Sudanese refugee youth and educational success: The role of church and youth group in supporting cultural and academic adjustment and schooling achievement |
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| Institution: | 1. Faculty of Education, Monash University, Clayton Campus, Building 6, Wellington Rd., VIC, Australia;2. Swinburne University, Melbourne, Australia;3. Faculty of Education, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand;1. Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL)/CIS-IUL, Lisboa, Portugal;2. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands;1. Department of Surgery, Division of Surgical Oncology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA;2. Department of Population, Health Science and Policy, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA;3. Department of Surgery, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA;4. Department of Radiology, Division of Interventional Radiology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA;1. Hospital das Clínicas, Vascular and Endovascular Surgery Department, Faculty of Medicine, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil;2. Faculty of Medicine, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil |
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| Abstract: | There is a burgeoning body of research about refugee youth that adopts a deficit approach by focusing on the problems and barriers youth encounter in adjusting culturally and academically to schools. Less research takes an asset approach through an examination of the strengths refugee youth bring to formal schooling and how these assets can be built upon to support academic achievement and cultural adjustment. In this article, we challenge these deficit notions, through examining the everyday spaces inhabited by Sudanese refugee youth living in regional New South Wales, Australia. Our research poses the question: what role do institutions outside school play in supporting Sudanese refugee youth as they move from one culture to another? The question is significant because little research has examined the role played by institutions outside school, e.g., church, youth groups and sporting associations in fostering the social and cultural capital required for refugee youth to integrate within the broader community, and to engage successfully in schooling. Drawing on Bourdieuian concepts of cultural and social capital and habitus, we suggest that religious affiliation enabled the young people to access social capital through “prosocial and proeducational moral directives” (Barrett, 2010; p. 467). Moreover, religious involvement provided refugee youth with access to socially legitimised forms of cultural capital. These forms of capital shaped the students’ habitus and contributed to school adjustment and achievement. We conclude that future research is needed to examine the role that church and other institutions outside school play in contributing to cultural and academic adjustment. |
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| Keywords: | Refugee youth Educational success Everyday spaces Church Capital Habitus |
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