Open Collections

Understanding communities of support for resettled refugee children and their families : a strengths-based study of partnership in Metro Vancouver

University of British Columbia

Public schools fill a unique space in the settlement landscape, often serving as a first point of community-based contact for newcomers to Canada. Inspired by characteristics of appreciative inquiry as methodology, this qualitative study takes a strengths-based approach to examine the roles—both present and potential—of public schools in supporting refugee resettlement. Using a singular partnership between a service-providing organization (SPO) and a public primary school in Metro Vancouver, I explore the policies and practices where support of both refugee students and their families is encouraged and nurtured at the K–12 school level. School districts across British Columbia and Canada continue to take various innovative approaches to support newcomers, and specifically refugees, in their schools and communities. However, limited research has been done in the Canadian context to assess and collate best practices where refugee students are supported holistically, and in relation to the broader settlement service sector. Research methods include interviews conducted with key administrators at the school and district levels as well as staff in the SPO, nested in the context of relevant municipal and provincial policy documents. I suggest essential characteristics of program design and practice that promote integration of refugee students and families in the community, as well as considerations for future research to grow our understanding of the critical role of public schools in refugee resettlement and support in Canada.

Text

2019-04-23

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/69885

Educational Studies

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/