” Our world today is riddled with anger and grievances linked to feelings of injustice and inequality. Whether perceived or real, economic, cultural or political, inequalities underpin many movements that use violence to achieve their aims. Education systems can fuel these grievances or reduce them. ” Novelli ( 2016)
In his video above, Nish Kumar responds to the western world’s common response of “immigrants are taking our jobs” etc by citing research that indicates that immigrants are more likely to bring more money into countries they migrate to, and pay more taxes.
Humans are not a profit and loss statement and education should be equal for everyone. Novelli (2010) states that ” we need to go beyond seeing children as human capital and instead see them holistically in their multiple economic, cultural, political and social manifestations”.
NZ accepts around 1000 refugees into its borders every year. These Afghan, Bhutanese, Colombian, Congolese, Ethiopian, Iraqi, Myanmarese/Burmese, Somali, Sudanese and Syrian refugees often arrive after spending many years in refugee camps. They arrive with their own languages and sometimes have had very little in the way of formal education, and refugee students will have fallen behind students of their own age who are native New Zealanders because of these barriers to their learning (as well as having English as their second language).
I recently had the pleasure of teaching a year 9 Syrian refugee boy who had been living in NZ for four years with his family. I was on practicum during the time this class were working on a speech unit, and he was planning a poem he could use as a spoken word presentation. When I asked him what he was writing about he spoke very softly and smiled as he said his poem was about being kind to each other. On reading his work (and helping him organise his thoughts into a poem shape) it was clear that what he was trying to address was school bullying (on a micro scale) and war (on a macro scale). His subject was bullying and war, but he was trying to tell all of his classmates (as he would be presenting it to the class) that the way to overcome this was kindness and being loving towards each other.
This was quite heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time. It also started off a brief conversation before the bell went, where he mentioned that when he grew up he would like to go and see his older brother, who didn’t move to New Zealand, but had gone to America instead. He had had an opportunity to move there, before his family got placed in New Zealand. I couldn’t imagine how difficult and traumatic it must have been, for this child and his parents, to have their children flung near and far, because of Syria’s political state. And this got me thinking about the learning of refugee children, and if they ever fully recover.
The video below shows the difference between a learning brain and a survival brain.
Children are always going to learn better when their classroom (and/or home life) is NOT a battleground. They need to feel safe and loved and nurtured., to be ready for learning new information and to fully participate in our NZ classrooms.
REFERENCES
Novelli, M. (2016). Capital, inequality and education in conflict-affected contexts. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 37(6), 848–860. https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2016.1165087
Ministry of Education website:
Wild Fishing in a Sea of Provocations 
This post reminded me of an unfamiliar text lesson I taught to a class of Year 11s. The text was from a speech by Year 12 student, Caitlin Addison, titled “At 10 Years Old” in which she compares her childhood in New Zealand with that of a young girl growing up in the Congo as a child soldier. The students in my class just didn’t seem to ‘get it’ initially. They were disinterested. Perhaps it was too far removed from their own experiences. Or maybe (likely!) they had simply switched off at the words ’unfamiliar text’ at the beginning of the lesson.
Several years ago I had the privilege of teaching a young man who had come to New Zealand as a refugee. He had been a child soldier and shared some of his story with me. The killing and sexual violence he had witnessed were horrors that had left him psychologically scarred. At the time I met him he was not only dealing with the trauma of his past, but he was also having to integrate into a foreign country with little family support and guarded acceptance of him by New Zealanders.
I hope the student you talk about in your post was able to connect with his classmates when he performed his spoken word. He clearly has an insight on the topics of bullying and war that so many New Zealand born students, and perhaps their teachers, could do with hearing. The Ministry of Education has published a handbook for schools with students from refugee backgrounds. They talk about the importance of these students having the opportunity to share their experiences. When this has been done, they say, “it has resulted in a higher degree of understanding and tolerance from students” (2016).
The video link you posted on the learning brain vs the survival brain is a good reminder of the damage that may have occurred for some of the students we find ourselves teaching. We also need to be aware of the complexities of students living in survival brain mode. As you state they need adults around them who will provide an environment where they feel supported and safe.
As for my Year 11 students who were just not into their piece of unfamiliar text? Well, I was able to talk to them about Tai (not his real name) and what I had learned from him. They listened quietly, went back to the text, and most were able to draw more meaningful responses from it.
Reference
ESOL Team, National Operations Ministry of Education. (2016). Refugee Handbook for Schools. Auckland.
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