Exploring teachers’ understanding of and responses to the school belonging experiences of students from refugee backgrounds

ABSTRACT

Despite schools being exposed to students from refugee backgrounds for decades, many schools still struggle to provide adequate academic and social support for them. As a result, this study sought to better understand the educational experiences of these students by examining their belonging experiences. The belonging experiences were captured in order to examine and interrogate teacher practice. More specifically, this paper examines how five students’ belonging experiences are understood and interpreted by four classroom teachers. The broader study employed an arts-based approach in which data were collected from students’ drawings and semi-structured interviews. These drawings were then used as a prompt to examine teachers’ responses to the students’ belonging experiences as presented in this paper. The findings revealed that the participating teachers acknowledged the importance of knowing their students from refugee backgrounds and allowing them opportunities to get to know their peers. They also recognised the role of home languages and how peers and Multicultural Educational Aides (MEAs) mediate students’ visibility and audibility in the classroom. While the teachers identified strategies to foster belonging in the classroom, the findings also exposed the pervading deficit perspectives that continue to plague Australian schools and precariously position students from refugee backgrounds.

KEYWORDS:

• School belonging
• refugees
• primary schooling
• teacher practice

Introduction

With steadily rising numbers of students from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds attending schools in English-speaking countries (Buckingham, 2019; Chao, 2020; Gao et al., 2019), K-12 schools in these countries continue to struggle to provide adequate support (Barnes, 2021; Li & Qin, 2022; Madziva & Thondhlana, 2017; Tour & Barnes, 2022). Despite research over the last 20 years suggesting the need for schools to provide more academic and social support for students from refugee backgrounds (e.g. Due & Riggs, 2016; Meda et al., 2012) and a call for more substantial and targeted professional development for teachers (Barnes, 2021; Madziva & Thondhlana, 2017; Rose, 2018), there appears to be limited change to both urban (Li & Qin, 2022) and regional (Barnes, 2021) schooling contexts. Consequently, this study explores how the use of student ‘experience’ drawings prompts the reflections of four teacher participants as they consider their classroom practices in light of students’ belonging experiences. This study contributes to the existing literature as it examines how teachers respond to the needs of students from refugee backgrounds by positioning students’ experiences, as visualised in their drawings, as central to constructing their own understandings.

Several studies have revealed that schools in countries such as Australia, South Africa, the UK, and the US, are often unable to provide adequate academic support to students from refugee backgrounds as teachers struggle to meet their unique needs (Barnes, 2021; Li & Qin, 2022; Madziva & Thondhlana, 2017; Meda et al., 2012). For example, Li and Qin (2022) explored how three US urban schools addressed the challenges faced by migrant and refugee students. They found these students tended to be from low-income homes who had settled in high-poverty urban centers. These urban schools were often subjected to structural inequalities and unequal access to resources, and held deficit ideologies about students from migrant and refugee backgrounds. Likewise, in the UK, the education system has reportedly struggled to cater for the diverse needs of children from refugee backgrounds, in particular teacher training and resources provision within the context of the current austerity policies (Madziva & Thondhlana, 2017).

Another challenge faced by schools has been the tendency to treat students from refugee backgrounds as a homogeneous group, which disregards their individual experiences and identities, both of which are critical to analysing and identifying appropriate inventions (e.g. Tour & Barnes, 2022). Despite such challenges, some schools have enacted their own approaches to supporting students from refugee backgrounds and have employed effective practices which promote inclusivity, celebrate diversity, and involve parents and the community (Due et al., 2016; Kaukko et al., 2021).

Australian policy context

In Australia, newly arrived children from migrant and refugee backgrounds have the right to access free or subsidised childcare and/or preschool (0–5) and formal schooling (5–18) (Australian Government Department of Social Services [AGDSS], 2016). Children who speak a language or dialect other than English are also eligible to enroll in a New Arrivals Programme (NAP) that is developed, overseen, and funded by each individual state or territory. These NAPs provide support to children with no or low English language competence through an intensive English-language center, or providing additional support within a mainstream school, or a combination of both (Barnes et al., 2021).

While NAP programs have provided targeted and culturally responsive teaching and strong and meaningful emotional and social connections between teachers and students in Australia (see Due & Riggs, 2016; Shallow & Whitington, 2014), the transition to mainstream classrooms has been extremely difficult for children from migrant and refugee backgrounds (Gunasekera et al., 2014; Pugh et al., 2012). For example, Gunasekera et al. (2014) examined the transition of secondary school children from refugee backgrounds from an intensive English language center to mainstream schools in Western Australia and found that they fell behind academically and struggled to be accepted and become legitimate members of the school environment. Their study revealed that mainstream schools are not always fully equipped to deal with the diverse needs of such children as they feel alienated and disconnected from their teachers and peers. In another study, Barnes and Tour (2023), while working with EAL learners in a primary school in Australia, found that by creating digital texts students made meaning by connecting to their existing linguistic resources and experiences.

Despite extensive research into the experiences of students from refugee backgrounds in Australia (e.g. Amina et al., 2022; Due & Riggs, 2016; Gunasekera et al., 2014; Shallow & Whitington, 2014), there continues to be a need for schools to create institutional policies which ensure that targeted support is provided, diversity is celebrated, and pathways for inclusion and belonging are provided (Amina et al., 2022). In Australia, many schools, particularly regional or rural schools, are not eligible to receive English-language funding to hire a specialist English as an Additional Language (EAL) teacher due to having a small number of students with limited English language proficiency Barnes, 2021). Without EAL professionals available, mainstream teachers are ill-equipped to support students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds without possessing the requisite knowledge of and training in second language acquisition.

Challenging deficit views: focusing on students’ contributions rather than what they lack

Deficit views continue to shape how young people from refugee backgrounds and their families are positioned and understood within schooling contexts, particularly in English speaking countries such as Australia (Dooley & Thangaperumal, 2011; Tour & Barnes, 2022), the United States (Ryu & Tuvilla, 2018) and the United Kingdom (Sobitan, 2022). Several studies have captured the perspectives of teachers, students, and parents and have found that many participants focus on what students and families lack, attributing their disadvantage to their lack of English language skills (Amina et al., 2022; Amina et al., 2023; Barnes, 2021; Ryu & Tuvilla, 2018). In response, many scholars have attempted to highlight what students and their families contribute rather than what they lack (Amina et al., 2023; Compton‐Lilly et al., 2019; Kaukko et al., 2021; Li & Qin, 2022; Ryu & Tuvilla, 2018) as a way of challenging these deficit views.

While many families from refugee backgrounds have been marginalised and traumatised, this is not a complete or accurate account of who they are (Shapiro & MacDonald, 2017) and by focusing so intently on their trauma or disadvantage, there is the potential of positioning them as weak and helpless, which they are not (Amina et al., 2023). On the contrary, there is a strong and growing evidence-base that suggests that young people from refugee backgrounds possess transnational sensitivities which provide opportunities for them to promote cultural awareness in their classrooms (Compton‐Lilly et al., 2019). Two recent studies in Australia found that primary-aged students from refugee backgrounds have employed story crafting skills (Kaukko, 2021) and engaged with digital literacies (Tour & Barnes, 2022) to create their own texts, allowing them to position themselves as powerful and active meaning-makers rather than being essentialised as struggling language learners with complex histories.

Belonging and school belonging: the role of teachers and communities

Belonging is often construed in transformative and meaningful experiences of connection with one’s physical and emotional world, acting as a basis of one’s identity (Chen & Schweitzer, 2019; Due et al., 2016). A sense of belonging is an essential aspect of one’s psychological functioning, given that belonging is a basic universal need driven by a psychological urge to fit within their community (Allen et al., 2018; Bouchard & Berg, 2017). School belonging, more specifically, is rooted in learners’ sense of association with their schools and is related to academic motivation and success (Allen et al., 2018). A sense of school belonging affects positive social and emotional behaviours which improves overall academic performance (Allen et al., 2018). School belonging fosters a sense of acceptance and inclusiveness in school children and legitimises them as valuable members of their school communities (Högberg et al., 2021).

School belonging is extremely important for children from refugee backgrounds as they are at risk of feeling othered and overwhelmed by the expectations and newness of their new schooling contexts (Kohli, 2011; Wernesjo, 2020). Children from refugee backgrounds, particularly those who are unaccompanied, experience emotional trauma due to their traumatised past, forced dislocation, loss and separation from their parents and the change in their everyday life situations (Wernesjo, 2012, 2020). They struggle to cope with their new lives in a new country due to their loss of trusted relationships and familiar settings and faces (Kohli, 2011; Wernesjo, 2020). However, for these students, attending schools in new countries also provides an opportunity to transit from extraordinary experiences to normal, meaningful lives with the help of trained practitioners and supportive policies (McIntyre & Neuhaus, 2021). During the post-migration phase, schools play a major role in developing a sense of belonging for these new arrivals by acknowledging their individuality and identity, and purposefully aiming to eliminate racism leading to a sense of exclusion (Baak, 2019; Due et al., 2016). This study conceptualises school belonging from a Bourdieuan perspective to capture the connectedness between children’s experiences of belonging and the opportunities that are provided by schools and sought by children to gain belonging. This perspective views capital building (e.g. linguistic and social capital) as a way to foster a sense of belonging among children from refugee backgrounds as it helps them to harness and shape their habitus by actively participating and gaining legitimacy within the field (school environments).

Teachers play a crucial role in creating opportunities for student belonging (Amina et al., 2022; Due et al., 2016; Rose, 2018). Rose (2018) argues that suitable conditions, such as resources, conducive learning environments, and government funding are necessary for a teacher to successfully enact their individual agency in addressing the needs of students from refugee backgrounds. Rose (2018) believes that teachers have the ability to improve and reshape the educational experiences of refugee children and foster a sense of belonging with the help of their own professional learning and intentional efforts. Due et al. (2016) also emphasised the role that teachers play in creating a sense of belonging among children from refugee backgrounds. The participating students in their study showed a keen interest in developing relationships with their teachers. These teachers were experienced in working with and teaching students from refugee backgrounds and were able to build positive relationships with their students. These teacher-student relationships created a tangible pathway for school belonging for the children and gave them a sense of security when they arrived at school each day (Due & Riggs, 2016).

Nevertheless, these studies would not necessarily represent the entire picture of the experiences of teachers with students from refugee backgrounds. As depicted in the study by Amina et al., (2022), there are cases where the students have challenges in developing a sense of belonging and the gazes and perspectives of the teachers would influence those experiences. Therefore, there should be additional studies to further investigate the multiplicities of teachers’ perceptions about their students from refugee backgrounds.

Positionality of the researcher

The first author is an immigrant EAL teacher and mother of two primary school-aged children who came to Australia nearly six years ago. While navigating a new life in Australia, her family faced challenges regarding the differences in culture, job settlement, language, and people. Her children suffered emotionally during their settlement in Australia, particularly at school where they felt alone and disconnected. Despite coming from Pakistan, where English is the second official language and main medium of instruction in classrooms, they struggled to communicate in Australian schools because of the accent, slang, and rapid speech. They caused stress and anxiety. Her interest in this study stemmed from her children’s experience as migrants and her previous teaching experience in Pakistan where she worked with refugees who had relocated to Pakistan during and after the Soviet-Afghan war.

The purpose of this study

The purpose of this study was, therefore, to present the perspectives of primary school teachers regarding the schooling experiences of children from refugee backgrounds – in particular, this study explores teachers’ understanding of how students from refugee backgrounds experience belonging by examining the visual and oral depictions and explanations of five children’s experiences.

The study employed a qualitative stance utilising interviews (interviews with students and parents and focus group interviews with teachers) and children’s drawings to understand the school belonging experiences of children from refugee backgrounds and teachers’ responses to these experiences. This study is guided by the following research questions:

1. How do newly arrived children from refugee backgrounds communicate their school belonging experiences?

2. How do teachers view and construct an understanding of children’s school belonging from refugee backgrounds?

Methods

An Arts-Based Approach (ABA) was employed in the broader study to allow newly arrived children from refugee backgrounds to express their belonging experiences. ABA aims to construct an understanding and create knowledge within transdisciplinary research contexts (Leavy, 2015; McNiff, 2018). This approach utilises art-making as a tool to gain an in-depth understanding and knowledge of a phenomenon (McNiff, 2018): in this case, the phenomenon of school belonging. It is an approach where artwork and creative representations liberate and empower learners from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds to construct and present meanings without relying on their language abilities (Cummins & Early, 2011). In this study, ABA was employed with children from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds so as not to rely on their linguistic competence. This approach permitted the participating students to freely voice their opinions through their arts-based interpretations (Due et al., 2016) – helping them represent both verbal and non-verbal ideas in the form of aesthetic expressions. These drawings acted as reflective prompts which were used to examine teachers’ understanding of students’ experiences.

Data for this study were collected from the teachers with the help of semi-structured interviews and using ‘experience drawings’ created by primary-aged children (aged between 10 years and 12 years [grades 4–6]) from refugee backgrounds who had arrived in Australia within the past three years (see Amina et al., 2022). Semi-structured interviews were utilised as it was expected that this would help the teachers to construct their own meaning from the drawings, and also this would provide flexibility for them to identify ‘what stood out to them’ and then follow-up questions could be asked. These experience drawings also known as ‘identity texts’ within the literature are considered as being child-focussed and a flexible way to allow children to communicate their experiences and perspectives effectively (Due et al., 2014). Children from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds are capable of understanding and reading simple visuals and they are capable of drawing and mapping their understandings/ideas from an early age (Blaut et al., 2003). Identity texts have been found to be an effective way for young people from socially marginalised backgrounds to communicate their perspectives, experiences, and identities (Compton‐Lilly et al., 2019; Cummins & Early, 2011; Due et al., 2016). Such Identity texts provide an opportunity for learners to present creative work and can be constructed in many ways, such as a visual representation or a picture (Somerville et al., 2015) and/or a written or spoken text (Daniel & Eley, 2018). In addition to the drawings, interviews were conducted with the children so that they could explain their drawings.

The children’s drawings and their explanations were then used as prompts in the semi-structured interviews with the teachers to help in constructing an understanding of these children’s sense of school belonging and how best to respond in classroom settings. This study is part of the larger study (for more about the drawings and how they were analysed, see Amina et al., 2022). For the purposes of this paper, only the teachers’ responses to the drawings created by the students from refugee backgrounds are presented and analysed. The aim of this paper is not to analyse the drawings themselves but rather to focus on how teachers responded to these drawings and how they viewed the role of teachers in building a sense of school belonging among students from refugee backgrounds.

Participants

To ensure research protocols were followed and applied, ethical approval was obtained from Monash University Human Research Ethics Committee (ID: 27281). All the participants’ names are pseudonyms to protect their identities.

Table

Name (Pseudonym)	Role	School(s)	Focus Group
Emily	Mainstream primary school teacher	Government school	Focus group 1
Punam	Primary school EAL teacher	Government school	Focus group 1
Lucy	Primary school EAL teacher	Government school	Focus group 2
Paula	Primary/Secondary EAL teacher	Works across a range of regional primary and secondary schools	Focus group 2

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the inability to conduct research in Victorian schools, the teachers were recruited through snowballing techniques, relying on personal contacts. Given that the recruitment of teachers occurred during Covid-19 lockdowns when teachers were teaching online, it was difficult to find teachers who were interested in participating in an online focus group interview. Possible reasons for this may be due to teachers feeling overwhelmed with their workload (e.g. the change to online teaching) and/or their desire not to participate in an online interview, adding additional hours of being in front of a screen. Invitation emails were sent to approximately 10 teachers working in a range of government schools in the state of Victoria. The invitation email included both the explanatory statement and consent forms. While six participants originally agreed to participate in this study, only four participants completed the consent forms and attended a focus group interview. Due to issues with work schedules, two separate focus groups were conducted, consisting of two participants in each group.

While all participants are trained and qualified teachers, Emily had no specific EAL training and Lucy was a recent appointment to an EAL role at her school after several years as a generalist primary school teacher. Punam and Paula were experienced EAL teachers with extensive experience supporting EAL students from refugee backgrounds in mainstream primary schools.

Data collection and analysis

The participating teachers were interviewed online, via the Zoom platform, and the five participating children’s drawings and their verbal explanations were used as prompts (see Amina et al., 2022 to view children’s drawings and their explanations). The meanings of the drawings were identified and interpreted through co-construction, where authors examined these drawings first individually and then convened together to discuss their embedded meanings. In addition, the accompanying interviews of the children were a complementary source of interpretation. This process helped in selecting themes and questions to ask the teachers. Questions were asked about their perceptions and views of students’ sense of school belonging expressed through their drawings and accompanying interviews. First, they were asked about what stood out to them in the drawings created by the learners and what were their perceptions of it. Some of the striking drawings created by the students were highlighted along with the students’ explanations, and teachers were asked about their views on them. Follow-up questions included inquiries about their understanding of how students gain a sense of belonging in the school and how important it is to gain this and how they can identify whether a student in their class feels that he belongs or not. The interviews lasted approximately 50–60 minutes and were audio recorded.

Reflexive thematic analysis was employed to analyse the interview data (Braun & Clarke, 2019). The researchers employed reflectivity, questioning and challenging their taken-for-granted assumptions. The thematic analysis process involved reading and becoming acquainted with the interview transcripts, coding, exploring themes analytically, reviewing themes and creating a thematic map, naming and classifying themes, and concluding the analysis through writing. This process of analysis was not linear but iterative and all stages were revisited for better understanding and the identification of the codes, categories and themes and they were negotiated among the three authors (Braun & Clarke, 2019). Initial inductive codes were generated (e.g. teacher interactions, peer interactions, importance of interpreters, multilingualism, etc.). Finally, the codes were interpreted into key themes (e.g. Teachers’ role in facilitating social interactions, the role of language, and the deficit perspective for students from refugee backgrounds). The processes of analysis were collaborative and carefully performed in consultation with the research team to ensure the credibility of the data analysis process.

Results

The thematic analysis revealed three key findings which illuminate how the participating teachers view their role in creating and facilitating belonging experiences among students from refugee backgrounds. Firstly, the participating teachers felt that for their students to gain a sense of belonging, teachers needed to purposefully get to know them and allow opportunities for them to get to know their peers. Secondly, the teachers recognised the role that language played in belonging and identified ways that they strategically celebrated students’ language backgrounds and utilised language support from peers and Multicultural Educational Aides (MEAs). Finally, while the participating teachers represent teachers who demonstrated care for their students, particularly those from refugee backgrounds, the findings reveal that deficit perspectives still pervade Australian schools in how students are precariously positioned in relation to other students.

Facilitating social interactions: teachers and peers

The data from the interviews with teachers revealed that the participating teachers felt that when teachers made an effort to take the time to get to know their students from refugee backgrounds individually, they fostered a sense of trust and belonging. For both Punam, an EAL teacher, and Emily, a mainstream teacher, getting to know their students and spending individual time with them outside of classroom lessons was crucial for belonging.

I made sure that I met them one-on-one before they came to my classroom, came to me for, you know, lessons as a group. That one-on-one time, even if it was only half an hour or 45 minutes, that tells me heaps … (Punam)

Sometimes out of the classroom can also be a real opening for children feeling a little bit more relaxed and less formal. And they talk about all sorts of things … . I think also, being a good teacher is also knowing your students very well. (Emily)

Both Punam and Emily explained that creating spaces for students to talk to them outside of the everyday classroom activities and routines allowed an opportunity for students to talk freely and openly. According to these two teachers, purposeful interactions provided valuable insight into who the students were and what they needed.

Another way that Emily attempted to help students gain a sense of belonging was to create opportunities for them to feel like a capable contributing member of the classroom.

I also think sometimes giving children responsibilities or, like we do with, you know, the stuff that we come up with, jobs, and everyone has a different job. Sure, I think showing that we trust each and every student to do a task either individually, or with another child, I think that, you know, give each showing that we trust them. (Emily)

Notably, Emily associated belonging with gaining a sense of trust. She argued that if students from refugee backgrounds felt that they were trusted by their teacher and their peers to complete a job or take on a responsibility, this would engender a sense of belonging.

While interactions between teachers and students from refugee backgrounds were important, it was also noted that teachers played vital roles in facilitating opportunities for students from refugee backgrounds to connect with their peers. For Emily, if she noticed that a student was feeling excluded or not making friends, she felt it was her responsibility to create spaces for collaboration and social interaction.

I think with regard to making sure that refugee children do feel that sense of belonging, I think, if I were to notice, the refugee child but any child in my class if I felt that they were, like, they were sickly, secluded and not really making friends, probably most teachers would make opportunities for some sort of social games or to encourage children to do collaborative work. (Emily)

Likewise, for Punam, she found that peer support and/or collaborative work were important and helped students participate within the classroom community.

You can also buddy up, not just outside but within the classroom as well, when the child is working, you know. Let them work in pairs, and then maybe let them work in small groups. So, there is every chance that the child who feels secluded may feel part of a group and part of the classroom community that we have. (Punam)

For both Emily and Punam, collaborative work was an effective strategy in fostering belonging among students from refugee backgrounds. They felt that teachers played a role in facilitating such activities and creating opportunities for students to interact and connect with each other.

For Emily and Punam, getting to know their students was an important ingredient in cultivating a sense of belonging among students from refugee backgrounds. They felt that good teachers created opportunities to get to know their students within and outside of the classroom, allowing spaces and opportunities for students to share. In addition, while developing a sense of belonging through teacher-student interactions was important, teachers also needed to facilitate social interactions through collaborative work. Overall, creating opportunities for social interactions was viewed as crucial in creating a sense of belonging among students.

Language is a bridge to belonging

While teachers viewed themselves as key players in strategically and purposefully creating spaces and opportunities for interactions that foster belonging, they also acknowledged how language, particularly students’ home languages, also played a role in gaining a sense of belonging. Punam, for example, felt that when their ability to speak other languages (other than English) was acknowledged and celebrated, students felt appreciated, recognised, and included.

How wonderful it is to be able to speak another language to belong to, you know, a certain community and keep that alive … . Because I remember when the kids come to EAL, they think they are dumb. They are not smart. So, you have to start with that, that if I go to Afghanistan or to Spain or any other country, I will have to start learning that language from scratch, from zero. I won’t be able to say anything in Dari. (Punam)

For Punam, she felt that students needed to be acknowledged for belonging to another language group and appreciated for learning a new language. Harnessing some perspective-taking, Punam explained to her students what she might feel and experience when learning a new language. She felt this allowed students to feel that they were not alone in their language learning experiences and anyone that found themselves in a new country, learning a new language, would have similar experiences. Another strategy Punam employed to recognise and celebrate their language backgrounds was to use their names and pronounce them correctly rather than trying to make them adjust their names to something that was more anglicised.

Belonging is that their voices are heard, they are little things for me. It starts with saying their names correctly. Not try to anglicise them. Not try to twist them to suit and let the kids have that feeling that it’s okay. (Punam)

For Punam, students’ names are a reflection of who they are and by knowing how to correctly pronounce their names, it signals that the teachers care and know who they are and where they come from. The recognition of their home language or language backgrounds, from Punam’s point of view, gives students a ‘voice’ in the classroom. While a teacher saying a student’s name correctly does not necessarily provide them with an audible voice in the classroom, it does make their unique identities visible. When names are anglicised, by using English pronunciation or providing English names (see Tour & Barnes, 2022), students are represented by names that have no connection to their histories and/or past experiences. As a result, when teachers show that they can learn how to pronounce their names it demonstrates both care and respect for the child and their backgrounds. Punam’s comments suggest that teachers need to learn and recognise the fundamentals of students’ identities rather than require them to ‘twist’ and ‘suit’ the Australian monolingual context.

In addition to making students’ language backgrounds and identities visible in the classroom, teachers need to harness opportunities for students to have a discernible voice in the classroom by providing support in translation. In particular, both Punam and Lucy relied on peers from the same linguistic and cultural background to help support newly-arrived students from refugee backgrounds.

I think the first thing we do when a new child from a refugee background comes, we start to pair them up with somebody who is caring, who speaks the same language and shares the same religious and cultural background. (Punam)

So, we’re lucky that we’ve got in our school a big Afghan community. So there’s at least one student in our classes who has the right amount of English who acts as the interpreter … . but it isn’t really just an adult, interpreting … It is having someone who interprets them, who understands them, who can speak for them. (Lucy)

Both Punam and Lucy expressed that having caring peers from the same cultural and linguistic backgrounds created important support systems for newly-arrived students. As Lucy explained, students from refugee backgrounds need someone who can understand them as a young person (in contrast to an adult) and who has an understanding of where they have come from and what they are going through. Having such peers allows for the interpretation of both language and context.

While Lucy and Punam felt that having MEAs and interpreters in the classroom aided students’ understanding and helped them to be understood, which supported their sense of belonging, Punam recognised that it was not feasible to have this support at all times.

I think one of the main things is they want to be accepted. But if they can’t be understood, that, you know, they feel on the outside. (Lucy)

Yes, they [students] want to, they want to have translation support all the time around them … . [however,] having translation support all the time is not possible … .I think we have three Dari speaking MEAs in our primary section and three in the secondary section as well. And they are busy. They are busy because they are the bridge. They are the bridge between the parents and the school. (Punam)

For Lucy, having interpreters ensured that students could be understood and this was a bridge to being accepted in the classroom. However, as Punam laments, having this type of support all the time is not an option. While in her school there are three MEAs working in the primary school, a lot of their support is focused on communicating to parents rather than providing interpretation support for children in the classroom. Even if their main role was student-focused rather than parent-focused, it would not be possible for three MEAs to support all students across all classrooms. As a result, while the teachers acknowledged that translation/interpretation bridges communication and understanding and that there is a desire and push from the children to have this support, accessibility can be an issue in Australian government-funded schools.

Similarly, Paula, who is an EAL teacher in both primary and secondary schools in regional schools, expressed that access to interpreters and peers from the same language and cultural backgrounds is extremely limited in regional areas (see Barnes, 2021). Consequently, classroom teachers are the primary source for creating a sense of security and belonging in the classroom.

If there isn’t an interpreter, or some other support within their classroom, then the teacher is really the key to it all. And the teacher, I would imagine, is what provides them with a sense of security. (Paula)

While accessibility to additional language support is difficult for all schools, Paula’s experiences in regional schools suggests that, ultimately, teachers are the main actors in creating spaces of belonging for young people. The findings of this study reveal that language is a key factor in fostering belonging among students from refugee backgrounds. However, it is teachers who often mediate the role of language as they actively recognise and value students’ language backgrounds and navigate the language support available to them (if any), by drawing on peer MEA support.

Deficit perspectives are difficult to change

Despite the participating teachers sharing a genuine care and respect for their students from refugee backgrounds, a discourse of deficit and/or disadvantage was still evident within their comments. In looking at the students’ belonging experience drawings, one of the first questions that the participating teachers were asked was what stood out to them when looking at the drawings. Paula explained that:

I guess one of the things that stood out for me was that the drawings are somewhat not as developed as you would expect from some of the students of that age. And I guess that that is possibly, you know, indicating that often these children are arriving in school and they haven’t had the same sorts of experiences as children in Australia with drawings and looking at doing, you know, full body drawings rather than their stick figures. I don’t know how much time they had to work on their drawings. But that was probably the first thing that I noticed. (Paula)

While Paula was attempting to acknowledge that students have come from very different educational backgrounds and may have had different levels of exposure to drawing, there was a tendency to make comparisons between these students and other students. There is a tendency, in educational settings, to compare students from different backgrounds to establish gaps (e.g. Thompson, 2017), however, this practice often suggests that there is a standard and students from refugee backgrounds are measured in light of how far away they are from this standard.

The teachers were very open and honest about how they felt teachers, more collectively, lacked the understanding and/or patience to listen and respond to students’ needs in the classroom.

I think also, perhaps, sort of looking objectively, perhaps the teacher is not always listening. Because she doesn’t quite understand what he’s trying to say, or what his answer is, so sure, one of the things as teachers that we have to do is to be open and honest, when we don’t quite get what a child is saying. And like you’ve just said, sometimes it takes, you know, you have to give extra thinking time or time or explaining time. But those moments of doing that are so so important, because otherwise we’re being dismissive. (Emily)

So, in classrooms where there may only be one or two refugee, new arrival children, the assumption is that they, maybe, can’t answer things. I guess it’s a busy classroom. Teachers sometimes don’t feel like they’ve got the time, the wait time, which is often what the students need. So, I’ve, yes, that is, I think, very commonplace. (Paula)

Paula mentioned that many teachers either have an ‘assumption’ that the students from refugee backgrounds will not be able to answer questions and/or teachers do not provide the ‘wait time’ to allow students to answer questions. This is corroborated with Emily’s comments that teachers do not provide enough time for students to think and respond in the classroom. This suggests that both Paula and Emily feel that, in general, teachers lack a level of intercultural competence, in which there is a shared responsibility in social interactions. In other words, while teachers often place most of the responsibility on the student to clearly communicate what they want to say, they need to share the communicative responsibility by carefully listening to what they are saying and providing ample time and support for this.

Similarly, Lucy and Punam suggested that some teachers simply ignored students from refugee backgrounds due to their silence or their lack of capacity.

A lot of the teachers, they tend to just focus on the students and they know … and then forget about the other students just because they’re quiet. [It] doesn’t mean that they still don’t need assistance, they need to be checked in on because sometimes they just don’t know how to communicate (Lucy)

I really make sure that I go and sit by the kids, one on one, while the other kids are working, so make sure that I’m rotating. And I’m not just, you know, paying attention to the kids who can do certain things. (Punam)

Lucy expressed that teachers often focus on students they know and who are audible in the classroom, which is also attributed in Punam’s comments as she actively attempts to provide targeted attention to students to compensate for the seeming lack of attention students receive from other teachers. For Punam, teachers need to provide targeted attention and individual support to students from refugee backgrounds in the classroom to show them that they were a part of the classroom.

While the participating teachers represent teachers who care for students from refugee backgrounds, their perspectives and experiences highlight that these students are still viewed from a deficit perspective, as they are positioned as being below standard, silent, and unable to communicate or answer questions.

Discussion

The findings from this study revealed that the participating teachers viewed their roles as vital in fostering a sense of belonging among their students from refugee backgrounds. They believed that their students could gain a sense of belonging at school when teachers made a conscious effort to get to know their students and provide them with opportunities to interact and get to know their peers. Additionally, they recognised the importance of acknowledging and promoting their home languages within the classroom, by allowing for and ensuring that these students had language support from peers of the same language background and MEAs. Finally, although the participating teachers demonstrated care and respect for their students from refugee backgrounds, the findings reveal that deficit perspectives are still present in Australian schools.

This study highlights that teachers’ conscious effort and strategies play a crucial role in fostering a sense of belonging among students from refugee backgrounds (Amina et al., 2022; Due et al., 2016; Rose, 2018). The participating teachers in their interviews revealed that they make a point to get to know their students from refugee backgrounds allowing them to become both visible and audible. Teachers made their students from refugee backgrounds visible by acknowledging their identities and learning their names in their home language (see also Sumithran et al., 2023). They also ensured that students were audible in the classroom by facilitating opportunities for them to connect with peers and interpreters who shared the same language background so that they could understand what was in the classroom, while also being able to contribute their ideas. Several studies have confirmed that teachers play an important role in facilitating social interactions with peers (Amina et al., 2022; Due & Riggs, 2016; Shallow & Whitington, 2014), which create opportunities for them to actively participate in the classroom, rendering them both visible and audible. In particular, it is argued that students from refugee backgrounds seek help from peers who are from the same linguistic background, as these peers become the bridge that connects them to teachers, the content and other peers (Amina et al., 2022; Tour & Barnes, 2022; Due & Riggs, 2016).

Unfortunately, this study also suggests that, while the participating teachers actively cared for and supported their students, there continues to be a need for schools to further develop teachers’ understanding and support of students from refugee backgrounds (Barnes, 2021; Dooley & Thangaperumal, 2011; Madziva & Thondhlana, 2017; Meda et al., 2012). This study found that a discourse of deficiency and/or disadvantage is present when talking about students from refugee backgrounds (see also Amina et al., 2022; Barnes, 2021; Li & Qin, 2022; Ryu & Tuvilla, 2018). This is realised in how they acknowledged the students’ lack of experience (in drawing) and their comments regarding how some teachers do not adequately listen and understand students from refugee backgrounds, resulting in them becoming invisible and inaudible. The teachers’ comments suggest that they believe that other teachers do not pay much attention to these students due to their unwillingness to give them the time they need and/or because they feel that the students cannot meet the standard required.

This type of issue takes place because of a tendency, in schools, to compare and evaluate students from refugee backgrounds in relation to non-refugee, English-speaking students (e.g. Thompson, 2017) rather than celebrating their diversity and focusing on what they contribute to the classroom (Compton‐Lilly et al., 2019; Due et al., 2016; Kaukko et al., 2021). Although previous research confirms that specific programs, such as the NAP, may be supportive and provide targeted and culturally responsive teaching (see Due & Riggs, 2016; Shallow & Whitington, 2014), these students, at times, are invisible and inaudible in mainstream classrooms (Gunasekera et al., 2014; Pugh et al., 2012). The participating teachers, most of whom were trained EAL teachers, suggest that many teachers are ill-equipped to support these students in mainstream schools.

Despite having a small sample of teachers in this study, this research contributes to the literature as it captures the perspectives of school teachers working in mainstream schools by positioning students’ belonging experiences at the center of the study. By using student drawings, the teachers are forced to understand and extrapolate their own classroom practices in light of students’ belonging experiences. This study, like many others, suggests that there is a need to prioritise professional development for teachers (Barnes, 2021; Madziva & Thondhlana, 2017; Rose, 2018) but suggests that this might be aided by making students’ experiences visible and audible. By doing so, there may be more opportunities for meaningful reflexivity among teachers. Additionally, this study suggests that there is a tendency to view students from refugee backgrounds from a deficit perspective, therefore, professional development must support teachers in noticing strengths.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The authors confirm that there was no funding connected to this study or any conflicts of interest.