The recent surge of refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine confirms once again that this phenomenon is now a stable feature of our everyday life. Both the number of people escaping and the different types of countries involved highlight the permanent and transnational character of these migratory movements. They confront us with the need to make choices that go beyond the current emergency and implement systematic policies for resettlement, especially with regards to refugee children.
While governments are becoming increasingly able to cater for the immediate needs of children forced to leave their country, the question of providing effective paths for their inclusion in the education systems is still unresolved. Evidence shows that education is a decisive protective factor for refugee children (Koheler, 2019; Miller et al., 2018; Ratkovic et al., 2017). The ability of schools to provide immediate and appropriate support is pivotal to favour a smooth accommodation process and ensure settlement, safety, and security for children (Richardson, 2018; UNESCO, 2018).
European Union recently put into action several initiatives aimed to support the efforts of EU countries to integrate refugees in education systems and ensure their skills development (https://www.unhcr.org/neu/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2019/09/Access-to-education-europe-19.pdf). In this framework, the role of schools, in collaboration with health and social services, is vital to ensure widespread and extensive educational support to refugee children. To do so, schools have to develop a holistic approach based on deeper knowledge of the multiple complex needs of asylum-seeker and refugee pupils. This entails that school practitioners would acquire a broader awareness of how children undergo through experiences related to high mobility, displacement, and replacement, are faced with insecure and bureaucratically longwinded asylum processes, deal with a new language and culture, endure poor housing and health problems, face changes in familiar relationships, and sometimes are anxious or feel guilty about leaving behind or surviving to other family members.
Teachers play a key role in implementing such a holistic approach as to ensure effective enrolment and transition of refugee children. However, this poses a serious professional challenge to preservice and in-service teachers, as refugee education cannot be considered seen as a simple variation of the common intercultural education programmes. Consequently, both future and in-service teachers need to receive specific training and continual professional development to cope with the new tasks involved in refugee education.
This has been the goal of the Erasmus+ project ITIRE (https://projects.au.dk/itire/), developed by five higher education partners (Austria, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, and UK), in collaboration with schools and educational services located in each country.
We would like to invite both researchers and practitioners to contribute to discussing this important topic at the international webinar ITIRE will host on 10 June (14.00-17.00). The webinar will help participants present and reflect on policies and practices developed at the international and national levels to foster the educational and social inclusion of refugee children.
The international webinar pursues four specific objectives:
• to promote reflection on the needs and opportunities for preservice and in-service teachers training on refugee children education;
• to identify guidelines to be implemented by educational organisations to foster initiatives aimed to encourage the inclusion of refugee children in ECEC services and school;
• to analyse strategies and measures promoting learning and participation of refugee students through the adoption of a whole school approach;
• to establish a map of the institutional policies for attending to refugee children in relation to school access and success.
Participants are invited to hand in max. two abstracts for papers or posters.
All proposals must be sent to fado@edu.au.dk.
Abstracts can be related to scientific research and/or good practices.
The submission should contain a maximum of 1500 words, references included.
Abstracts have to be composed along with one of the following formats:
RESEARCH (paper o poster)
• Title
• Author(s) including affiliations and email addresses
• 3 - 5 keywords
• General description of research questions, objectives and theoretical framework
• Methods/methodology
• Results
• References
EXPERIENCES FROM PRACTICES (paper o poster)
• Title
• Author(s) including affiliations and email addresses
• 3 - 5 keywords
• General description of the context, objectives
• Activities and instruments description
• Results achieved, materials developed
• References
Abstracts submitted will be selected through a peer-review process.
We accept submissions until 10 May.
An ISBN publication will be produced with all the accepted papers.
Important dates
• 25/03/2022 Registration and submission starts
• 10/05/2022 Submission ends
• 20/05/2022 Review results announced
