Navigating the Present and the Future: Language Choice in Refugee Education

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 7:45 am - Gold 2
  In Roundtable Session: Navigating Language, Identity, and Power

Abstract

This article examines language of instruction approaches in refugee education. Through a mixed-methods design, we demonstrate the relevance of a two-language model to enable present learning and the present and future opportunities refugees seek. We find that refugee children in Kakuma camp in Kenya had greater literacy gains when engaged in a literacy invention in both English and Kiswahili than in English alone. Through in-depth qualitative interviews, we find that teachers and families value Kiswahili for navigating present situations and English for how they imagine their futures, suggesting mutual benefits of languages that support both the present need to “get by” and a future desire to “get ahead.” Our study contributes novel insights related to language-in-education in settings of displacement.

Authors

• Celia Reddick, Florida State University

• Sarah E. Dryden-Peterson, Harvard University

• Benjamin Piper, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

• Vidur Chopra, Harvard Graduate School of Education