Identity of categorization of adolescent refugees and its implication of teaching

Abstract

This study addresses the problem: When refugee children go through puberty they have additional factors, such as trauma, societal views, and cultural conflicts that contribute to their forming identities. Based off of the literature, the questions that drove this research were: What identity groups do adolescent refugees in the participating school identity with; how can teachers better include adolescent refugees and their experiences in classroom instruction? The purpose of this study was to determine which identities adolescent refugees associate with; these being assimilation, marginalization, integration, and segregation. Each of the four groups focus in on how individuals associate themselves with their home culture and new culture. The literature from this topic developed into a mixed-methods research study. The participating school was selected because of its large refugee student population and was located in Western New York. Six teachers and thirteen students were given questionnaires in their preferred language, which were used for data collection. The questions were designed to narrow down the students' responses into one of the four major identity groups. The research findings indicate that within this school, the majority of the students identify with the integration group. However, within the findings, there were some students that identified with the assimilation and segregation groups as well. This being said, implications for teachers are to teach adolescent refugees by using translanguaging strategies, growth mindset, and scaffolding. This study may provide as baseline data for future research in this field. [from author's abstract]