Search

There exists an unsettling relationship between Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) and formal schooling today that remains under-researched and largely unproblematized. This article draws on semi-structured interviews with state level policy actors as they implement a federally funded, small-scale grant to develop Restorative Practice in four Australian schools. The approach – as a form of Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE) – was intended to guard against student behaviours deemed 'at risk'. The data suggest that policy makers are vigilant in conducting their work in relation to a conception of risk and draw on a repertoire of skills when operating in an 'in-between' space between federal prerogatives and local communities. Beck's work on risk and Bourdieu's notion of habitus inform the analysis. The article focuses on how the habitus of policy actors is brought into tension as they navigate the politicized space of their employment by focusing on four overlapping areas – evidencing the affective dimension, guarding against stigma, strategic use of language and coordinating institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With increasing numbers of students from refugee backgrounds, many Australian schools are struggling to minimise the educational disparity between refugee students and their same age peers. Faced with diverse needs and limited resources, educators must decide whether to distribute targeted resources equally, ensuring all students are given equality of opportunity, or allocate resources to those who need it most, attaining equity of outcome. In this paper, we use data from seven Australian secondary schools identified as examples of ‘good practice’ to explore how educators navigate notions of ‘fairness’ to support students from refugee backgrounds. Findings suggest educators struggled to navigate the tension between providing an equal or equitable response, and often these struggles were inextricably tied to student and funding contexts. In under-resourced settings, teachers weighed up seemingly competing forms of disadvantage, frequently opting to distribute resources in a way which favoured equality of opportunity. Contrastingly, in schools with less disadvantage and higher levels of funding, resources were redistributed based on need, striving for more equitable outcomes for refugee students. The findings demonstrate the complex negotiations that educators undertake when allocating resources and consider how these processes align with, or in some cases contradict, notions of fairness and social justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on a critical policy study on refugee education in two states of Australia, which involved an analysis of policy documents and interviews with policy developers. The findings show that policy development for students from refugee backgrounds is affected by structures including ways of knowing refugees, desires to measure their linguistic 'performance' and the internal structures of the organisations in which policies are developed. These structures shape and are shaped by the actions of individual policy makers as agents. Without awareness of these structures in policy making, they can inadvertently reinforce deficit framings of student groups such as refugees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the job‐seeking experiences of Black African migrants in South Australia, focussing on the role played by social networks in labour market integration. While it has been long held that "who you know" matters when finding work, the quality and nature of interpersonal connections that can be put to use for job‐seeking purposes suggests that not all networks effectively leverage social capital when it comes to employment. This article argues that Africa‐born migrants in South Australia are a small, diverse population whose experiences of labour market integration are mediated by both reception (how they are received and perceived) and strategy and choice (decisions made by migrants themselves). There is evidence of these migrants' evolving and expanding social networks; however, the strategy of building the "right" social networks only goes part‐way to addressing employment gaps, while racialised social hierarchies are embedded in the Australian labour market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the field of preventing and countering violent extremism (P/CVE) schools have an important role to play, but precisely how policy actors and educators should best respond to extremism within their schools remains uncertain. Reporting on data from a broader study, this article draws on semi-structured interviews with three participants. The participants were working as policy intermediaries responsible for implementing a federally funded, small-scale grant to develop a program in four Australian schools intended to guard against student behaviours deemed 'at risk' of leading to violent extremism. Investigating the strategies and negotiations of these policy intermediaries, we demonstrate the politicization of policy enactment in the field of P/CVE. We draw on Beck's work to understand the discourses of risk that underpin the P/CVE space and to focus on the strategic negotiations of these policy intermediaries as responses to various forms of risk. The findings contribute to understandings of 'risk management' in a neoliberal state particularly in the development and enactment of policy in education, through a focus on how policy intermediaries operate in an 'in-between' space between federal prerogatives and local constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Schools worldwide are increasingly enmeshed in discourses of securitisation. Efforts to prevent or counter violent extremism (P/CVE) are a manifestation of this. P/CVE in education takes various forms; the pilot explored here is considered super-soft in that no mention was made of violent extremism. Attention was given to schools' capacities to enhance social cohesion through Restorative Practices (RP) – a method for building social capital. We use an affective-discursive lens to explore how affects/emotions are caught in a dispositif of governance fundamental to efforts to regulate youth through this method. Specifically, we focus on extreme emotional incidents that highlight norms and practices in which violence and emotions are entangled, which expose limits and implications of RPs. While holding promise for transcending punitive disciplinary methods, we argue that RPs rely on logics that limit how violence is understood, locating violent problems within the problem bodies of marginalised youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the ways in which two senior secondary assessment policies that aim to be inclusive are enacted for students from refugee backgrounds. The final years of secondary school in Australia are shaped by high-stakes assessment requirements. Yet there have been policy moves in South Australia to be more inclusive of students by providing more flexibility for them to demonstrate their learning in diverse ways. We undertook a critical policy analysis to investigate the ways in which South Australian senior secondary certificate policies are enacted in two case study secondary schools. Our analysis of the data indicates that school staff navigate between competing demands of conflicting policy directives. These conflicting directives result in tensions for staff as they enact policies. In high-stakes assessment environments where staff and students strive towards academic achievements, inclusive policies can be limited by other policies that impose uniformity and fairness. The limitations to inclusion noted in this study may be indicative of broader exclusions created by the enactment of policies in high-stakes assessment contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Countering violent extremism (CVE) continues to be a topic of national and international concern as well as media interest. In the field of CVE, educational institutions have an important role to play, but precisely how educators and policymakers should best respond to extremism within schools remains unclear. This article draws on interviews with multiple stakeholders implementing a small‐scale nationally funded grant in Australian schools to guard against behaviours leading to violent extremism through developing restorative justice (RJ) practices. In foregrounding their accounts, we draw attention to the complexity of negotiating the CVE space by resisting dominant narratives that could be considered 'exaggerations' regarding both the manifestations of and motivations behind violent or extreme student behaviour. To conclude, we highlight how—in important ways—the money and resourcing allocated for CVE in local settings simply recycles what are already established to be best practices for fostering belonging and connection in schools, particularly in socio‐economically disadvantaged communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Refugee background young people are at increased risk of mental health problems. In countries of refugee resettlement, schools are important sites where mental health difficulties can be identified and service access facilitated; however, little is known about how best to support these practices within schools. METHODS: This article explores school and mental health service providers' perspectives on mental health challenges and referral pathways for refugee youth in South Australia. It draws on semi‐structured in‐depth interviews with 17 secondary school staff and 10 mental health service providers, which were analyzed thematically. RESULTS: Key challenges for school staff in identifying mental health issues were understanding behaviors, overcoming stigma, cultural and linguistic barriers, engaging with parents, staff preparation and training, and embeddedness within Western understandings of mental health. There was also limited awareness of appropriate mental health services and referral pathways. Service providers recognized schools' key role in identifying mental health issues for refugee students. CONCLUSIONS: Enhanced training and support is required for teachers to identify and refer students who might be experiencing mental health issues. "On‐site" school services, bi‐cultural workers, and increased knowledge of existing within‐school supports and referral pathways to external services would enhance outcomes for refugee students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internationally, recent population movements due to conflict, climate change and global inequality have resulted in increased cultural and linguistic diversity in many societies. As a result, education systems are increasingly grappling with how to adapt practice to provide educational access and opportunities with increasingly diverse student cohorts. Here we present the analysis of qualitative data from interviews in a mixed-methods study that explored these processes of inclusion for refugee background youth in Australian high schools. Using a social capital and cultural wealth framework, we discuss the ways in which refugee background students access education and work towards aspirations in Australian high schools, and how the education system contributes to this process. Analysis suggests that young people and families develop cultural wealth partially in response to their refugee and resettlement experiences. Social connections are a core element of young people's resettlement process in terms of feeling valued and in terms of accessing supports and opportunities. School systems can enable positive education outcomes by working with students and families to further develop social capital networks that connect to, recognise, and promote the value of community cultural wealth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A systems framework for inclusive education for students with refugee backgrounds. Practices for inclusion, structures of marginalisation: Experiences of refugee background students in Australian secondary schools. [Extracted from the article]

Since 2000, approximately 50,000 people from sub-Saharan African countries have been resettled in Australia under Australia's Humanitarian Entrant Program for refugees. They have formed part of a visibly different minority group in a settler society that is shaped by a racialised history. For young former refugees, schools are a primary site in which they experience engagement with the wider society. While much recent research has focussed on the role of schools in creating inclusive environments to support students from refugee backgrounds, little attention has been given to students' experiences of exclusion, particularly through racism and Othering. This article considers the everyday experiences of racism and Othering for South Sudanese heritage students in Australian schools to argue that inclusive education for refugee students must take into consideration systemic and everyday occurrences of racism. Through in-depth interviews conducted with young South Sudanese heritage Australians in Years 6-8 this article documents the ways in which 'race' and visible difference influences peer, teacher and school community relationships. This article argues for the necessity of foregrounding tools for identifying, addressing and overcoming various forms of racism and Othering if schools are really going to become inclusive environments for refugee students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research suggests that the use of Restorative Practice (RP) in schools can foster more positive and inclusive school communities, yet there remains limited research regarding how to embed such practices. As part of a wider study, we present data from school leaders who describe their perspectives on RP and their struggles with implementing it in one rural Australian community school. This school is distinctive because of how it adopted a RP approach in an effort to change both the culture of the school and the culture of the wider community. To better inform our understanding regarding how RP was implemented, we focus on two overlapping dimensions – informing practice and embedding practice – before reflecting critically on some of the issues and limitations involved with using RP as a means of combating structural inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 26 October 2009 Alex Ngong Akok Akol, a young man originally from Sudan, was murdered by a group of Australian youths. This paper will explore the responses of members of the Mading Aweil community of Dinka from Southern Sudan following Alex's murder. Through analysing conversations and experiences in the community in the days following Alex's death, I will consider how his murder impacted on senses of belonging for members of the Sudanese community living in Adelaide. I will argue that for members of the Sudanese community, Alex's murder and subsequent reports by the media, emphasised and exacerbated the lack of belonging many of them already felt in Australia. In addition, incidents in the community at this time called into question not only senses of belonging within the broader Australian community, but also within Sudanese subcommunity groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the reactions of a Sudanese immigrant community to the murder of Ngong Akok Akol, an immigrant Sudanese man in Australia. Details about the cultural norms of fundamental dependency and ethical responsibility among the Sudanese people in the grieving process are discussed. It draws from personal recollections and interviews with community members to examine the sense of belonging and vulnerability of the Sudanese in Australia after the murder of Ngong. It is suggested that this response is indicative of the difficulties of finding a sense of belonging and cultural norms experienced by those in diasporic and immigrant communities.

Background: People from ethnically diverse backgrounds living with HIV are susceptible to adverse health and wellbeing outcomes, particularly as a consequence of HIV-related stigma and discrimination (HSD), though relatively little is known about experiences in Australia.Methods: This paper reports on HSD in ethnically diverse communities in South Australia and impacts on health and wellbeing. Interviews and focus groups were conducted with 10 individuals living with HIV from ethnically diverse backgrounds, 14 ethnically diverse community leaders, and 50 service providers. Data were analysed thematically.Results: Findings indicated that HIV is a highly stigmatised condition in ethnically diverse communities due to fear of moral judgment and social isolation, and was experienced at the intersections of gender, sexual orientation, religion, culture, and immigration status. Experiences of HSD were damaging to health and wellbeing through non-disclosure, reduced social support, delayed testing, service access barriers, impacts on treatment adherence, and directly to mental health.Conclusions: Actions addressing the impacts of HSD on people from ethnically diverse backgrounds are crucial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There has been a recent focus on resettlement of migrants and refugee in rural settings in Australia and elsewhere. Rural resettlement is seen as an opportunity to revitalise rural communities, to fill the needs of employers in these areas, and to provide a welcoming community within which new arrivals can integrate and settle. However, challenges to rural resettlement have been identified including difficulties securing employment, discrimination and social isolation. These challenges can affect resettlement outcomes including health and wellbeing, though relatively little research has examined these links. In this paper we explored experiences of people from refugee background settling in a rural Australian town, examining interconnections between social determinants of health (SDH) and integration. Methods: Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 44 participants from Southeast Asia and Africa in a rural setting in South Australia, covering experiences of resettlement and impacts on health and wellbeing. Participants were recruited through existing connections within the community and snowball sampling. Audio recorded data were transcribed verbatim and analysed using framework thematic analysis. Results: The study findings revealed a mixture of settlement experiences for participants across a range of elements of SDH and integration. A sense of safety and some elements of social connectedness and support were key enablers for integration and health and wellbeing, with main challenges including limitations in employment opportunities, mismatched education provision, experiences of discrimination and constrained access to services. Conclusions: Challenges experienced by refugees resettled in rural areas can affect integration, health and wellbeing and subsequent onward migration intentions. Attention to broader socioeconomic, cultural and environmental conditions, alongside tailored settlement support policies and practices for individual rural resettlement sites, is required to support integration and health and wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The objective of the current study was to gain insight into the ways in which parents who had arrived in Australia with refugee or asylum seeker backgrounds understand their young children's experiences of wellbeing and psychological distress during resettlement. Method: Eight parents (three male and five female) who had arrived in Australia from Iran and Afghanistan with children aged between five and eight were recruited using purposive sampling. In‐depth interviews were conducted regarding their perceptions of their children's experiences of wellbeing and psychological distress. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Results: Four primary themes were developed: (a) Practical needs are a key priority, (b) the refugee experience impacts family structure and dynamics, which has a negative effect on children's wellbeing, (c) wellbeing as engagement in physical activity and education, and (d) bad dreams and difficulty sleeping are indicators of psychological distress. Conclusions: For parents recently arrived in Australia as refugees or asylum seekers, practical concerns impact perceptions of children's wellbeing or psychological distress, particularly for those on temporary visas. While this may lead parents to overlook symptoms of psychological distress in their children, protective factors conducive to wellbeing, including safety, housing, and education, are prioritised. Future research should explore when and why parents are likely to seek assistance for their children in the context of resettlement, as well as the impacts of visa types on children's experiences of positive wellbeing and psychological distress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a critical analysis of policies from two education systems that support the education of students from migrant backgrounds. This analysis examines the highly political policy context of multiculturalism to reveal how education systems acquiesce to or resist social and political forces. In making this case, the article presents an historical analysis of the Australian federal government's multicultural policy and the events that shaped it. The article then presents an analysis of the national policy statement Multicultural Australia: United, Strong, Successful to understand the current federal position on multiculturalism. These analyses provide an understanding of the political rationality of the broader context. This article argues that education policy constructions are likely to reflect this political rationality. Against this backdrop it then examines primary policies from two education systems that relate to education for students from migrant and refugee backgrounds. The key argument is that, whilst the federal government attends to concerns about security, social integration and economic contributions, education departments can 'resist' and attend to broader issues related to educational equity and social justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number of people forcibly displaced from their homes globally is at an all-time high, with some granted permanent residence and resettlement in countries like Australia. Students from refugee backgrounds attend Australian schools and how schools respond to their educational needs is increasingly a focus for research, school practice and policy making. We present analysis of qualitative data from a study in South Australia with refugee background students (n = 23), their parents/caregivers (n = 19) and educators (n = 22) in high school settings during 2017–2019. The study investigated inclusive practices in schools and their effects on student experiences. The findings suggest that larger social systems impact students and their families in resettlement. Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory is utilised to analyse the multiple ways in which social systems act and how schools are structured to offer inclusive practice. Practice that attends to the influences of social systems can support a sense of belonging and engagement with schooling, and ultimately contribute to positive settlement outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]