Well-being policy for refugee and migrant students in Denmark

Overall research objective

To investigate the development and implementation of well-being policies implicated in newcomers’ secondary education in Denmark, and provide newcomer and teacher perspectives on such policies and their impact on newcomers’ mental health and integration. 

Abstract

Many refugee and migrant adolescents recently arrived in European countries have faced hardships and/or trauma prior to and during flight from their home countries, and significant stressors often persist as these children begin lives in a new society. After arriving in the host country, school is one of the main settings in which these children begin the process of settling into their new surroundings; socio-emotional and mental health support at school may therefore be an important avenue to assisting them in the resettling process. Examining how well-being policies in secondary education settings are conceptualized and implemented for this population, and considering the experiences and perspectives of these students and their teachers, can allow for the identification of gaps and synergies between policy and practice.  

The notion of “well-being” is conceived of broadly, encompassing mental health as well as social-emotional and psycho-social health. How different actors define “well-being”, and the purpose of “well-being” at school (whether for its own sake or as a means to certain educational or societal goals, such as academic strength, success in language-learning or “integration”) will be analyzed as part of the research project.

The project starts from the premise that Danish education policy exists at the regional/city and school levels rather than the national level; accordingly, I will consider how and where power is located in the various levels of policy decision-making concerning well-being and on what basis such decisions are made. I will consider policy as text, policy as discourse and policy as practice: how policy is discussed versus acted out, and whether there are differences in the understanding of well-being policy among actors within a single school.

Study population: Research participants will include national policy makers; municipal administrators charged with oversight of education policy for the area; secondary school administrators; secondary school reception class teachers (Denmark); newcomer students; and former newcomer students now in mainstream classes. For purposes of this project “newcomers” are defined as foreign-born children between the ages of 12-21 (secondary school level) who have been in the host country less than three years. Data collection: Fieldwork will be conducted in five municipalities in Denmark: Frederiksberg, Ringkøbing-Skjern, Vejle, Roskilde, and Svendborg. These municipalities were selected due to having the highest numbers of new refugee arrivals in Denmark. One school within each municipality will be selected based on existence of reception classes and approval from the municipality and willingness of the school. For each municipality selected, interviews and focus groups will be conducted as follows: •Interview with the school administrator tasked with well-being and education policy for newcomers (Denmark) (total of 5 interviews, with possible additional interviews of any persons recommended to contact by the administrator). •In each school, interviews with the school principal/director (total of 5 interviews). •In each school, interviews with one to two teachers at the school who work in reception classes (Denmark) (total of 5-10 interviews). •In each school, one to two focus groups with newcomer students (total of 5-10 focus groups). •In each school, one to two focus groups with former newcomer students, now mainstreamed for at least one to two years (total of 5-10 focus groups). One to two interviews will be conducted with policy makers at the national level to provide a general overview as to the policy landscape and current political context. Following a review of first findings, additional municipalities or schools may be added as appropriate and feasible. The interviews and focus group discussions will undergo thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) to identify themes at the interpretive level (i.e., analysis of underlying patterns, meanings, and conceptualizations informing semantic content of the data). This analysis will be conducted using NVivo 12.

I expect that there will be: conflicting conceptualizations of "well-being" when articulated by the various actors (policymakers, school administators, teachers), as well as the goal of promoting well-being; scant well-being policy directed specifically at refugee and migrant students, and thus the question why this is not part of the Danish reception class system; and that students' experiences of well-being and psycho-social support at school will be at odds with stated policy goals.

•Bonell, C. et al. (2014). Why schools should promote students’ health and wellbeing. BMJ, 348: g3078. •European Commission/EACEA/Eurydice (2019). Integrating Students from Migrant Backgrounds into Schools in Europe: National Policies and Measures. Luxembourg: Pub Office European Union. •Fazel, M. et al. (2012). Mental health of displaced and refugee children resettled in high-income countries: risk and protective factors. The Lancet, 379: 266-82. •Montgomery, E. & Foldspang, A. (2008). Discrimination, mental problems and social adaptation in young refugees. European J of Pub Health, 18(2): 156-161. •Vervliet, M. et al. (2014). The Mental Health of Unaccompanied Refugee Minors on Arrival in the Host Country. Scand J of Psych, 55: 33-37. •Lietaert, I. et al. (2019). The development of an analytical framework to compare reception structures for unaccompanied refugee minors in Europe. European J of Social Work, DOI: 10.1080/13691457.2019. •Bonacino-Pugh, F. Researching ‘practiced language policies’: insights from conversation analysis. Lang Policy (2012) 11: 213–234. •Ricento and Hornberger. Unpeeling the Onion: Language Planning and Policy and the ELT Professional. TESOL quarterly , Vol.30(3): 401-427.