Supporting Refugee Students – Podcast Episode 181 | Classnotes Podcast 181

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Classnotes Podcast (April 11, 2018) Refugee children are a specific group of immigrant children, many of whom have experienced some kind of trauma. Since 2005, three quarters of a million refugees have entered the United States. They make up an increasingly more diverse population in terms of their countries of origin and primary languages. And they face a number of school policies and practices that hinder their access to education. David Hinojosa, J.D., director of the IDRA EAC-South, and Dr. Hannah Sung, associate director of research and continuous improvement at the Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium Inc., discuss those barriers. And they outline ways schools can pro-actively create a welcoming and positive learning environment for refugee students. The IDRA EAC-South supports districts across an 11-state region of the southeastern United States to put systems into place and prepare teachers to welcome all students, including refugee students, into their classrooms. Show length: 12:58 min.

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Resources

Addressing “Ecological Shock” – Supporting Refugee Students in School, by Kristin Grayson, Ph.D., and Hannah Sung, IDRA Newsletter

Urban Refugee Education – Overcoming Barriers for Access, Quality and Inclusion

Resettlement in the United States, UNHCR, The UN Refugee Agency

Young Children of Refugees in the United States: Integration Successes and Challenges, by Kate Hooper, Jie Zong, Randy Capps, and Michael Fix; Migration Policy Institute

Video Lesson: Brené Brown on Empathy, lesson created by Kim Preshoff using video from the RSA YouTube Channel

IDRA Infographic: Welcoming Immigrant Students in School 2018

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Show Notes

  • Hannah begins with the definition of a refugee and outlines the trauma that many refugee children are likely to have experienced.

  • David shares the current landscape of refugees coming into the United States, highlighting the settlements in the South.

  • David identifies six barriers to educational access facing refugee students, as identified by Teachers College. Hannah then discusses specific strategies that schools and districts can use, in partnership with their regional Equity Assistance Centers (EACs), to help overcome these barriers.

  • David and Hannah talk about the danger of having a school culture based on power and privilege, and the importance of building a culture that is inclusive and welcoming for all students.

  • David recounts a recent project where IDRA EAC-South worked with a rural school district to establish an asset-based parental engagement program that better supports the district’s refugee students.