Out-of-School Learning Among Girls With Refugee Backgrounds

• In Event: Blurring the Boundaries Between Formal and Informal Learning Spaces Through Technology

Abstract

Purpose
Refugee education literature often highlights challenges of displacement, such as trauma, loss, and interrupted schooling (DeCapua, Smathers & Tang 2009; Strekalova & Hoot, 2008). Young women and girls with refugee backgrounds are frequently represented as especially vulnerable (Hajdukowski-Ahmed, 2009). Focusing on learning in out of school spaces, this study contributes to emerging perspectives in education research that critique deficit-based representations of refugee students and their experiences (Adams & Kirova, 2006; Roxas, 2011). This study was guided by following question: How do girls who were resettled as refugees from Thailand draw on their knowledges, skills, and resources in their learning outside of school?

Theoretical perspectives
Critical sociocultural theory (Lewis & Moje, 2003) and culturally sustaining pedagogy (Paris, 2012) were used as frameworks for understanding learning across contexts. Critical sociocultural theory focuses on how power shapes learning and other social practices, which are mediated by various factors, such as language, culture, and technology. Culturally sustaining pedagogy engages students’ ways of knowing (Paris & Alim, 2014) “to perpetuate and foster—to sustain—linguistic, literate, and cultural pluralism as part of the democratic project of schooling” (Paris, 2012, p. 95).

Methods
Nine girls participated in this eight-month qualitative study, which took place in an afterschool program for refugee youth the Intermountain West. The girls were 13-17 year old middle and high school students who self-identified as ethnically Karen, Burmese Muslim, and Po Karen.

Data sources
Data was collected through participant observation, semi-structured in-depth interviews, and screen shots and screen recordings. Data sources include field notes, interview transcripts, and documents, which were analyzed through theme analysis (Saldaña, 2009).

Findings
Discursive constructions of what constitutes learning were reflected in the instructional practices at the after-school program and at the girls’ schools. As a result, the girls considered learning to be solely linked to school activities, while they considered their home and digital practices as “fun” and “play.” However, through fun and play, the girls engaged in important learning activities, such as language learning and maintenance, creative production of space, and development of 21st century skills. At home and in digital spaces, the girls co-constructed spaces that sustained their social, historical, and cultural knowledges. For example, they communicated through invented spelling (e.g. bing instead of being), Romanizing Karen and Burmese languages, and playful meaning-making by using symbols (e.g. $0 |~|4pp ¥, meaning “so happy”). The girls also demonstrated expertise in 21st century skills, such as multimodal composing, collaboration, design, and sharing of information. In these collaborative spaces, they drew on complex skills, knowledges, and resources that positioned them as multilingual and multiliterate knowledge holders.

Significance
It is important for students with refugee experiences to gain opportunities to take positions as knowledge-holders across learning spaces. These opportunities would allow for more meaningful learning that sustains knowledges from students’ everyday lives.

Author

• Delila Omerbasic, Tulane University