By recent estimates, there are over 82 million displaced people worldwide, including 26 million refugees and more than 4 million asylum seekers (UNHCR, 2021). While the vast majority (86%) of refugees are hosted by neighbouring – and usually low income – countries, high income countries such as those in Europe also play a role, both through receiving asylum seekers and through refugee resettlement programmes.

Globally, half of refugees are children (UNHCR, 2017), and have the right to education. Numerous studies have documented the importance of school for refugee children – in terms of academic and language learning opportunities, but also in terms of providing socio-emotional well-being through daily routine, friendship, and a sense of identity (Chase, 2017; Fazel, 2002; Ott & O’Higgins, 2019). The actions of individual teachers, teaching assistants, and other school staff are known to be important to refugee pupils (Aleghfeli & Hunt, 2022; Baak, 2019; Hek, 2005), yet there are few studies that examine refugee education from the perspective of educators. The present study aims to fill that gap by addressing the following research questions:

1)    What are educators’ inclusive practices with refugee pupils?

2)    How do educators’ knowledge and attitudes shape these practices?

The study is based on data from a larger project that explored educators’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices with refugee pupils in one local authority in England. It introduces a conceptual framework, the Educators’ Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices (EKAP) model, to demonstrate how educators’ knowledge and attitudes about refugee pupils interact with their practices. While previous frameworks of knowledge, attitudes, and practices have assumed a linear, unidirectional relationship between concepts, empirical studies have challenged this assumption (Muleme et al., 2017; Rav-Marathe et al., 2016) and theorists have suggested that a more complex, multidirectional conceptualisation would be more accurate (Clarke & Hollingsworth, 2002; Guskey, 1986). In the context of this study, the EKAP model is a lens through which to explore the factors and processes shaping educators’ practices with refugee pupils – but also helps identify how practices shape knowledge and attitudes, creating ‘virtuous circles’ between individual educators and their schools of employment.

This study has important implications for educators, schools, and school systems across Europe and other high-income refugee-receiving countries. The findings add to a growing body of literature suggesting that educators in supportive schools enact a range of holistic, inclusive practices with refugee pupils already – and that these types of practices can be fostered through various avenues and methods (Kaukko et al., 2021; McIntyre & Abrams, 2021). Furthermore, the EKAP model, though developed in the context of education for refugee pupils, has the potential to be applied to educator learning and development more generally. 

The study took place in one local education authority in southern England. ‘Refugee pupils’ were defined as pupils who were recently arrived refugees or asylum seekers, including unaccompanied asylum seeking children. ‘Educators’ were defined as class teachers, teaching assistants, specialist teachers, and school leaders. The study employed a mixed-methods approach, including a survey (n=295) of educators across the county and nested case studies of 17 educators at two schools. The survey was a self-report questionnaire (online and paper copies) including measures of educators’ knowledge about teaching refugee pupils and their attitudes towards refugee pupils. Survey respondents were recruited through their schools of employment; questionnaires were mainly introduced and distributed at staff meetings. Sampling of the schools, and therefore the survey respondents, was not random. However, all schools in the county were contacted by phone and/or email to invite their participation and additional efforts were made to have a proportionate balance of primary versus secondary schools, schools in lower versus higher income neighbourhoods, and schools with a range of government inspection ratings. The case studies consisted of participant observation, educator interviews, and pupil interviews. Two case study schools were selected based on their relatively high proportion of refugee pupils on roll. School A, a secondary school, had a reputation for being particularly welcoming to refugee pupils and had recently created a special provision for new arrivals in the upper grades. School B had a history of educating migrant pupils and had recently welcomed several children from Syria as part of a government resettlement scheme. Within each school, 17 participant educators were selected by school leaders and consisted of mainstream class teachers, teaching assistants, and English as an Additional Language (EAL) teachers, some of whom also had leadership roles within the schools. I spent 7-8 weeks as a participant observer at each school, conducting an in-depth interview with each participant educator and four group interviews with Year 5 pupils (age 9-10). Data from the survey and case studies was analysed separately, then combined by theme. Quantitative survey results were analysed in SPSS 25 and qualitative survey results were analysed thematically in NVivo. Transcripts from interviews and observations were also analysed in NVivo, using a mix of deductive and inductive coding – that is, concepts in the EKAP framework were used as an analysis guide but emergent themes were also uncovered.

The study found that educators at School A and School B enacted a range of positive practices to promote the inclusion of refugee pupils. These practices can broadly be described as holistic – that is, creating a welcoming environment and fostering socio-emotional well-being alongside language learning and academic support. Formal examples of such practices included personalised timetables and curricula, peer buddy programmes, and the central location of EAL support, while more informal practices such as ‘checking in’, providing warnings about lesson content, and celebrating multilingualism were also common. Across the course of the project, a tension emerged between mainstream and separate provision for refugee pupils, and the nature of inclusion itself. Educators argued that on the one hand, providing a bespoke provision for some refugee pupils facilitated their inclusion in mainstream school – yet they recognised that this bespoke provision also excluded pupils, by placing them in special classes. The study also aimed to examine factors shaping educators’ practices with refugee pupils, through the lens of the EKAP framework. In the survey data, an association was found between educators’ previous experience with refugee pupils – and pupils with shared characteristics – and their knowledge about and positive attitudes towards refugee pupils. At the case study schools, numerous instances were observed of educators’ knowledge and attitudes influencing their practices. Knowledge about language learning, for example, was seen in the use of EAL strategies, while positive attitudes towards refugees were reflected in welcoming practices enacted at the individual and school level. However, it was also found that characteristics of the national education system – particularly the exam-based curriculum – constrained educators’ ability to enact inclusive practices. Overall, this study provides an example of educators including refugee pupils despite a lack of wider support, and offers an in-depth examination of ways in which educators’ practices are shaped.

Aleghfeli, Y. K., & Hunt, L. (2022). Education of unaccompanied refugee minors in high-income countries: Risk and resilience factors. Educational Research Review, 35, 100433. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.EDUREV.2022.100433 Baak, M. (2019). Schooling Displaced Syrian Students in Glasgow: Agents of Inclusion. In J. L. McBrien (Ed.), Educational Policies and Practices of English-Speaking Refugee Resettlement Countries. Brill Sense. Chase, E. (2017). Becoming adult research brief 5: Health and wellbeing. Clarke, D., & Hollingsworth, H. (2002). Elaborating a model of teacher professional growth. Teaching and Teacher Education, 18(8), 947–967. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0742-051X(02)00053-7 Fazel, M. (2002). The mental health of refugee children. Archives of Disease in Childhood, 87(5), 366–370. https://doi.org/10.1136/adc.87.5.366 Guskey, T. (1986). Staff development and the process of teacher change. Educational Researcher, 15(5), 5–12. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X015005005 Hek, R. (2005). The Experiences and Needs of Refugee and Asylum Seeking Children in the UK: A Literature Review. Kaukko, M., Wilkinson, J., & Kohli, R. K. (2021). Pedagogical love in Finland and Australia: a study of refugee children and their teachers. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681366.2020.1868555 McIntyre, J., & Abrams, F. (2021). Refugee Education: Theorising practice in schools. Routledge. Muleme, J., Kankya, C., Ssempebwa, J. C., Mazeri, S., & Muwonge, A. (2017). A Framework for integrating qualitative and quantitative data in knowledge, attitude, and practice studies: A case study of pesticide usage in eastern Uganda. Frontiers in Public Health, 5, 318. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2017.00318 Ott, E., & O’Higgins, A. (2019). Conceptualising educational provision for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in England. Oxford Review of Education, 45(4), 556–572. https://doi.org/10.1080/03054985.2019.1607274 Rav-Marathe, K., Wan, T. T. H., & Marathe, S. (2016). A systematic review on the KAP-O framework for diabetes education and research. Medical Research Archives, 4(1). http://journals.ke-i.org/images/sidebar/pdf/483-1710-1-PB.pdf UNHCR. (2017). Global trends: Forced displacement in 2016. www.unhcr.org/globaltrends2016/ UNHCR. (2021). Figures at a Glance 2020.