TITLE:
Adolescent Refugees Challenging School and Education—A Multi-Level Analysis of the Austrian School System
AUTHORS:
Martin Kölbel
KEYWORDS:
Adolescent Refugees, Inclusion, Austrian School System, Heterogeneous Classes, Multi-Level Analysis, Lacking Interconnectedness
JOURNAL NAME:
Creative Education,
Vol.13 No.1,
January
14,
2022
ABSTRACT: Within educational systems, discussions have long been held about whether and to what extent refugees and displaced people can be integrated. Due to rare insights, this paper discusses how far school authorities as well as participants handle and adapt to more heterogeneous student groups. Study participants consist of national and federal school authorities, principals,teachers, local students and refugees (both parents and children) having either fled due to the Syrian war or due to fear of facing Afghan persecution. For this study, interviews with the aforementioned participants, being allocated to different levels (i.e. micro-, meso-, or macro-level) of the Austrian school system, have been conducted to ensure variety and transparency of data. The investigation showed that notions of what are the right decisions leading to the right measurements in relation to the integration of adolescent refugees seem to vary depending on individual protagonists’ level of work within the Austrian school. While decisions from both school authorities as well as educators are comprehensible for those working within the same level, decisions taken on another (usually higher) level, are frequently regarded as unsupportive or even convey a negative image causing disappointment, frustration and display lacking interconnectedness between individual levels.