Creating Safe Spaces: Using Identity Texts to Share Refugee Experiences in the Classroom

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Abstract

Despite this research affirming the importance of including refugee experiences in the classroom, there remains a gap in how teachers have incorporated these practices and how students have responded to them. This study examines how teachers can facilitate the development of positive experiences of identity expression, projection, and re-creation in classroom spaces using identity texts on refugee experiences. Results demonstrate that teachers can scaffold opportunities for students to engage in positive forms of identity projection. Reading picture books on refugee experiences and hearing their peers’ stories created safe spaces for students to share their own stories. Identity texts can create spaces in which refugee experiences are recognized and normalized in the formal curriculum and classroom space.

Author

• Thursica Kovinthan Levi, University of Ottawa