Fostering a Sense of Belonging for Immigrant and Refugee Learners

In the video, Teaching Strategies that Address Trauma and Resilience, Dr. Jean Clinton
explains that creating a caring, safe environment for our students is paramount in their
learning potential. She says that “Every kid needs at least one person whose eyes light up
when they walk in that school. They need to feel safe. They need to feel that they are cared
for. They also need a strong sense of belonging.” When learners feel a sense of belonging
within the learning community, their stress levels are significantly reduced and there is
heightened opportunity for learning to take place. Clinton contends that it is the combination
of safe, caring, belonging, experiential, and engaged learning that facilitates an environment
where learners thrive. Fostering a sense of belonging, particularly for immigrant and refugee
learners, is undoubtedly a challenge but is something that all educators will encounter and
must learn to address.

In her presentation, Just Trying to Fit in: Social Emotional Learning to Foster a Sense of
Belonging for Immigrant and Refugee Learners, Dr. Stacey Wilson-Forsberg outlines some
of the educational challenges immigrant and refugee learners might experience in their
learning. She specifically mentions trauma, which might be caused by war and conflict,
abuse, natural disasters, or economic instability, as well as interrupted schooling. This only
adds to the importance of educators becoming more “trauma-informed.” She goes on to
discuss the importance of print literacy support at schools and the “late arrival penalty,”
where immigrant students who arrive in a new country at age 12 or older – and have spent at
most four years in their new country – lag farther behind students in the same grade in
reading proficiency than immigrants who arrived at younger ages. This challenge directly
relates to what Wilson-Forsberg describes as the “deficit” approach, where educators tend to
focus more on a learner’s perceived weaknesses, blaming them as “the problem,” rather than
accentuating learner strengths. In order to lessen the challenges immigrant and refugee
learners encounter in our classrooms, Wilson-Forsberg emphasizes the importance of
fostering a sense of belonging and explores what exactly that entails.

Sense of belonging can be defined as individuals sharing a social identity where they can
pursue collective goals leading to feelings of happiness, stability, and contentment. Of
course, without a sense of belonging, usually stemming from being rejected, excluded, or
ignored, individuals will often begin developing intense negative feelings of anxiety,
depression, grief, jealousy, and loneliness. A lack of sense of belong could stem from various
different places, such as being shamed due to more limited language skills, the act of
“othering” through racism and bullying, and even the segregation of ELLs under the “pull-
out” model. When one begins to comprehend the negative impact of a lack of sense of
belonging, it is not difficult to understand the profound connection and relationship between
belonging and education.

Within the context of education, belonging means the extent of which learners feel accepted,
respected, included, and supported by others within their school environment. “Youth who
experience a sense of belonging and peer acceptance in school are more likely to enjoy
school, to be engaged academically, to participate in school activities, and to persist toward
high school graduation and university” (Wilson-Forsberg, 2018). So, how does this relate to
immigrant and refugee learners? As Wilson-Forsberg points out, while making friends across
ethnic groups during the adolescent years should be easy and natural, in reality often the
opposite is true. Learners of the same cultural and linguistic background will naturally share
common invisible culture, which refers to sociocultural norms, world views, beliefs,
assumptions, and value systems, that connect to almost all facets of language use. At the
same time, networks of Canadian-born friends have the potential to help their immigrant and
refugee classmates adjust to and maneuver within a new social and education system.
However, in order for this to occur, schools must actively work towards creating a learning
community which caters to the need for friendship, and belonging, in meaningful and
impactful ways. If schools are looking to increase the general sense of belonging amongst
their students, particularly immigrant and refugee learners, a few things must be considered.
Wilson-Forsberg explains that “Simple proximity to diversity may be insufficient to spark
meaningful interactions between immigrant and Canadian-born youth unless the optimal
conditions for intergroup contact are present” (Wilson-Forsberg, 2018). While facilitating the
optimal conditions for intergroup contact is never an easy task, educators can start by
emphasizing equal status amongst their learners, creating common goals for all to strive for,
and fostering a perception of friendship and similarity. There must also be institutional
support in order for sense of belonging initiatives to be successful, meaning there needs to be
a whole school effort in assuring immigrant and refugee learners feel safe and welcomed in
the community.

In order to demonstrate greater sensitivity and increase intercultural awareness even before
an ELL arrives at a school and in the classroom, another consideration educators should make
is that of culturally responsive pedagogy. For immigrant and refugee learners, this means
moving towards greater equity and inclusivity in our schools, leading to a heightened sense of
belonging. By removing discriminatory biases and barriers to student achievement and well-
being that relate to ethnicity and race, faith, family structure and socio-economic status as
well as to sexual orientation, ability and mental health, students will experience more
equitable and inclusive learning opportunities. In the Culturally Responsive Pedagogy
monograph, there is a detailed outline of the mindset of culturally responsive educators.
“Culturally responsive teachers share a particular set of dispositions and skills – a mindset
that enables them to work creatively and effectively to support all students in diverse
settings.” These characteristics include socio-cultural consciousness, desire to make a
difference, high expectations, constructivist approach, deep knowledge of students, and
culturally responsive teaching practices. In short, educators must “[Possess] an awareness of
how socio-cultural structures impact individual experiences and opportunities; See
themselves as change agents working towards more equity; Hold positive and affirming
views of all students of all backgrounds; Understand that learners construct their own
knowledge; Know about the lives of students and their families [as well as] how students
learn best and where they are in their learning; [and,] Design and build instruction on
students’ prior knowledge in order to stretch students in their thinking and learning.” These
are the characteristics, or principles, an educator must embody if their hope is to create a
caring, safe learning environment and foster a sense of belonging for immigrant and refugee
learners, much like the one Clinton stresses the importance of.