Beyond the School Day: Exploring Refugee Students' Perceptions and Participation in Out-of-School Time (OST) Activities

• In Event: Youth Development and Education SIG Highlighted Session: Marginalized youth experiences inside and outside US schools

Proposal

Out of School Time (OST) activities provide important contexts for children’s development and well-being. Children and youth spend more of their waking hours out of school than in school, and more than 14 million school-age children and youth participate in organized OST programs. As the number of refugee children and youth continues to grow, the educational and social emotional needs require more and sustained attention. OST programs have the potential to serve as an anchor for refugee youth and their families who lack familiarity with American schools and communities. This study employs an interpretivist paradigm, prioritizing students’ meanings and understandings of their OST experiences. The study consists of 28 Muslim refugee youth (ages 13-17) from Syria and Iraq who resettled to the US in the last 5 years. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were collected through a secular non-profit organization assisting refugees from Middle Eastern countries. First, analysis of the types of OST programs youth participated in within their respective schools revealed that refugee boys were typically involved in sports-based programs while girls engaged in arts-based programs; for boys and girls, these activities reinforced their feelings of nostalgia for their countries of origins. Second, refugee students typically participated in OST programs within their local communities—but outside of their schools. Favored OST activities included programs offering academic support and homework assistance, encouraging refugee students’ engagement both civically and politically in their schools and communities, and promoting their cultural and ethnic identities. This study provides an empirical opportunity to learn about refugees’ firsthand experiences in OST activities, their unique perceptions of the social context, and knowledge about what they need in order to feel supported within these settings.

Author

• Ashley Elizabeth Cureton, Johns Hopkins University, School of Education