ElmCore Journal of Educational Psychology October, 2014 | Página 7

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The Transition of African Refugee Students into the American Education System: The Way Forward
Edwin Mogaka, Ph.D, Mercela Shinkevich , Ph.D

Young refugees worldwide are confronted with multiple
challenges in accessing and completing education. The
African region is currently the focus of the United States
humanitarian program and it is likely to remain so for
some foreseeable time. Since 2002, Sudan has ranked
number one with 47 per cent of immigrant entrants to the
United States. Other countries from the same region are
also featuring, although in smaller numbers. They include
Ethiopia, Congo, Somalia, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Burundi
and Rwanda. Typically, young people from these countries
enter schools and English language centers under
considerable stress. This study focuses on the transition
experiences of young African refugee students who attend
public schools in New Jersey. This study also evaluates
how international development issues connect tacitly to
domestic, classrooms and communities. In particular, this
study explores policy solutions that provide possibilities for
long-term participation of refugee young people in new
societies.
Introduction
Schools have roles as sites where young refugees
experience and relate to the upheaval of forced migration
and transition. Based on recent research conducted in high
schools in New Jersey with 65 young African refugees, this
article focuses on students’ experiences of transition to
American schools, and the importance of those experiences
for teaching and research. Importantly, this study calls
attention to the need for constructive policy solutions
focusing on students and their schools, as well as the longterm participation of refugee young people in new
societies. It also emphasizes important global development
issues for teachers and policymakers. Conflict and upheaval
add new dimensions to thinking about teaching, learning,
student welfare, and education policy. This study presents
an evidence-based approach that highlights contextual
issues that frame fundamental debates in international and
comparative education.
Transitions are periods of change. Students develop
multiple expectations in attempting to reconcile their hopes
for the future in the United States with families and friends
still in regions of conflict. In the classroom, teachers are
working with an increasing number of students who come
from countries of conflict where they have experienced
lengthy periods of interrupted schooling.

ElmCore® Journal of Educational Psychology

Even though physical circumstances of living in United
States may be new, many of the social and cultural
circumstances of conflict remain unchanged for young
refugees. Students still have family and friends in the
countries they fled from. Their memories of war and
upheaval are fresh in their minds, and they may have to
work a part-time or full-time job in order to financially
assist their fractured families. In th