News from Members

Research panel at the 18th IMISCOE Annual Conference

Luxembourg, 7-9th July 2021

Forced migration has become an increasingly hot topic in migration studies over recent years, due to increases in human mobility resulting from political, economic and environmental crises and conflict. The academic field has tackled migration and its connection to education and social inequality in different ways and across various disciplines. As such, the experiences of the children of migrants and the role of migrant parents in their educational pathways have received considerable attention. However, there is only a small volume of literature available on the schooling experiences of refugee children in particular, and even less so on their families’ engagement with education. 

This panel therefore aims to explore the ways in which asylum-seeker and refugee parents - and families more broadly - engage with education. The panel specifically explores refugee parents’ and families’ challenges and opportunities in engaging in the education of their children in formal and non-formal settings; and the outcomes of this engagement for their own and their children’s inclusion, sense of belonging and/or well-being. It will take an interdisciplinary approach, and as such we welcome contributions from education, sociology, youth studies, anthropology, human geography and beyond. 

Proposals may consider one or more of the following list of questions:

• What are the possibilities for parental inclusion and/or barriers to the schooling of their children in different countries around the world? 
• How do refugee parents perceive and shape engagement, or overcome barriers to their engagement? 
• What kind of strategies do refugee parents develop considering the resources (i.e. economic, social, cultural) and forms of capital they possess? Do we see differences among the strategies of refugee parents within groups or across settings (looking at comparative studies)?  
• What evidence exists on the outcomes of refugee parents’ and families’ engagement in learning spaces, and how might these outcomes be otherwise conceptualised (taking into account family-level differences)?
• To what extent are refugee parents supported to engage in their children’s school or learning processes in different contexts?
• What practices can be employed to support refugee parents’ engagement in education, and what are the inherent tensions in these practices which need to be addressed?
• What is the role of the nation-state, local government and grassroots organisations in promoting or supporting refugee parents’ engagement with their children's education?

We welcome proposals until midnight on 24th November 2020 (CET). These should consist of a title and abstract of maximum 300 words, and should be emailed to the panel convenors below with the subject ‘EduSocial Panel Submission: Parental involvement’. We will inform all authors on whether their abstract has been accepted by 1st December 2020, and expect to know by 1st February 2021 if the panel has been accepted by IMISCOE for the conference.

Convenors:

Lucy Hunt (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

Nubin Ciziri (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

Dr Marta Moskal (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

Dr Elif Keskiner (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)