Work during this fellowship was divided into five packages. WP1 addressed integration to the host institution, project management and training activities. The fellow received methodological training especially on participatory action research. In cooperation with her host institution, she organized a workshop for teachers of refugees in Turkey. The workshop aimed to introduce Turkish teachers to teaching examples from different parts of the world and to engage in experience sharing. WP2 and WP3 addressed data collection and analysis. The fellow followed two adaptation classes over the course of two school semesters through weekly, full-day classroom observations, interviewed teachers and students, and conducted focus group discussions with the students’ caregivers. Methodologically, the project aspired to develop a collaborative and empowering approach. The fellow used the training she received on the use of participatory action research methods in research with the students.
While proposing the project, the fellow had focused more on the question of how language learning would affect belonging. Yet, the research revealed how the relation went both ways: children needed a sense of belonging for language learning to take place. There is a growing global literature around the significance of teachers in refugee education. One research finding of this project pertains to the role teachers play in fostering a sense of belonging for refugee students. Teachers of adaptation classes are precariously employed on temporary project-basis to specifically teach refugee students. Thus, the integration of refugee students into public schools has gone hand in hand with the production of a new sub-category of teachers. Their employment conditions prevent teachers from developing a sense of belonging to the occupation and to their workplaces. Teachers struggle to convey a sense of belonging to students when they themselves do not experience it. Their uneasy maintenance at the fringes of school communities further reinforces the understanding that refugee education remains exceptional and secondary.
Language acquisition is perceived to be central to social inclusion by policymakers. Yet, when language acquisition is understood to be a merely cognitive process and not enough attention is paid to (gendered) language socialization not only but especially at school, learning outcomes are unsatisfactory, as children themselves acknowledge that “they keep forgetting what they learn”. Thus, adaptation classes exemplified the simultaneous production of integrative and disintegrative outcomes in refugee education. On the one hand, educational authorities promoted the development of human capital, regardless of who possessed it. On the other hand, in public institutions such as schools, cultural differences continued to mark who did not belong, which led refugee students to experience everyday bordering. Consequently, educational policies that depended on an understanding of human capital emptied of its social context were rendered inapplicable by lived experiences of schooling.
WP4 addressed dissemination of project results to the academic community. The fellow made two international conference presentations, and two articles are to come out of the project. WP5 addressed dissemination of project results to other, potential users. The fellow communicated the project results to local educational authorities such as school principals to facilitate administrative practice and to national educational authorities to facilitate policy decision-making. The fellow collaborated with multiple teacher networks, and also organized meetings with refugee caregivers, presenting project results that may assist them in taking part in children’s education.
