Strengthening Academic and Extracurricular Support for Refugees: Lessons Learned From Two High Schools in New York City

• In Event: Imagining Sites of Possibility in Immigrant and Refugee Education

Abstract

Objectives or purposes
In this presentation, we examine the ways in which teachers and school leaders provide critical academic and extracurricular support to facilitate students’ adjustment to academic environments, which may differ markedly from those of their countries of origin. Drawing on interviews and focus groups conducted with students, teachers, and school leaders at two international high schools in New York City, as well as program staff from a non-profit organization that collaborates with international schools hosting refugee students, the presentation documents promising practices and offers practical recommendations for teachers working with refugee students.

Perspective(s) or theoretical framework
Teachers play a critical role in not only helping students to develop literacy, numeracy and life skills, but also in fostering social cohesion among children and youth from diverse racial, ethnic, and religious backgrounds in their classrooms. Teachers who are accommodating students from immigrant and refugee populations in their schools likely face further challenges, depending on the prior educational experiences of these young people, the degree to which their schooling has been interrupted or delayed, the students’ language skills and their ability to move into an English dominant learning environment, and the psychosocial needs of these young people, many of whom have witnessed or directly experienced unimaginable violence and suffering as they and their families sought safety and refuge here in the U.S.

Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry
Interviews and focus groups with students, teachers, schools leaders, and program staff from a non-profit organization that supports refugee students.

Results and/or substantiated conclusions or warrants for arguments/point of view
This work proposes several strategies for providing both academic and extracurricular support that would benefit refugee students in American schools. First, refugee students benefit from teaching approaches that treat their first language as resources and allow them to work across both languages. Students also benefit from a critical transnational curriculum and socio-politically relevant pedagogy that leverage diversity as a learning opportunity, promote civic engagement, cultivate multidirectional aspirations, and give youth tools to analyze their social location. Second, in terms of extracurricular support, study findings show how students benefit from academic tutoring as well as opportunities to play sports, participate in cultural activities, receive job training, and have opportunities to learn more about post-secondary education. This study also addresses the pervasive discrimination that resettled refugee students face as they arrive and transition into a new schooling context.

Scientific or scholarly significance of the study or work
Refugee learners require additional support to help them successfully transition to a new country and the demands and expectations of a new education system; however, the findings and the related strategies proposed in this presentation would ultimately strengthen learning experiences for all students. As the current political climate in the U.S. continues to attack both public education and refugee and immigrant communities, educators and schools have a critical role to play in countering uninformed and discriminatory rhetoric and ensuring that schooling is safe, protective, and enriching for everyone.

Author

• Mary Mendenhall, Teachers College, Columbia University