Guidelines in facilitating refugee learners in their social adjustment to a foreign school environment

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to develop Gestalt guidelines for teachers working with refugee learners. These guidelines seek to assist teachers when facilitating refugee learners in their social adjustment to a new school environment. The researcher made use of the first four stages of the Design and Development model of intervention research. These stages included problem analysis and project planning, information gathering and synthesis, design, and the early development of the guidelines. For the purpose of this study, semi-structured focus groups were conducted with teachers working with refugee learners. The social adjustment process was then viewed in the context of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory. Existing literature on the social adjustment of refugee learners in the South-African school system and literature on the Gestalt philosophy was used together with functional elements of existing social adjustment models to develop guidelines for teachers when facilitating refugee learners in their social adjustment to a new school environment. Throughout this research study, the refugee learner has been referred to as “he”. This was done for practical reasons only and no gender discrimination was intended.