Online schooling and the digital divide: challenges and opportunities for migrant students’ educational inclusion

ABSTRACT

This research note presents the key findings of a small-scale, mixed-methods international study which explored the challenges and opportunities of online schooling for the educational inclusion of Newly Arrived Migrant and Refugee Students (NAMRS). The study was conducted in 2022 in England, Germany and the Netherlands and the findings are based on the analysis of the experiences of NAMRS, their families and their teachers, of their engagement with online schooling during the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis reveals that the abrupt transition to online schooling exacerbated NAMRS and their families’ vulnerability to the widening digital divide in modern societies. Beyond the typical barriers faced by socioeconomically disadvantaged groups, such as limited access to technology and suitable study environments, NAMRS encounter additional challenges related to unfamiliarity with curricula, educational systems, and language barriers. Participants report that the efforts to address these barriers in the later stages of the pandemic coincided with the improvement of their educational experience and revealed some particular strengths of online education for NAMRS. The findings indicate that with appropriate preparation, online schooling has the potential to contribute to the educational inclusion of NAMRS when combined appropriately with school-based provision.

KEYWORDS:

• Covid19
• pandemic
• online schooling
• migrant and refugee students
• digital inclusion

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Porticus Foundation.

Notes on contributors

Nicola Horsley

Dr Nicola Horsley is currently a Senior Research Associate at the Centre for Sociodigital Futures (CenSoF), where she investigates the place of digital technologies in everyday life. Previously she was a research fellow at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in in Citizenship, Education and Society (CIRCES). Nicola’s qualitative research critiques the marginalisation of particular citizenship, educational and family practices through dominant discourses and the privileging of scientific and technical knowledge as bases for policy making. Her co-authored book Challenging the Politics of Early Intervention (Policy Press, 2017) analyses the evidence base for government parenting programmes. The Trouble with Big Data (Bloomsbury, 2022) explores how the hegemonic status of big data elides important issues about our information environment and obscures some forms of knowledge.

Michalis Kakos

Dr Michalis Kakos is an Associate Professor in the Carnegie School of Education in Leeds Beckett University, UK, a Visiting Professor at The University of Education, Freiburg, Germany and the founding director of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in in Citizenship, Education and Society (CIRCES). Michalis’ research interests include citizenship education, the role of the school in supporting the social inclusion of students from disadvantaged backgrounds and the educational inclusion of refugee and migrant students.

Claudia Koehler

Claudia Koehler is a sociologist; her areas of expertise include migration, education, youth and community development in Europe and Africa. She is the Executive Director of Farafina Institute – a think tank working on issues of participation, migration, and wellbeing of people of African descent. She is also the founder of Farafina Travels – a social enterprise for educational travels to Africa. Claudia has over ten years of experience as a consultant for project and project proposal evaluations and scientific studies. Previously she was a senior researcher at the European Forum for Migration Studies for ten years. She has recently conducted comparative studies on educational opportunities of young migrants and refugees in Europe, as well as youth capacity building and exchange projects in Europe and Africa.

Kristel Kooijman

Kristel Kooijman has been a research associate of at Utrecht University and at RISBO Research, Erasmus University Rotterdam, supporting international projects and conducting research in the educational inclusion of Newly Arrived Migrant and Refugee Students (NAMRS). Kristel has obtained a MA in Multilingualism and Language Acquisition at Utrecht University researching the use of the first language at home in migrant groups speaking Spanish or Papiamento. She currently works as a primary school teacher at a school in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. She is interested in multilingualism, foreign language acquisition, sociolinguistics and superdiversity in schools. You can find her on LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/kristelkooijman

Tom Tudjman

Tom Tudjman MA in Public Administration, serves as a Project Manager and Researcher at Risbo, boasting over 20 years of expertise in inclusive education, migration, social integration, and educational quality. His extensive experience encompasses national and international studies, with a focus on Social Inclusion, Integration, Migration, Refugee Education, and Educational Network Governance. Proficient in both qualitative and quantitative research methods, Tudjman has made significant contributions to various European projects. Tudjman’s leadership extends to EU-funded projects analyzing professional capacity in educational diversity, multilingualism, youth entrepreneurship, and refugee education. Over the past decade, he has been an active Board member of SIRIUS, the European network on migrant education, providing guidance to governments on migration education policies. On a national level he coordinates a knowledge network in education, bridging educational policy with research and practice. With a proven track record in impactful research and project management, Tudjman remains committed to advancing education and social inclusion on both national and international fronts.