Fostering academic success

This step focuses on creating intellectually stimulating environments for all students by using culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP).

Why do students benefit from an environment that fosters academic success? Click on each number to learn more.

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1. Refugees often come from cultures very different to British culture. They may experience culture shock or struggle to connect with British-specific resources at first. 2. Small curriculum changes like diverse images, global case studies and adding more spoken learning activities can support these students. 3. Involving students in presenting topics around their own culture or country of origin can show children how valued they are in the classroom and how equal their lived experiences are to others in the classroom.

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How can the Healing Classrooms Approach help?
Students who are refugees have likely experienced gaps in their education, and schooling using very different methods to the UK.
Creating a stimulating environment requires teachers to assess not only the knowledge but the skills children enter the classroom with.
Students should be able to relate to and interact with the content rather than just memorise and repeat it.
Learning should be a two-way street with teachers and students gaining new knowledge from each other.

 

Activity icon Task 17: Put yourself in their shoes

Timing: 10 minutes
  1. Imagine you are sitting in a classroom, looking at the whiteboard and a worksheet and you can’t understand a word that is written on either.
  2. List five things the teacher could do to help you access the lesson (for example, add a list of keywords with images next to them, book me in for one-to-one time to learn the basics of the new language).
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Now you have taken the time to consider what it might be like to be a refugee student in an unfamiliar classroom with a new language and teaching and learning style, take a moment to reflect on the support your school already provides.

Many children who’ve experienced displacement have had gaps in their education or received education in informal schools in refugee camps. Educators must acknowledge that lost learning or language barriers are not an indication of academic potential.

Refugee children should be held to high academic expectations and given the support they need to flourish at school. Schools should map out skills, talents and interests of new students to help include them in lessons.

As we saw with the case of Shukria who arrived in the UK with little knowledge of English, students who are given the right support can flourish even in a short amount of time. You will now read a list of recommended strategies to provide such support to students in your school.

Poem – A Glass of Tea (After Rumi) By Shukria Rezaei

Strategies for fostering academic success