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Understanding the lived higher education experiences of students from refugee backgrounds: Recommendations for future practice
Author(s) -
Felix Vivienne
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
new directions for higher education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1536-0741
pISSN - 0271-0560
DOI - 10.1002/he.20385
Subject(s) - refugee , higher education , pedagogy , lived experience , negotiation , context (archaeology) , interpretative phenomenological analysis , identity (music) , sociology , qualitative research , psychology , gender studies , political science , social science , paleontology , physics , acoustics , biology , psychoanalysis , law
The purpose of this article is to understand the lived higher education experiences of students from refugee backgrounds. Limited to the context of educational experiences in the United States, this work is guided by insights from a phenomenological study of refugee students’ experiences. From their experiences, five key themes were identified. Those themes were mobility and higher education; transnational experiences; negotiating a bicultural identity; connections to a community of national origin; and sources of support for persisting in higher education. These themes are used to inform the recommendations for professional practice.