Special Issue on Cultural and Academic Adjustment of Refugee Youth in Educational Settings

[Announcement from SCRA-L]

Dear All, 

Please see announcement below on a special issue for the journal I edit, and please circulate widely!

Dina Birman, Ph.D.

Associate Professor| Educational and Psychological Studies

Director| Community Well-Being PhD Program

School of Education and Human Development | University of Miami

5202 University Drive | MB 311-A| Coral Gables, FL  33146

d.birman@miami.edu| phone:  305-284-3460

Editor, International Journal of Intercultural Relations

Special Issue: Cultural and Academic Adjustment of Refugee Youth

in Educational Settings

International Journal of Intercultural Relations

According to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), there are over 10 million refugees spread around the world living in varying conditions including refugee camps, temporary shelters, and permanent resettlement in other countries. The United Nations has specified in conventions, and researchers have concurred, that education is essential for refugee children’s social, psychosocial, and economic adjustment. However, in temporary spaces of refuge access to education is limited and generally of a low quality, with inadequate resources (Dryden-Peterson, 2011). Research suggests that refugee students continue to experience challenges in countries of resettlement (McBrien, 2005), and those with interrupted or no prior formal education are particularly at risk (Dooley, 2009).  

The International Journal of Intercultural Relations (IJIR) is soliciting manuscripts for a special issue on the Cultural and Academic Adjustment of Refugee Youth in Educational Settings. The issue is intended to look at challenges and effective practices in various countries of temporary asylum and permanent resettlement of refugee youth. The editors hope to receive submissions that report on empirical work on refugee students at all levels of education: primary, secondary, and higher education; formal, informal, and non-formal (Brock, 2011); and in diverse national contexts.  We welcome methodological approaches that rely on quantitative, qualitative, and/or participatory methods.

IJIR is concerned with intercultural relations, including topics such as acculturation, intercultural communication and interactions, and cultural diversity in diverse contexts including educational settings.  Please go to http://www.journals.elsevier.com/international-journal-of-intercultural-relations/ to learn more about the IJIR and its Aims and Scope.

Potential papers could examine questions including (but not limited to) the following:

w  How do refugee students negotiate meaning and belonging as they move from first-third spaces of residence?

w  In what ways have teachers negotiated the space between homeland and resettlement to help refugee students gain a sense of belonging?

w  Factors that influence refugee student adjustment to and integration in school, including

·      Cultural factors as involved in acculturation, cultural differences in educational practices, teacher attitudes and expectations, parent-school relationships, etc.;

·      Educational and other policies at the national, regional, and local levels that influence education of refugee students such as high stakes testing;

·      School level policies and programs aimed at refugee children involving classroom organization and placement, transitional language or newcomer programs;

·      Other supports effective at helping refugee students move from one culture to another to succeed educationally.

w Psychosocial adjustment of refugee students at school and their coping with acculturative stress and trauma.

w  School-based interventions that address refugee students’ psychological, social, or educational needs

The special issue will be edited by Guest Editors Jody L McBrien, Associate Professor of Education at the University of South Florida, Sarasota-Manatee, USA; Karen Dooley, Associate Professor of Education at Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia; and Dina Birman, IJIR Editor in Chief, Associate Professor of Education at the University of Miami, USA.

Abstracts of 300-500 words are requested by August 10, 2015. Be sure to include your research question and its significance. Remark on your theoretical framework, methods, findings, and conclusions. Please send your abstract to Jody McBrien (jlmcbrien@sar.usf.edu) or Karen Dooley (k.dooley@qut.edu.au). If you submit an abstract that is accepted, we expect that a completed manuscript can be sent no later than February 1, 2016. Those who submit an abstract will be notified no later than September 15, 2015, on whether or not the journal would like a completed manuscript.​

Jody L McBrien

Karen Dooley

Dina Birman

Brock, C. (2011). Education as a global concern. Bloomsbury Publishing.

Dooley, K (2009). Re-thinking pedagogy for middle school students with little, no or severely interrupted schooling. English Teaching: Practice and Critique, 8(1), pp. 5-22.

Dryden-Peterson, S. (2011). Refugee education: A  global review. Geneva: UNHCR. Retrieved from http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home/opendocPDFViewer.html?docid=4fe317589&query=education

McBrien, J. L. (2005). Educational needs and barriers for refugee students in the United States: A review of the literature. Review of Educational Research, 75(3), 329-364.