Educating Refugee-background Students

In these pages, socially aware academics have integrated educational and social issues, attending consciously to refugees as whole people. The editors and authors understand how the educational concerns of refugees are inseparable from their political, geographic, cultural and psychological contexts, and are to be commended for producing this worthwhile volume.

* James Simpson, University of Leeds, UK *

This volume offers a wealth of information about what crossing (language) borders means for students with a refugee background. It demonstrates the opportunities modern technology offers them to stay connected to their heritage culture and languages, to create new bonds with host community members, and to foreground their voices. In doing so, it invites educators to go beyond the classroom walls to meet students’ experiences and needs.

* Jeanne Kurvers, Tilburg University, The Netherlands *

With deeply nuanced and textured accounts of the various factors that influence the language, literacy and learning experiences of refugee-background learners of all ages and in many contexts, this volume will be of great value to anyone interested in facilitating refugee-background learners’ access to educational, social and economic opportunity.

* Doris Warriner, Arizona State University, USA *

Educators, administrators, teacher educators, researchers, advocates, and policymakers will find this volume to be a valuable addition to the growing body of scholarship with and for adolescent and adult refugee-background students. The editors and authors provide useful models of strengths-oriented perspectives and scholarship promoting social and educational change for those invested in culturally-sustaining refugee education and research.

-- Nicole Pettitt, Youngstown State University, USA * Language and Education, 2021 *

This book has informed my research on developing technology-enhanced language learn-ing environments for refugee-background adolescents by encouraging the involvement ofstudents as co-researchers and allowing their experiences, identities and needs to shapeour designs [...] The book serves as a valuable resource for teachers,researchers, and policy-makers seeking to expand their understanding and learn moreabout research conducted with this student group.

* Linda Molin-Karakoc, IOE, University College London, UK, Educational Review 2024 *

While the authors’ repeated calls for more and better research validates the need to be able to account for demands for funding, resources and the like, the work that is presented is valuable precisely because of its specificity and the lines drawn, connections made from one particular set of occurrences to broader possibilities for interventions, shifts and new approaches to engaging refugee learners of all ages and abilities across the educational spectrum. This collection moves the needle well in the direction of furthering collective wisdom, offering solutions and possibilities in a time of darkness around the world

-- Janet Isserlis, Adult Educator/Literacy Practitioner, USA * Languages 2019, 4(3), 66 *

...unique themes and the individuality of participants involved highlight the importance of consulting your learners and making their voice count, which are the key messages I take from this book. It is a welcome resource for educators, teacher trainers and policy makers looking for perspectives that aim to overcome deficit models of learners with a refugee background and look to empower them through truly collaborative classrooms and research projects.

-- Dina Mehmedbegovic-Smith, UCL Institute of Education, UK * ELT Journal, 2020 *

The book is both challenging and encouraging to read. The range of contexts represented in the book demonstrates the breadth of the challenges facing refugee-background students, both adults and children, as they negotiate the different educational, cultural, and political constraints and circumstances of their resettlement. The book will be of interest to those who work with refugee-background students at all levels of education, and offers sensitive approaches and educational practices that seek to fully engage with individuals and their unique experiences of life in a new country.

-- Roslyn Appleby, University of Technology Sydney, Australia * TESOL Quarterly, 20