Barrier-Free Access in a (Super)Diverse World: Lessons for Policy and Practice From Refugee-Background Students and Teachers of Diverse Classrooms

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ) is a ‘white settler’ colony with increasingly diverse school communities. Education policy articulates a commitment to ensuring barrier-free access to education, and the inclusion of all students’ life worlds. In this symposium, we draw on research with refugee-background young people, and teachers in superdiverse NZ schools, to reflect on what barrier-free access looks like in practice, and why it matters beyond education per se. We consider how insights from refugee-background young people highlight connections between educational access and a broader sense of un/belonging in a new resettlement context. We theorise the role of schools and teachers in relation to broader social justice and peace-building imperatives, and identify what transformative practice can look like in superdiverse classrooms.

Sub Unit

• International Aligned Organizations / New Zealand Association for Research in Education - NZARE

Chair

• Vivienne Anderson, University of Otago

Papers

• Schools and Teachers as Brokers of Belonging for Resettled Refugees - Vivienne Anderson, University of Otago

• Teachers as Peace-Builders: Reflecting on the Experiences of Refugee-Background Colombian Youth in Southern New Zealand Schools - Alejandra del Pilar Ortiz-Ayala, Universität Erfurt

• Teaching for Social Justice in Superdiverse Classrooms in Aotearoa New Zealand - Bronwyn Wood, Victoria University of Wellington

Discussant

• Joanna Higgins, Victoria University of Wellington