A professor at the University of Winnipeg (U of W) has co-authored and published a guide for teachers to help refugee and newcomer students excel in the Canadian school system.
Bridging Two Worlds: Supporting Newcomer and Refugee Youth informs educators on the various struggles refugee and immigrant children might face whilst adjusting to their new environment. The guide includes practical ways to deal with challenges such as trauma.
According to the Government of Canada’s website, 40,081 refugees have entered Canada since November 2015.
Jan Stewart, a professor in the faculty of education at the U of W, said that she started developing the guide three years ago as a result of teachers and settlement workers requesting training on how to support newcomer students.
“We conducted about 300 interviews in four provinces,” she said. The process included feedback and consultation from stakeholders as well as the contribution of creative lessons from a team of writers.
“It was kind of a different process because it wasn’t one writer doing things. It was a collaborative effort from the field,” she said.
Stewart stated that the guide is important because “it bridges theory with practice.”
The guide includes 30 teacher development lessons in addition to lessons teachers will be able to use with newcomer and refugee students from kindergarten to Grade 12.
Stewart stated that the guide could also be applicable in post-secondary settings.
Pat Wilson, spokesperson for the Ottawa Centre Refugee Action, said “teachers would do well to have a little bit of guidance handling refugee children given the trauma that many of them have experienced overseas. It results in either withdrawal or acting out.”
According to the guide, refugee children experience what is called a “triple trauma.”
“Many refugees have experienced a traumatic event(s) in their home country such as armed conflict, abductions, terrorism, detainment, violence, or persecution,” the guide said. “They experience trauma a second time in the transition to life in a refugee camp, or in a period of uncertainty, when living in temporary (second-country) settlement situations. Newly arrived refugees might experience trauma a third time while settling into a new country.”
The trauma can be made worse when caretakers of the children fail to provide support and care, according to the guide.
Stewart stated that she herself has had 18 years of firsthand experience teaching and counselling in the elementary and secondary public school system. During this time, she worked with refugee students.
She said that she hopes the greatest takeaway from the guide “would just be to have a greater understanding of and compassion for the needs of refugees in the country.”
The guide will not only impact educational institutions in Canada, but also those in other countries dealing with refugee crises, she said.
“I’ve sort of started conversations with a faculty member in Beirut, Lebanon, and we’re looking at trying to use the curriculum in Lebanon for the hundreds of thousands of students who are not allowed to attend school,” Stewart said.
She added that the faculty member in Beirut was partnering with a local non-governmental organization to create a curriculum where Syrian teachers will be trained to open up schools during the school’s normal closing hours to educate Syrian children.
“It’s a lost generation,” Stewart said. “We are now partnering to see how we can share and improve for the situation of the children in Lebanon.”
Stewart also mentioned that there is further potential for linking to schools in Turkey and Jordan.
Photo by Aaron Hemens
