Teaching Toward Equity and Inclusive Possibilities: Post-Pandemic Dialogue on U.S. Teachers' Collaboration With Somali Refugee Communities

• In Event: Post-Pandemic Teaching Preparation With a Global Focus: Reimagining Educational Inequalities to Embrace Equity and Justice

Abstract

Objectives: The COVID-19 Pandemic has resulted in a greater appreciation for public schools and teachers. Many parents around the world struggled with their children at home due to school closures. Up against those odds, refugee children including those of Somali origin have had to work much harder to keep up with their schoolwork (UNICEF, 2021). In the United States, these struggles have happened at a time when attitudes toward non-European immigrants in the US have become hostile with consequences for how immigrant students experience schooling. This prompts us as educators to take a hard look at these immediate concerns and think of possibilities in terms of creating a more robust collaborative environment between educators and Somali refugee communities (Vegas & Winthrop, 2020).
Theoretical Framework: Dimitrov and Haque’s (2016) serve as a framework for intercultural understanding based on teachers becoming critically aware of their own and global perspectives and value systems. This framework focuses on a) examining one’s attitude to cultural difference; and b) collaborating with all stakeholders to bridge gaps in intercultural understanding.
Method: This phenomenological study began with IRB approval in 2009 and analysis of the data was completed in 2019 (Van Manen 2007). Phenomenology involves a) identifying a phenomenon; b) setting aside researcher and participant bias; c) collecting data on lived experience; d) analyzing the data to develop themes; and e) writing up the essence of the experience. This study explored: What is the post pandemic pedagogical implications of collaborations between classroom teachers and Somali refugee parents to promote intercultural understandings of each other?
This study was conducted in an urban school district in the Midwest. Participants consisted of 15 teachers and 16 Somali refugee immigrant parents. Data consisted of response questionnaires, focus groups, and follow-up individual interviews conducted over a period of three years.
Results: Findings from this study reveal that when teachers collaborate with parents, they can identify barriers to teaching responsibly and bridge the gap between how teachers and parents conceptualize their role in teaching and learning. Thus, it then behooves teachers to consequently take advantage of free learning resources and funding now being made available to alleviate some of the barriers exacerbated by the pandemic
Working to continue to keep lines of communications open can help with the parents steep learning curve as they have taken a more active and direct role in the learning process during the pandemic. This can help with a deeper understanding of how the norms of parenting in the US and Somalia differ.
Honest school-community partnerships helped facilitate understandings between teachers and refugee immigrant parents making teachers more receptive to inclusion in classroom practice. In the post COVID times such honesty will reveal unique struggles that both teachers and students are experiencing. Such honest conversations will allow the right help to be directed towards the problem
Scholarly Significance: This study contributes to the urgent conversation on re-starting the dialogue on U.S. Teachers collaboration with Somali Refugee communities to teach towards equity and inclusive possibilities as we enter post-pandemic times.

Authors

• Wangari Gichiru, Central Connecticut State University

• Suniti Sharma, Saint Joseph's University