Global Studies of Childhood
ISSN 2043-6106

CONTENTS [click on author's name for abstract and full text]

Schooling and Refugees: engaging with the complex trajectories of globalisation

RAVINDER SIDHU School of Education, University of Queensland, Australia
SANDRA TAYLOR Faculty of Education, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
PAM CHRISTIE Faculty of Education, University of Canberra, Australia

http://dx.doi.org/10.2304/gsch.2011.1.2.92

This article examines the complexities associated with educating a mobile and politically marginalised population, refugee students, in the state of Queensland, Australia. Historically, schools have been national institutions concerned with social reproduction and citizenship formation with a focus on spatially fixed populations. While education authorities in much of the developed world now acknowledge the need to prepare students for a more interconnected world of work and opportunity, they have largely failed to provide systemic support for one category of children on the move – refugees. This article begins with a discussion of forced migration and its links with ‘globalisation’. It then present the authors’ research findings about the educational challenges confronting individual refugee youth and schools in Queensland. This is followed with a summary of good practice in refugee education. The article concludes with a discussion of how nation-states might play a more active role in facilitating transitions to citizenship for refugee youth.

Rice, Slippers, Bananas and Caneball: children’s narratives of internal displacement and forced migration from Burma

SU-ANN OH Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore

http://dx.doi.org/10.2304/gsch.2011.1.2.104

This article provides an account of internal displacement and forced migration from the viewpoint of children living in a refugee camp in Thailand. Using photographs they created and narratives they related, the children represented concepts of structural violence, poverty, food security, school, peer relationships and play and articulated how these were woven into their lived experience. The study reveals how the children constantly make sense of everyday life in a refugee camp with reference to the lives they led in Burma. This draws our attention to the way in which the emotional and cognitive connections they make structure their experience and adds to an understanding of children’s perspectives of displacement that goes beyond quantitative indicators.

Resisting Bare Life: children’s reproduction of quotidian culture in a Sri Lankan camp

RAJESHWARI ASOKARAJ

http://dx.doi.org/10.2304/gsch.2011.1.2.120

This article explores how children reproduce the culture of everyday life in the context of living in an IDP (internally displaced persons) camp at the end of the Sri Lankan civil war. Using qualitative research with internally displaced children and the adults working with them (doctors, teachers and NGO workers), it explores the children’s everyday social reality around the themes of family, peers, popular culture, and religious practices. In discussing this reproduction of the culture of everyday life, rooted within Tamil, and South Indian cultural practices, the author shows that children and adults resist their reduction to bare life.

Stories of Belonging: Ukrainian immigrant children’s experiences of Portugal

ANTONINA TERESHCHENKO & HELENA C. ARAÚJO Centre for Research in Education (CIIE/Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences), University of Porto, Portugal

http://dx.doi.org/10.2304/gsch.2011.1.2.129

This article is situated within the literature examining the experiences of inclusion and exclusion by immigrant pupils in relation to the educational and social environment in the receiving country. It draws on data from a small, exploratory qualitative research study conducted in a supplementary school context in Portugal to explore how Ukrainian immigrant children (aged 12‑16) negotiate their sense of belonging in Portugal. Specifically, the ways in which the young immigrants relate to and construct the locations such as ‘home’, i.e. a country of origin, and a ‘host’ country, i.e. Portugal, are considered; which resources they draw on in the process of their identity construction, as well as which places become particularly significant in the process of their identity formation. There is a particular focus on how Ukrainian children experience in-/exclusion and relationships in the mainstream Portuguese school.

New Schooling and New Identities: Chinese immigrant students’ perspectives

CELESTE Y.M. YUEN Hong Kong Institute of Education ROSALIND WU National Academy of Educational Research, Taiwan

http://dx.doi.org/10.2304/gsch.2011.1.2.140

Given the traditional emphasis on academic achievement in a Confucius-heritage society, schooling has been one of the key elements of new Chinese learners in Hong Kong in their construction of self-identity. This article addresses the identity issues of two young Mainland Chinese immigrant students and one cross-boundary student (CBS), a resident of Shenzhen who is attending a Hong Kong school on a daily basis. They are in their first, second or third year of schooling in Hong Kong. By using a narrative approach, the educational experiences and family backgrounds of the three students are highlighted and analysed. All three students reveal a keen sense of aspiration and are actively involved in the appraisal of their own personal identity. Positive educational experiences and parental support are two predominant factors that affect their general perceptions of their new schooling and self-identity in Hong Kong. Whether they identify themselves as Hong Kong people or Mainlanders, is subject to their parents’ views, their own expectations and personal understanding of the meaning of citizenship.

Model Minority and Learning Disabilities: double jeopardy for Asian immigrant children in the USA

KIM FONG POON-McBRAYER Department of Education Policy and Leadership, Hong Kong Institute of Education

http://dx.doi.org/10.2304/gsch.2011.1.2.152

There exists a scarcity of discourse in the education of ethnic Asian students with disabilities in the USA, due to their historical under-representation in the disability population and the ‘model minority’ thesis. This colloquium aims to examine the ramifications of the model minority label with regard to equitable access and schooling for Asian immigrant students with learning disabilities. The colloquium briefly analyzes the political and social impact of the model minority thesis, before exploring how the model minority label has negatively influenced the opportunities of post-1965 Asian immigrant children with learning disabilities for equitable education, in the hope of bringing greater awareness of the needs of these children. Here, it is argued that the model minority label and learning disabilities have invisibly marginalized and deprived Asian immigrant and Asian American students of equitable education.

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