Provision of quality education in the context of Syrian refugee children in the UK: opportunities and challenges

• Published in: Compare 2017-11, Vol.47 (6), p.942-961
• Main Authors: Madziva, Roda, Thondhlana, Juliet
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Children; Education; Educational Quality; English (Second Language); English as an additional language; Ethnography; Focus Groups; Foreign Countries; Inclusion; Input Output Analysis; Interviews; Migrant Children; Migrant Education; Migrants; Pilot Projects; Quality education; Quality of education; refugee children; refugee integration; Refugees; School desegregation; Schools; Second Language Learning; Social Integration; Syrian refugees
• ISSN: 0305-7925; 1469-3623
• DOI: 10.1080/03057925.2017.1375848

While existing research has shown the importance of the three interrelated domains of the wider policy, the school and home/community environments in the development of quality education for learners, this literature does not fully capture the experiences of the refugee population. In this article we focus on a group of Syrian refugees who came as part of the first large cohort that was welcomed in the UK in December 2015. We adapt Tikly's quality education frameworks and develop a model that highlights not only the importance of the three intersecting environments, but also the specific inputs/processes that are critical to achieving quality education for refugees. In so doing, we stress the critical role of English as a tool for refugee children's inclusion and integration in schools. Consequently, the contribution of the paper is an understanding of the inputs/processes that are key to the development of quality education for migrant/refugee children.