ElmCore Journal of Educational Psychology October, 2014 | Page 10

Science-Fellows®
textile collages, and drama plays—which constituted the
research data.
Supplementing the student workshops were focus group
interviews conducted with 14 teachers across three high
schools. The interviews addressed the range of project subquestions and allowed teachers to identify what they see as
the key issues. Additionally, two professional development
workshops were conducted with 90 teachers and other
school staff. Finally, a one-off, two-hour consultation was
conducted with 16 parents/guardians and community
members.
Ostensibly, the research highlighted varying experiences
across the three schools. But overall we found the
schooling system is not working well for new African
students. There are success stories but, in general, students
are struggling with new institutional settings and unrealistic
expectations. The young people are attempting to integrate
into a schooling system with which they and their relatives
are almost totally unfamiliar. The research explored the key
themes, and factors which help and hinder students’
transitions to schooling.

Transition Experiences of the Participants
The following discussion addresses two transitions that the
students participating in the research identified as key
challenges. Each transition represented a struggle to find a
community and safe space in the United States through the
school. For many of the students, schools represented sites
of empowerment and displacement as they struggled to fit
in to new communities and develop social and cultural
affiliations.
The transition from into high schools was perceived as
being the most difficult after the initial transition of arrival
in the United States (as highlighted in the vignettes at the
A lot of my students … I don’t know how they’ll cope with
anything they do in groups at high school. And that will be really
hard for them. I mean, they’ve identified that as something that

During focus group interviews with teachers, the desire to
learn more about their students’ backgrounds was
frequently discussed. One instructor mentioned that staff
if the teachers [high school] knew where these students were
coming from, what they’ve had in their background, their country,
the trauma that they’ve been through, then I think they could cater
for them a lot better. I mean, a lot of that information I think we’re
privy to here that maybe people in the high schools aren’t, and I

The high school students said that high schools need
to make it easier for new African students moving
from the transition programs that feel anxious, often
have no friends and are confused by the different
buildings and rooms. As one student complained: ‘I
don’t like changing classes with different subjects … I

ElmCore® Journal of Educational Psychology

beginning of this section). A second key transition point
was for students attempting to find pathways to work or
further education.
Transition into high school
While there are local programs that mediated American
schooling to new arrivals during their first year of
settlement, many of the participants in this study had since
exited these programs and moved on to high school. They
reported high school as patently different from the
transition programs. The students said that, for various
reasons, the transition into high school was perhaps their
most troubling and difficult period since arriving in the
United States. It seems that those students who are
successful in the transition stage often begin high school
with great expectations but quickly find themselves unable
to cope with the degree of academic ‘catchingup’ (or, as
they put it, ‘coping-up’), required to manage the workload.
In general, they often do not have a foundational
knowledge base expected of American high school
students. This was particularly so for the older students
who make the transition to 10th grade (Cassity & Gow,
2006). It should again be emphasized that the majority of
students in this study said they had completed between
three to four years of formal education in a conflict or
refugee camp context.
Students described the challenges of learning another
school structure, becoming a new student again, and
learning skills and classroom activities in the context of
high school. The main source of anxiety was the speed at
which they were expected to cope and adjust to high school
classroom and curricular activities. Alongside this is the
fact that transition programs provide an environment where
students receive higher levels of individualized support. For
instance, one instructor at a transition program reflected on
the changed dynamic of group work students experience at
high school – in particular learning the processes and
structure of group work (an activity many students said
they liked at IEC):
they love, and when they get to high school it might be something
that really intimidates them.
Program Instructor

has access to considerable information about specific
students and their contexts of arrival and settlement, and
suggested that if high school teachers received the same
information it would be of great assistance.
think that really helps us to be able to support the students as much
as we can and know where they’re coming from and what they’ve
been through … to sort of help guide them as much as you can.

get lost’. The ‘buddy’ system was considered a
necessity for new s Y[