- Title
- Context and implications document for: methodological diversity as an asset for transition-focused higher education research with students from refugee backgrounds
- Creator
- Baker, Sally; Irwin, Evonne; Taiwo, Mary; Singh, Sonal; Gower, Shelley; Dantas, Jaya
- Relation
- Review of Education Vol. 7, Issue 1, p. 33-35
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/rev3.3142
- Publisher
- Wiley-Blackwell
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2019
- Description
- Australian universities and schools have received increasing number of students from refugee backgrounds (SfRBs). These students have come from a range of countries, with recent arrivals predominantly from Syria and Iraq. Approximately half of Australia's refugee intake is aged between 15 and 19 years, an age when education is a priority (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 2017). There is clear consensus in the academic literature that although people from refugee backgrounds generally demonstrate a strong commitment to, and high aspiration for, further education, there are significant impediments to the realisation of these aspirations. Arguably, the most frequently reported impediment to access to higher education is language proficiency. In the Australian context, the level of English language support offered in the school sector for young learners, or through the Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP) in the Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector for mature learners, is often insufficient to (a) facilitate direct entry to university and (b) support students with the language and literacy requirements of undergraduate study. Added to this, a lack of navigational knowledge of access to information about higher education pathways, opportunities, systems, rules and expectations, impede SfRBs’ ability to make informed decisions. Moreover, while ‘transition’ is a significant area of inquiry in the higher education literature, a continuing focus on the First Year Experience (FYE) means that transition is dominantly understood as a linear phenomenon, resulting in a smaller body of work on other transitions that students experience. Linear notions of transition also fail to offer the flexibility needed for adult SfRBs caring for families (both living with them, and family members who remain elsewhere); for those who have financial pressures and work responsibilities; and for those who have to carry the psychological scars of past trauma. It is within this context that we undertook a research project to develop better understandings of the transitions into, through (and prematurely out of) that SfRBs make in Australian higher education. The longitudinal design of this research, with its use of cross-sectional qualitative exploratory methods was designed to facilitate the real-time tracking of students in transition, seeking to explore both ‘successful’ and unexpected journeys across education sectors. This project examined actual and intended transitions into higher education of three cohorts of SfRBs—representing diversity of ethnicity, gender, age, settlement pathways and experiences, and study/career aspirations—with different approaches taken by each of the three partners. The methodological diversity and multiple methods of the project reported on in this article facilitated the collection of rich in-depth data, which tells tales of the specificities of the local contexts, but also illustrates shared experiences across the variety of individuals, locations, institutions and pathways. Without using multiple lenses within a qualitative paradigm, the breadth of in-depth data gathered, and consequent benefits to our interpretations, would not have been possible.
- Subject
- higher education research; refugee backgrounds; methodological diversity; English language support
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1467542
- Identifier
- uon:47839
- Identifier
- ISSN:2049-6613
- Language
- eng
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