How school leaders address the needs of refugee students
Author(s):
Rah, Yeonjai
Format:
Thesis
Degree granted:
Ph.D.
Publisher:
Ann Arbor : The University of Wisconsin - Madison, 2007.
Pages:
169
Language:
English
Abstract:
This cross-case study sought to establish a better understanding of leadership practice of schools that hosted newly-arrived refugee students through investigation of the artifacts that the leaders designed and implemented to help the children adjust to a new school life. This was conducted under the background of the second wave of Hmong refugees from 2004 to 2005 in the U.S., and three schools in different districts with large numbers of newly-arrived refugee students were selected. The research questions were (1) what artifacts were used to address the needs of newly-arrived refugee students across the three different schools? (2) how did these artifacts show how school leaders framed and solved problems in meeting the needs of the refugee students? Throughout the study, Design Cycle Analysis Model served as a coding scheme and framework for analyzing and interpreting qualitative data in terms of problem-setting and problem-solving. I reconstructed the coded data into narrative cases of each school; next, in an attempt to synthesize the three narratives focusing on the problem-setting and problem-solving, I conducted a cross-case analysis. The major findings of the study are as follows. Local contexts, especially the degree of linguistic diversity and the size of district, influenced the decision of the school districts regarding placement of the newcomers in schools: spreading vs. concentrating. Local school leaders seemed to develop artifacts to compensate for the constraints or to enhance the advantages of student placement practices. Analysis of the artifacts leaders developed to address the needs of refugee students, an important issue was to revealed a balance between social integration and efficient teaching resource operation. School leaders in this study were negotiating between these two demands. If a school or school district spread Hmong refugee children across schools and classes, it would help increase interactions with mainstream peers; however, this might entail a need for more ESL and bilingual teaching resources. In addition, I found Hmong-American bilingual staff served as the core personnel resources for the refugee children and refugee parents' education, as a form of school involvement, an important issue in helping the children, adjust to school life.