A hand up: supporting adolescent refugee students with limited or interrupted formal education (SLIFE)
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Issue Date
2023
Editor
Authors
Hughes-O'Flynn, Theresa
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Subject
Abstract
Increasingly, schools across the world are welcoming unprecedented numbers of refugee students with limited or interrupted formal education (SLIFE). Due to changing global situations, these students often have more extreme socioemotional and academic needs than former English Language Learners (ELL) populations. These factors have led to changes in the way students with interrupted schooling acquire English as an additional language and the need for teachers to learn more about this group's strengths and challenges. SLIFE that enter high school are at risk of dropout due to a confluence of challenges. They are often wading through content concourses with rudimentary English skills. In addition to this, they are navigating the new culture of Western high school and society, along with socioeconomic and/or familial pressures that often accompany migration to a new country. To support and encourage teachers who work with SLIFE, this project includes a three-part professional learning resource that will inform teachers of 1) the unique considerations when working with adolescent SLIFE, and 2) ways to integrate trauma informed practice and 3) culturally responsive teaching, with attention to the strengths and needs of SLIFE.