The Transition and Interrupted Education of Ukrainian Higher Education Refugee Students in Polish Universities: Emerging Findings

• In Event: Toward a Humanizing and Equitable Discourse With Refugee Newcomers: Resisting the Double Standard

Abstract

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 triggered Europe’s largest refugee crisis and migration in the last eight decades (Herb et al., 2022), resulting in over 3.7 million Ukrainians seeking refuge in neighboring nations (Pita & Sánchez Costa, 2022; UNHCR, 2022). Of all the countries welcoming Ukrainians, Poland is the highest recipient with over 2.2 million refugees from all age groups (UNHCR, 2022). Among this refugee population, individuals who were pursuing higher education at the time of the invasion are a substantial number, considering that the recently available data shows that, before the invasion, a total of over one million students were enrolled in Ukrainian higher education institutions (Kvіta, 2022). In an effort to alleviate some of the stress associated with the violent transition and abrupt interrupted education of Ukrainian refugees who were/are university students, institutions of higher education in Poland have become aid centers leading multiple initiatives to support them and their families (UNHCR, 2022; State Statistics Service of Ukraine, 2022).
In the context of education, the topic of students with interrupted formal education (SIFE) has been present in the fields of refugee studies (e.g., Gifford & Wilding, 2013; Mac Donald et al., 2020) and applied linguistics (e.g., Custodio & O’Loughlin, 2017; DeCapua et al., 2020; Pentón Herrera, 2022) for some years. Nonetheless, these publications have primarily focused on K-12 populations and/or populations who arrive as language learners (i.e., students who need to learn the language of their new environment) with very limited print literacy (i.e., reading and writing) skills. As such, most publications have placed emphasis on academic concerns related to learning a new language and explicit considerations for teaching reading and writing (e.g., Virginia Department of Education, n.d.). At the same time, a growing number of scholars have begun to shed light on the complex, multifaceted issue surrounding interrupted education, taking as a fact that interrupted schooling for refugee students is often connected to war, violence, prosecution, and other life-threatening events that affect their stability and overall well-being (Montero & Al Zouhouri, 2022; O’Loughlin & Custodio, 2020; Trinh, 2022).
On the backdrop of the established SIFE research for K-12 students, the experiences of SIFE with high levels of print literacy (i.e., students in higher education) and adequate formal schooling backgrounds have not been explored sufficiently in academia, with very limited exceptions (see Mac Donald et al., 2020). However, to my knowledge, the experiences and effects of interrupted education for university refugee students from Ukraine in Polish higher education, including linguistic challenges, remain a fertile area of study. Thus, in this presentation, I share knowledge gained from a qualitative case study that explored the interrupted education experiences of Ukrainian higher education refugee students who arrived in Poland after 24 February 2022 as well as their linguistic challenges in Polish higher education institutions. Emerging findings shed light on the effects policies and ideologies have on refugees, their education, and their present and future success in the country of refuge.

Author

• Luis Javier Pentón Herrera, Akademia Ekonomiczno-Humanistyczna w Warszawie
  Presenting Author