Conference Agenda

The interdependence between social and educational inclusion is a well-established argument in research literature (Sparkes 1999; Slee & Allan,2001; Hills, Grand and Bartlett, 2002; Byrne, 2005; among others). In the case of Newly Arrived Migrant and Refugee Students (NAMRS) educational inclusion is considered as one of the key routes to social integration (Dobson et al, 2021). Also known is that their experiences outside the school often hinder the effectiveness of efforts to integrate them in their new educational environments and to respond effectively to their educational needs. Research has already revealed the array of such experiences and circumstances which have a direct effect on educational inclusion of NAMRS. These include the new roles and responsibilities that NAMRS need to assume within their families (Suarez-Orozco, 2001), the uncertainty about their legal status (Essomba, 2017), the availability and access to mental health support (Fazel et al, 2012), etc.

On the basis of the above, there is a demand for the development and implementation of holistic approaches to educational inclusion of which respond to the needs of these students and transcend policies and practices in various sectors that affect their lives (Pinson and Arnot, 2010, Kakos and Teklemariam, 2020).

In this symposium researchers from SIRIUS Policy Network on Migrant Education will present the results of their research on key issues related to educational inclusion of NAMRS and will engage in a dialogue about the possibilities, opportunities and challenges in the development and implementation of holistic approaches in educational policy and practice. SIRIUS a European network of researchers, practitioners and representatives of migrant communities which has been conducting research and provides tailored policy advice at European and National levels for over 10 years.

The papers included in this symposium represent a selection of key projects conducted by SIRIUS. In their paper Tomislav Tudjman and Katja van der Schans will present the findings from their study on the use of multilingual books in educational inclusion of NAMRS. They will also discuss multilingualism as a condition to inclusion.

Hanna Siarova and Loes van der Graaf will discuss the key findings from a 4-year long policy analysis project which focused on educational policies across Europe that relate to educational inclusion of NAMRS. The paper will specifically zoom in into synergies between formal and non-formal education to better support inclusion of NAMRS in Europe and what makes such partnerships for inclusions successful and sustainable.

The paper by Darmody and Kakos draws on a study that focused on migrant parents’ engagement in the education of their children. Taking a comparative case study approach it discusses the experiences of two primary schools in England and in Ireland both of which have developed innovative policies and practices to encourage migrant and refugee parents’ involvement in education of their children.

Kakos’ paper brings together findings from research literature, including research conducted by SIRIUS members. The synthesis of these findings guides a conceptualisation of holistic approaches to educational inclusion which takes into account the diversity and complexity of NAMRS’ needs and offers practical guidance for the development of inclusive policies and practices.

By exploring the diversity and complexity of NAMRS ‘needs and of the implementation of holistic approaches, the symposium will attempt to answer to the following questions:

1. What are the possibilities and challenges in the efforts for the educational inclusion of NAMRS in formal education?

2. How can NAMRS and their families be empowered so that they are in position to effectively guide policies and practices that concern their social and educational integration?

AVIOR was an Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership aimed to reduce the achievement gap between native and non-native pupils in Europe. European partners worked together to make bilingual literacy and numeracy materials for pupils aged 4-8 years available to primary schools and to share best practices among teacher trainers and school leaders on how to create inclusive multilingual classrooms. Schools across Europe are seeing an increasing number of children who are either born in another country or whose parents are immigrants and who do not speak the school language at home (Cummins, 2014). This presents a challenge as schools are expected to deliver quality education for all children, regardless of their ethnic background or linguistic abilities. Research shows: Children learn best in their mother tongue. Children’s ability to learn a second (official) language does not suffer. In fact literacy in a mother tongue lays the cognitive and linguistic foundation for learning new languages (OECD, 2015). Learning in their mother tongue during primary and secondary school allows children to become literate in the official language quickly, emerging as fully bi/multilingual learners in secondary school. More importantly, their self-confidence grows, they remain interested in learning, and they stay in school longer, and stand a greater chance of fulfilling their educational potential, enabling them to make greater contributions to the society in which they live (Duarte, 2016; Agirdag & Kambel, 2018). Multilingualism is not at all common practice in schools around Europe. The costs involved and a lack of awareness among policy makers about the benefits of mother tongue learning explain why few EU countries provide mother tongue support for migrant children (Agirdag & Kambel, 2018). Impact of the Erasmus+ project The outcome for primary school children between 4-8 years with migrant backgrounds who speak a different language at home than the school language was that they felt more meaningful in school and that it matters who they are. Also parents got more involved since ‘their’ language had a place in school. Our bilingual materials in numeracy and literacy learning are available online as open educational resources.

Agirdag, O., & Vanlaar, G. (2018). Does more exposure to the language of instruction lead to higher academic achievement? A cross-national examination. International Journal of Bilingualism, 22(1), 123-137. Agirdag, O. & Kambel, E.R. (2018). Meertaligheid en Onderwijs. Boom: Amsterdam Cummins, J. (2014). Language and identity in Multilingual Schools: Constructing Evidence-Based Instructional Policies. In D. Little, C. Leung & P. Van Avermaet (Eds.), Managing Diversity in Education: Languages, Policies, Pedagogies. Bristol-Buffalo-Toronto: Multilingual Matters, 3-26. Duarte, J. (2016). Translanguaging in mainstream education: a sociocultural approach. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 1-15. OECD (2015). Immigrant Students at School: Easing the Journey towards Integration. Paris: OECD Publishing. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1787/9789264249509-en.

The whole-school approach and the horizontal inter-connectedness of schools is identified in the literature as one of the key factors ensuring inclusion and equity in education. Several recent EU-level and national strategies have highlighted the important role of non-formal learning in integrating children of migrant backgrounds (Burlacu, 2012; European Commission, 2015). This is especially important, given the fact that children spend around 85% of their active time outside school (Medrich, 1982). Cooperation between non-formal education actors and schools can therefore provide an extra dimension to traditional education practices, strengthening the capacity of schools to address the individual needs of newly arriving migrant learners (Malcolm et al, 2003; Spieß, 2016; UNESCO, 2017). Although the benefits of such cooperation upon children’s holistic development are widely recognised in literature and policy strategies, as yet no systematic approach exists in practice. Neither does there appear to be a clear understanding among many education stakeholders of the need for synergies between different types of education providers, and of the mechanisms by which such partnerships could function in a sustainable and continuous way for the benefit of all children, and migrant children in particular. Nevertheless, SIRIUS research (Lipnickienė, Siarova and van der Graaf, 2018) suggests that numerous examples of ad hoc projects and practices exist across Member States, implemented by various civil society actors and individual schools to facilitate the inclusion of migrant and refugee children into education process. This paper offers an analysis of these practices, looking into how schools and non-formal education actors can work together to create safe and inclusive offline and online learning spaces, and proposes a vision of how they can be mainstreamed and upscaled.

Burlacu, Alina-Gabriela (2012), The importance of non-formal education and the role of NGO’s in its promotion, Article for the 7th edition of the International Conference ‘European Integration Realities and Perspectives’ – Academic Excellence Workshop. European Commission (2015), Youth work and non-formal learning in Europe’s education landscape, Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2015. Malcolm, J., Hodkinson, P., & Colley, H. (2003). The interrelationships between informal and formal learning. Journal of Workplace Learning, 15(7/8), 313–318. Medrich, E. A., Roizen, J., Rubin, V., & Buckley, S. (1982), The serious business of growing up: A study of children's lives outside school, Berkeley: University of California Press. Spieß K., Westermaier F., and Marcus J. (2016), Children and adolescents with refugee background less likely to participate in voluntary educational programs—with exception of extracurricular school activities, DIW Economic Bulletin No 34+35. Lipnickienė, K., Siarova, H. and van der Graaf, L. (2018), Role of non-formal education in migrant children inclusion: links with schools. SIRIUS Watch monitoring report, 2018. The report will be available soon at: http://www.sirius-migrationeducation.org. UNESCO (2017), Preventing violent extremism through education: A guide for policy makers, Published by UNESCO, Paris.

Parents’ engagement with schools plays an important role in students’ attitudes to school and their educational outcomes (Rah et al, 2009; LaRocque et.al, 2011). Much of the research focusses on the family-school contact, that tends to vary by social class, gender, but also by migrant background (Liu, et al, 2017). More recently, parental engagement research has moved on to research that recognises the impact of cultural discontinuities between home and school, and the significance of school cultures in addressing the needs of individuals from the diverse range of identities and cultures. Schools tend to differ regarding the level of engagement they take with parents, ranging from those that seek to empower parents as co-educators of their children, to those that promote a distinct ‘expert’ and teacher-led approach. This paper draws on data collected for a broader European study on the topic of migrant parents’ engagement with their children’s education. In particular, the study focussed on the necessary conditions for the interaction between schools and parents to facilitate migrant parents’ engagement in the school-based education of their children in the host country. It sought to answer the following questions: • How engaged and interested are migrant parents in the school-based education of their children? • How informed are migrant parents about their rights? • How informed and interested are migrant parents about the opportunities in being involved in the community of the school? • How interested are migrant parents in being involved in the school-based education of their children? • How do schools encourage migrant parents to be involved in the school-based education of their children and in the community of the school? The qualitative explorative study involved interviews with school staff and migrant-origin parents. This paper draws on interviews with school principals from 2016 that was followed up in 2023 to explore whether any changes have taken place in the case study schools. One primary school is located in an ‘old’ migrant receiving country (UK), while the other is situated in Ireland, that can be considered as a relatively new migrant receiving country. The topics explored include: principals’ understanding regarding parental involvement and parental engagement; vision with regard to engagement of parents/guardians; approaches taken regarding promoting participation by parents/guardians; level of the engagement of parents in the school. Both schools were chosen based on a high proportion of migrant children in the school and schools’ innovative practices in parental engagement.

LaRocque, M., Kleiman, I. & Darling, S. M. (2011) Parental Involvement: The Missing Link in School Achievement. Preventing School Failure: Alternative Education for Children and Youth, 55:3, 115–122. Liu, Z. & White, M. J. (2017) Education Outcomes of Immigrant Youth: The Role of Parental Engagement. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 674:1, 27–58. Rah, Y., Choi, S. & Nguyẽn, T. S. T. (2009) Building Bridges between Refugee Parents and Schools. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 12:4, 347–365.

For the last twelve years SIRIUS network has led or been involved in multiple projects in the area of educational inclusion of refugee and migrant students in Europe. Taking into consideration the recommendations in the outputs of key SIRIUS projects and the key findings from studies conducted by the network, this paper responds to calls for integrated approaches to inclusion (Pinson and Arnot, 2010) and brings forward a conceptual framework for a holistic understanding of the process of educational inclusion of Newly Arrived Migrant and Refugee Students (NAMRS). The development of this framework is grounded on the premise that the right to education is the right of individuals to appropriate support for the development of their own personal pathway to learning. The knowledge and skills that define this learning reflect the individuals’ interests and needs and enable their constructive, sustainable and justice-orientated participation in societies. From this angle, education is an empowering process in which citizens are supported, encouraged and motivated to engage in a constant dialogue with themselves and with the societies that shapes them both. Moreover, the inclusion in education Is not just the inclusion of all but it is also the inclusion of the whole person. Consequently, the learning needs that educational inclusion should be addressing are complex, personal and as such they are usually best (if not only) detectable by the learners themselves. The holistic framework for educational inclusion discussed in this paper integrates the key areas of the learning needs of NAMRS evidenced in SIRIUS studies and acknowledges that educational inclusion should involve learners’ constant evaluation of their own needs. The framework also acknowledges the significance of students’ experiences from outside education on their educational engagement and inclusion. The right to education as described above; the complex, personal and ongoing process of recognition of learning needs; the connection between education and social integration; and the impact of experiences outside education on students’ educational engagement are the four key dimensions of educational inclusion and the building blocks of this model and describes the holistic framework. The discussion explores some implications of the adoption of such framework for educational practice, research and policy making.

Pinson, H. & Arnot, M. (2010) Local conceptualisations of the education of asylum‐seeking and refugee students: from hostile to holistic models, International Journal of Inclusive Education, 14:3, 247-267.