“The Teacher is not a Magician”: Teacher Training in Greek Reception Facilities for Refugee Education

Year 2020, Volume: 4 Issue: 7, 42 - 55, 04.12.2019

Marina Moglı , Sotiria Kalbenı Lida Stergıou

https://doi.org/10.31458/iejes.605255

Cited By: 10

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

refugee children, refugee education, teacher training

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