.042-2 - Research for Social Justice: Multimodal Narratives of Struggles of Ethnic-Minority, Immigrant, Migrant, and Refugee Students in China, Indonesia, and the United States

Abstract

This researcher explores the experiences of K-12 teachers of a single group of immigrant students of Somali origin to better understand educational efforts, both effective and less-than-effective, toward immigrant students. Multicultural perspectives, which are made up the essential knowledge and awareness teachers need to have while teaching diverse populations, inform this study. This conceptual framework situates efforts to better serve refugee students within broader efforts to teach diverse students well. This framework acknowledges knowledge “universals’ assumed for any school teacher to be aware while confronting day-to-day issues faced by immigrants, including an understanding of language difficulties and patterns of communication, norms and values of different groups of people, their beliefs and ideologies, and their status and role in society. These knowledge universals include culturally relevant practices that make use of cultural knowledge, prior experiences, and performance styles of diverse students to make learning appropriate and effective for them (e.g. Gay, 2000/2010; Grant & Gillette, 2006; Ladson-Billings, 1994).

This study was conducted in an urban Midwestern school district in the U. S. with a growing population of Somali refugee students. Even though less than 1000 Somali refugees have been resettled in this state in the last decade, a website reveals a large pull of about 12,000 African secondary migrants; of home majority are Muslims, to be as a result of secondary migration of Somalis who migrate from other states to work in Central City. Five schools were included in this study. They were: one K-12 private school, two K-8 public schools, one K-5 charter school, and one 9-12 public secondary school. Through the use of snowballing technique, fifteen teachers were selected to participate in interviews. The study was conducted using a two-phase design (Creswell 2003). First, a qualitative phase where semi structured interviews was conducted (Spradley, 1979) with the 15 teachers. After an initial analysis of the qualitative data, a separate quantitative phase was conducted. Data was analyzed with the intent to capture teachers’ underlying philosophical thoughts about self, students, and students’ immediate environment.

The study revealed tensions and challenges facing teachers, Somali students, and their families. The researcher found that teachers’ failure to clearly communicate their intentions to their Somali students and their parents resulted from teachers’ lack of cultural and language related knowledge about their Somali students, their contradictory attitudes and beliefs about their Somali students’ short term and long term achievement, and a contradiction between teachers’ heightened curiosity about and actual learning of the Somali culture. Many teachers’ initially low academic expectations for their Somali students resulted in unfounded view that many of their Somali students likely possessed the stereotypical negative characteristics some teachers perceived many of their urban students to have. This made Somali students unwelcome placements in some classrooms. Understanding teachers’ experience of working with Somali students may assist policymakers interested in refugee education to discern what kinds of information and knowledge teachers need in working with refugees. Such an understanding is helpful in assisting teachers and their Somali refugee students to work together.

Author

• Wangari Gichiru, Central Connecticut State University