Exploring the Digital Literacies of Refugees from a Funds-of-Knowledge Perspective

• In Event: Rooted in Care: Imagining Inclusive and Sustainable Educational Futures for Refugees

Abstract

Purpose
Rapid technological advancements have reshaped understandings of language and literacy, prompting new questions about how learners’ digital practices might be more effectively integrated into classroom teaching. This is especially relevant for refugee-background students, whose rich knowledge and literacy repertoires – often shaped by digital technologies – are frequently overlooked in formal schooling (Hos et al., 2019; Shapiro, 2018). This presentation examines how educational researchers have approached the digital literacies of refugee students in the literature and considers how these findings can inform more equitable, asset-based pedagogies for refugees in classroom contexts.
Theoretical Framework and Methods
Guided by a sociocultural perspective on language and literacy education, and drawing on concepts such as digital literacies (Jones & Hafner, 2021) and funds of knowledge (Moll et al., 1992), this study presents a scoping literature review of 31 peer-reviewed English-language publications from three databases: ERIC, ProQuest, and Google Scholar. The review process involved identifying and thematically analyzing topic-specific papers published over a ten-year period (2014–2024) to understand emerging research trends and key themes in current scholarship on refugee digital practices.
Results
Findings reveal considerable geographical and methodological diversity in terms of with whom, what, and where research on the digital practices of refugees has been conducted. In particular, notable gaps were found in relation to specific age groups and national contexts addressed by the studies. Five themes, each linked to refugee learners’ digital practices and their potential for asset-based pedagogy, were identified: (1) bridging formal and informal learning practices; (2) affirming identity through multimodal engagement; (3) promoting agency via linguistic and modality choices; (4) sustaining social relationships; and (5) fostering intercultural digital communities.
Significance
Together, these themes illuminate how refugee learners’ digital literacies can serve as bridges between their lived experiences and school-based learning. Both research trends and representative studies illustrating key themes will be discussed in the presentation. The presentation concludes by outlining implications of refugees’ digital literacies for teaching, including teacher education and curriculum design. Finally, future directions for research that centers on refugee students’ digital knowledge as a resource for asset-based, culturally sustaining and technologically responsive pedagogy will be proposed.

Author

• Linda Molin-Karakoc, University College London - IOE