Working with young asylum seekers and refugees

1. Working with young asylum seekers and refugees Jeremy Idle & Lyn Ma Senior Lecturers ESOL Department Glasgow Clyde College Anniesland Campus Mohamed Toure 2nd year student at Glasgow Caledonian University Aziz Hussini 2nd year student at University of West of Scotland

2. Young asylum seekers and refugees come here from all over the world including: Vietnam Afghanistan Somalia Iran & Iraq China Eritrea “ “We came here broken”

3. Why do they leave? • Persecution of minor religions & religious converts, political affiliations or parent's affiliations - denial of legal protection. • Inter-ethnic & Inter-tribal conflict • Forced / underage marriage & rape • Homosexuality - a capital offence • Trafficking – sexual exploitation, domestic servitude & slavery

4. What leads to educational success? • Knowledge v Understanding the language • Knowing why you are learning – survival or ? • Knowing who you are – sense of identity • Autonomy - Understanding how to work alone – problematic if your experience has been communal • Ability to control and regulate your own behaviour – fractured or no education • Motivation - Knowing what you can achieve – what do you want to be is a new question - how do you know what is possible?

5. Knowledge • How is education understood by this group? • Learning the Koran - • Learning how to master something – carpet making • Understanding a Euro-centric education system • It about knowledge or about language & confidence ?

6. Motivation Joining a culture – you have not chosen to join and that you feel does not wantyou this can block the process of acculturation Bourdieu – habitus “in the right situations, our habitus allows us to successfully navigate social environments” Bourdieu - identity – “sharing institutionalized forms of cultural capital with others creates a sense of collective identity” • Need for acceptance of where & who you are • Stability & Safety– who do you trust? • Again - How do you know what is possible? • Need for affirmation – why are you learning?

7. Autonomy • Experience of working alone & type of teaching & learning - the first experience of this is at college and so it continues to be a new thing to master at HE • Fear of mistakes & lack of confidence • Effect of trauma on concentration, diet, sleep,etc.. • Ongoing uncertainty about those you left behind and your own future

8. Ways forward • Need for support - “you need someone to remind you of who you are and what you can do” - role of the teacher / tutorcrucial • Need for information- how does it work – people, the work, the systems – understanding the structure • Need for guidance – to make the right decisions- learning how to plan your educational journey • Teachers need to re-interpret the insights of mainstream EFL lma@glasgowclyde.ac.uk jidle@glasgowclyde.ac.uk

9. Most importantly … “Need to feel safe, stable and at home and being able to accept yourself and your life here”