Creating ‘advantageous’ spaces for migrant and refugee youth in regional areas: a local approach

ABSTRACT

To alleviate overpopulation in Australia’s metropolitan areas and counter population decline in regional areas, regional settlement of newly arrived migrants and refugees has emerged in recent policy debates. With a new federal government plan to introduce mandatory regional settlement for migrants, significant responsibility is placed on regional schools to cater for the unique needs of students from linguistically and culturally diverse backgrounds. Evoking Bourdieu’s thinking tools, this paper examines the perspectives of principals and teachers from two regional schools in Victoria, Australia by exploring their beliefs and dispositions towards English as an Additional Language (EAL) students in mainstream classrooms and their capacity to build student capital within a regional education field. This paper argues that for regional settlement to be ‘advantageous’, regional schools must look from within to initiate a whole school approach to EAL support and professional development and promote community connections to create advantageous spaces for migrant and refugee youth.

KEYWORDS:

• Australia
• Bourdieu
• regional education
• secondary schooling
• English as an additional language

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by VicTESOL Research Grant.

Notes on contributors

Melissa Barnes

Melissa Barnes is a lecturer in the Faculty of Education, working within the fields of teacher education, assessment, policy and TESOL. She teaches and leads research initiatives that focus on policy construction, interpretation and enactment, with a focus on how policies impact and shape teaching and learning. She has published in journals such as Critical Studies in Education and English for Academic Purposes, among others. Melissa has been a classroom teacher in the US, Germany, Vietnam and Australia, collectively shaping her understanding and approach to teaching and learning.