Perspectives on Transitions in Refugee Education: Ruptures, Passages, and Re-Orientations

Refugees face transitions in their lives: on an individual, a social and a cultural level. This book covers various aspects of these transitions and their intersections with educational experiences. Studies from different country contexts show the complex relationships between individual, culture, society and institutions. Examining these relationships and experiences during transitional processes aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of the different types of transitions in the context of refugee education, which may lead to an improvement of support structures in the future.

The aim of this book is to present various aspects of transitions that refugees are facing in their lives and the intersections among these transitions and refugee education. Chapters from different country contexts reveal how refugees engage in several transitional processes due to movement between different countries, their settlement in a new country, as well as the transitions that are inherent to their life-course. Examining the various aspects of such relationships and experiences during transitional processes may help to understand the typologies of different transitions in the context of refugee education.

Transitional processes that the chapters of the book tackle include educational transitions, transformative transitions, cultural transitions as well as social transitions from various refugee groups’ perceptions including parents, students, teachers and unaccompanied minors. Several chapters discuss how experience of transition is influenced by rules, regulations, and responses of micro and macro environments, such as local community, institutions, governments at the national and international levels while some other specifically indicate the aspects of transitions taking place in schools.