“The Teacher is not a Magician”: Teacher Training in Greek Reception Facilities for Refugee Education
Abstract
Greek Reception Facilities for Refugee Education (RFREs) operated for the first time in Greece during the school year 2016-2017, as a result of the need of refugee children to participate in formal education either in the refugee reception centers or in school units, with the purpose of their educational integration. The aim of this study is to examine the process and criteria with which teachers in RFREs were chosen and the training they received. The research participants were seven teachers and one Refugee Education Coordinator (REC) in the cities of Volos and Larisa, Greece. Through semi-structured interviews, the participants expressed the challenges they faced which resulted from receiving insufficient training in teaching refugee children. Based on the study findings, it can be concluded that the lack of training of teachers working in RFREs causes multiple problems, which impede educational procedures. It was found that the teachers were not able to successfully approach their refugee students so as to create the prerequisites for the children to be smoothly integrated into the Greek educational system. Lack of skills for students’ psychological support and communication difficulties due to lack of a language of mediation also causes many issues which obstruct the educational process.
Keywords
References
- Boyden, J., de Berry, J., Feeny, T., & Hart, J. (2002). Children affected by conflict in South Asia: a review of trends and issues identified through secondary research. Refugee Studies Centre, RSC Working Paper No. 7, University of Oxford. Retrieved from 1https://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/files/files-1/dp-children-armed-conflict-south-asia.pdf (Accessed at 8/9/18).
- Ceccarelli, M. (2016). Providing the integration of refugees into foreign societies. Armun Research Report: General Assembly 6, Social, Humanitarian and Cultural. Retrieved from http://www.youcee.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/6-GA3-refugee-intergration.pdf (Accessed 4/3/18).
- Creswell, J. W. (2014). Research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
- Crul, M., Keskiner, E., Schneider, Ε., Lelieand, F. & Ghaeminia, S., (2017). No lost generation: education for refugee children. A comparison between Sweden, Germany, The Netherlands and Turkey. In R. Bauböck & M. Tripkovic (Eds.), The integration of migrants and refugees. An EUI Forum on migration, citizenship and demography (62-79) Florence: European University Institute.
- Eisenbruch, M. (1988). The mental health of refugee children and their cultural development. International Migration Review 22, 282-300.
- Education and training in Europe: the challenge of integration (2016). Retrieved from https://ec.europa.eu/greece/news/20161107_ekpaideysi_katartisi_el (Accessed 13/8/18)
- European Commission/EACEA/Eurydice. (2019). Integrating students from migrant backgrounds into schools in Europe: national policies and measures. Eurydice Report. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.
- Fisher, C. B., Wallace, S. A., & Fenton, R. E. (2000). Discrimination distress during adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence 29, 679-695.
- Gargasoula, E. (2018). Refugee-immigrant education: case study of the teachers in secondary education in RFREs. Dissertation. University of Peloponnese, Department of Social and Political Sciences
- Hayward, M. (2017). Teaching as a primary therapeutic intervention for learners from refugee backgrounds. Intercultural Education 28 (2), 165-181.
