Analysis of the PRM results across sites produced a wealth of suggestions pertaining to seven main themes of supports, which correspond closely to the CASEL model and underscore the relevance of several elements of transformative SEL to the lives of newcomer students (see Table 2). These themes tended to cluster within three core elements of the SEL framework, namely: 1) Student SEL Competencies, 2) Adult SEL, and 3) School Climate.
Table 2
School support themes elicited during PRM exercises
Theme
|
Frequency
|
Mean Rank
|
Median Rank
|
1. English Language Support
Ways to enhance English comprehension and communication skills as a pathway to integration and advancement.
|
14
|
2.8
|
3
|
2. Orientation to Rules and Norms
Communicating vital information, including information on social norms, school rules, systems and operations, and available resources.
|
12
|
3.1
|
3
|
3. Peer Support
Newcomer students desire to develop positive relationships with peers (both other newcomer and U.S.-born students).
|
10
|
2.9
|
3
|
4. Psychosocial Wellbeing
Ways in which schools as a whole promote resiliency among newcomer students.
|
8
|
2.6
|
2
|
5. Teacher Support
Key attributes of teachers and staff to instill confidence, trust, and foster success among newcomer students.
|
8
|
3.0
|
3
|
6. Sense of School Belonging
Ways for schools to enhance newcomers’ sense of belonging.
|
6
|
3.2
|
3.5
|
7. Cultural Responsiveness
The quality of school support related to social identity, language, customs, beliefs, and values identified by newcomer students as helping them to feel welcome, to acclimate, and to succeed.
|
6
|
3.2
|
2.5
|
Student SEL Competencies
Participants identified two primary pathways through which schools supported young peoples’ identity formation, self-efficacy, and sense of belonging—central principles of transformative SEL. First, students emphasized the process of developing a positive self-image through language acquisition. Second, students felt a sense of belonging that resulted from strengthened peer support networks.
Confidence and positive self-image through English language acquisition.
Newcomer participants described how enhancing their ability to identify their strengths and develop social confidence and self-esteem allowed them to progress both academically and socially. This strengthened view of self was often tied to the success of English language acquisition. One student explained that building the “confidence to learn English” allowed him and his peers to “introduce themselves” and “do activities where they could interact with other people” (Michigan, Boy). Another student articulated that switching from primarily English as a Second Language (ESL) classes into regular classes encouraged him to “speak out now” instead of “just [hiding] in your shadows” (Harrisonburg, Boy). At the same time, a negative self-conception was sometimes tied to the ongoing challenges of language acquisition. One student explained this association:
So, let’s say that the teacher picks on the person that doesn’t really know how to speak English and he pronounces the word wrong, they’ll just start laughing. Yeah, it’s just sticky. And the dude doesn’t raise his hand up for the rest of the hour. Kinda ruins their self-esteem. (Michigan, Boy)
Students emphasized how language acquisition promoted an ability to regulate self-defeating emotions and manage stress associated with acculturation, helping them to develop and achieve goals. One student described how she pushed herself to accelerate English language learning as her teacher taught her more vocabulary. While at first “people [were] rude to me since I was the only Arabic girl,” she said, language acquisition empowered her to “speak up against them,” making her feel “a lot better now” (Austin, Girl). Another student mentioned that he and other students “learn English through robotics,” which “gave us something very big to dream, bigger than we can” (Michigan, Boy). English language support resonated strongly with students as a key skill to build confidence and to promote growth and was notably the only theme identified and discussed in every focus group conducted.
Supportive peer relationships.
The desire to develop positive relationships with peers was the third-most frequent theme arising from the participatory ranking activity. Newcomer students described feeling supported when schools fostered relationships with other newcomers from the MENA region. For example, a student who had been in the U.S. for several years described being asked by a counselor to speak with a recently arrived middle schooler who “was lost” and “needed someone to explain everything.” A week after the older student reassured the newcomer that “it's gonna be fine, I was like you,” the counselor called to let her know that the newcomer was “better… and talking to people more” (Austin, Girl). Foreign-born students who had been in the U.S. longer often took it upon themselves to help more recent arrivals feel welcome, make new friends, and identify academic and non-academic supports. One student, for instance, described how he served as a bridge for recently arrived newcomer students:
Even for the kids that, uh, came from overseas after us, and they don’t know how to speak English, we used to take them with us and chill with them and introduce them to other kids who don’t even speak English so they would feel comfortable. First day, second day, third day of school… they would be like friends with like, half of the school. (Michigan, Boy)
Students attested to the importance of being able to communicate effectively and meaningfully with peers, either in their native tongue or in English. As one newcomer student from Yemen attested, “I imagine when I have language, I go right to [other students] and talk to them if I want anything, but I’m shy a little bit because I don’t have the language (Michigan, Girl). Many newcomer students appreciated when U.S.-born students were curious about their culture in a way that was friendly and respectful. For example, one participant mentioned “a lot of people telling me ‘I like your hijab, like the way you wear it’,” with some asking “how did you come to here and where are you from… [to] start a conversation with me” (Harrisonburg, Girl).
Adult SEL and Cultural Responsiveness
Students emphasized the importance of the social and emotional competence of their adult educators, and specifically their ability to recognize and be compassionate towards the particular challenges of acculturation. Not only did students identify the need for educators capable of delivering culturally responsive lessons and promoting inclusive learning environments, but they also highlighted educators as general psychosocial support resources for students. The two sub-sections below explore these themes further.
Supporting student mental health and psychosocial wellbeing.
Students viewed educators as being influential in promoting students’ sense of psychosocial wellbeing. Indeed, psychosocial wellbeing was the highest ranked theme among the PRM results. Newcomers considered educators to be frontline psychosocial supports that could provide advice and guidance on how to cope with school stressors and challenges. One student described how providing U.S.-born students with “cultural information” about newcomers’ home countries, beyond just teaching about their histories of political conflict with the U.S., might increase knowledge and perceptions that other students “care about you,” but emphasized that “it’s not gonna help you as much as the teacher’s support” (Austin, Boy).
Self-awareness and empathy among educators played a central role in many students’ decisions to seek support. In focus groups, students often mentioned specific teachers whom they collectively agreed were dependable. In one such group, for example, a student explained how “when you have a problem and you go to Miss _, she’s really into it and she’s trying to help us with it,” elaborating that “when you see that you can trust her, she could really help you” (Harrisonburg, Girl).
In addition to identifying specific school personnel as sources of support, students also discussed the importance of particular faculty and staff positions. For example, students recognized the vital role of school counselors in developing positive coping mechanisms for the challenges they faced. Voicing a common sentiment, one student reported she would “go to [the counselor] sometimes… when I have problems” (Michigan, Girl). Another participant described counselors as “the best thing ever” and mentioned that her counselor would “keep everything you say to herself, help you out, and make you feel better” when she sought assistance with school and housing-related issues (Harrisonburg, Girl).
Even though many students saw the potential for multidimensional support from academic counselors, a number of students felt underserved by the few counselors accessible within their schools. One student in Harrisonburg felt that her “counselor is never there” and was “always busy,” despite the student “[working] so hard to find her” (Harrisonburg, Girl). Students in Austin shared this sentiment, explaining that “counselors [are] so busy always,” often directing students to “go look at [resources] online” because they “don’t have time” (Austin, Girl). Multiple participants mentioned a lack of counselors utilizing language interpretation services during their meetings, while one student found his counselor to be discouraging when he wanted to take an honors class, asking “Are you sure you’re ready? You might fail the class.” The student felt that his teacher had expected less of him, “just because I didn’t speak English” (Harrisonburg, Boy).
Participants voiced a desire for more proactive efforts from school staff to prevent bullying, which they considered to be one of the core threats to their wellbeing. One student suggested that teachers form “some kind of protection group… that will talk to the person that you’re getting picked on by” and “show them what's actually going on in that person's life and how it's affecting people, like how he's acting before and how he's acting now since he’s getting picked on” (Austin, Girl). The student also emphasized the importance of promoting empathy, proposing that teachers ask perpetrators of bullying to consider, “if they went to a foreign country and they had to go through that, [would] you want [bullying] to happen to them?”
Culturally responsive learning environments.
Students expressed a desire for teachers and school staff to maintain a responsive and respectful environment where they demonstrate their equity literacy, especially related to the acculturative challenges affecting MENA students. A student in Michigan — who had educators both with and without his same cultural heritage — appreciated when “teachers get to know each other, sit down, talk to each other… they all merge into one relationship and that makes them all treat students the same way, in a respectful way” (Michigan, Boy).
One student described a tense situation in one of her classes where the teacher attempted to quell an argument between her Iraqi and Kurdish classmates over the autonomous Kurdistan region in Iraq, a highly disputed territory that has been the subject of an independence struggle among Kurds:
I’ve seen a fight about culture. Between an Iraqi girl and a Kurdish girl in my class. When my teacher was talking about it, it led to a fight…They were saying, ‘Oh, I have [a] country and it’s like, it’s not [just] a name, but it’s there.’ So, they fought over that…The teacher, he was trying to explain to them first, that it’s true that there’s no country, but there’s still Kurdish people that exist that have language. It’s just that they don’t have a territory. And he told [them], ‘There’s no reason why you guys should fight’…he talked to them after [class]. (Harrisonburg, Girl)
In this situation, the teacher attempted to intervene and to ensure both students felt heard and respected. Students expressed feeling discouraged and alienated when teachers employed culturally insensitive or assimilationist methods, such as enforcing an English-only classroom, shaming students for their English language level or accent, or drawing unwanted attention to a student’s perceived social identity. One student described how some teachers made it difficult for her and other newcomer students to participate in class by continually telling them “‘Speak English! Speak English!’ but nobody can, so it’s really hard” (Michigan, Girl). Another student mentioned how educators sometimes spoke condescendingly to newcomers, expressing that “just because [students] don’t speak English, they feel like they have to act with them like kids” rather than “talking to us like an adult” (Harrisonburg, Boy).
Some students appreciated tailored supports, including when teachers and staff offered accommodations for religious practices, such as “[cutting] back on the homework” and “[giving] us easy assignments” during the month of “Ramadan, where Muslims fast for around 17 hours a day” (Michigan, Boy). However, a few students reported feeling singled out as needing special protection by teachers and staff, who may have been trying to provide well-intentioned supports. For instance, students recalled how a classmate with a disability and a refugee background was treated at their school. One student said that “the principal and the teachers would point him out, they would try to be nice, but they would give him special treatment that you could tell he didn’t want” (Michigan, Girl), with another student responding that “they know they’re special, but don’t make them feel [ashamed or embarrassed] in front of everybody” (Michigan, Girl). These responses describe a fine line between accommodating newcomers in a welcoming manner, in which educators recognize and respond to newcomers’ preferences, and stigmatizing newcomers through what participants called “special treatment,” where educators impose their own understanding of what newcomers need.
School climate and promoting school belonging
Students appreciated warm and welcoming environments in their new schools and emphasized structural factors that promoted such a climate. These factors aligned with two subthemes: positive reception from faculty and students and schoolwide programming measures. The following two subsections explore how students’ sense of school belonging varied based on these factors.
Welcoming school climate.
Students valued when their schools cultivated a welcoming context of reception for newcomers and supported their adjustment to their new environment. Compared with students in Austin or Harrisonburg, students at schools in Michigan seemed to encounter a relatively more welcoming environment upon arrival to the U.S., likely due, at least in part, to the composition of the student body and the large number of Arabic-speaking teachers and staff. For example, a participant in Michigan described feeling connected with other students who “know the feeling and will try to help you, they will try to pick you up,” as well as staff who “help us a lot” and “know how to speak Arabic.” Such a welcoming climate made the school “a great place to start, and I’m glad I started [here]” (Michigan, Boy).
When asked how newcomer students made friends at their new school, many students across study sites described strong initial connections with other newcomers. One student stated that it was easier to make friends with other students “from your same ethnicity,” because “you have many things in common, you feel more comfortable” (Harrisonburg, Girl). That being said, students believed school environments that fostered friendships across the student body, and not just with students of similar backgrounds, to be an important determinant of the ease and rate of their acculturation.
When students felt there was clear division of friend groups based on background, they also revealed a diminished sense of belonging. One student expressed:
I’m saying after you learn English even, you’re gonna get bullied when you have that accent. You have that not a Black-looking person and not a white. You have that Asian look or Middle Eastern, especially Yemeni look. And it’s hard because you’re not accepted by the white people or the Black people. You’re not accepted by the Americans, because you don’t speak the language. You don’t get accepted by the Yemenis because you start changing now. You’re not a Yemeni anymore. (Michigan, Boy)
As expressed above, students did not always feel welcomed in their new schools. One participant described his own negative experience with his initial school environment, noting that “nobody will actually stop me to meet” and that “everybody is staring at me, like oh my gosh” (Austin, Boy). Another student noted that as a newcomer, “you feel like you’re not human.” He went on to explain that “if you are not feeling welcome, then sometimes you’ll feel like it just hurt me this time, I wanna suicide” (Austin, Boy), demonstrating the sometimes severe impact of school climate on individuals’ mental health.
Schoolwide measures.
Formal initiatives also supported students’ sense of belonging within schools. For starters, providing critical information to newcomer students on social norms, school rules, operations, and available resources upon arrival was deemed vital for adjustment and for expanding academic and social opportunities. In fact, orientation to rules and norms was the second most frequent suggestion that students produced in participatory ranking activities. When communication of rules and norms was insufficient, a series of negative consequences followed: Students who had been placed in a lower grade during their initial enrollment after resettlement thought that their level of education was underappreciated; students were disciplined for behaviors they did not understand had violated the rules, such as speaking their primary language; and they missed opportunities to enroll in classes or extracurriculars that interested them and that could advance their educational and eventual career success. One student raised a series of questions that she felt she had to figure out on her own:
Why are we going to classes instead of teachers coming to us? Why do we have homeroom? How do we get most of the credits without having to go through three or four years of high school? How can we make those credits cut shorter so we can graduate earlier? Those questions, you kind of figure them out as you get older. Time fixes things. (Austin, Girl)
Another student mentioned being “in a lot of trouble ‘cause I didn’t know [all the new rules],” emphasizing that teaching newcomers these norms should be “the first thing” schools do (Michigan, Boy). Students appreciated initiatives such as Harrisonburg’s Peer Leader Program, in which students “learn about each other and [from] where they came,” (Harrisonburg, Boy), as these programs were thought to create a welcoming space for students to share experiences and information, exchange advice, and form relationships within the broader community.
Newcomer students also valued formal opportunities to access and share information about their countries of birth and cultural heritage in a manner that did not ostracize them, but rather recognized their dignity. These participants wanted schools and teachers to educate their classmates about the rich national histories of their countries of origin. One student expressed that learning “about my country, about my culture” made him feel like “oh, they acknowledge me…they want to learn more about it so they can learn more about me.” When teachers and peers made the effort to talk about his country out of “all the countries in the world,” it made him “feel kinda special” (Austin, Boy). A student in Michigan recalled a particular initiative his school took to promote cultural inclusion and appreciation, called “Multicultural Day:”
Each student picks a country…and you basically have to research the history, put it all on a poster and build something… I did Jordan. I built a soccer field, ‘cause their culture is soccer. Each year, you choose a different country and the day that we have to present, the whole school’s different. It’s filled with different cultures and each person that comes to your station, you present to them everything you learned and you show them the activity. (Michigan, Boy)
Rather than discussing the wars taking place in their home countries, students wanted more positive representation of their homelands reflected in curricula. When asked what such representation could look like, one student responded: “I kind of don't like the word ‘history,’ ‘cause it involves a lot of stuff, including [a lot of] wars. It's not that fun. But giving [other] information can be interesting cause you're talking about different cultures, not giving [just] history” (Austin, Boy).
In addition to positive representation in curricula, students appreciated inclusion in classes and extracurricular activities. Although classroom programming for newcomers varied across study sites, a common practice involved placing recently arrived students in sheltered instruction for a given period to scaffold their language skills and content-area knowledge before integrating them into the general student body. In one PRM focus group activity, however, a student suggested that newcomers join the wider student body in regular, English-based classes instead of being “separated” from U.S.-born students throughout the day. The student explained that “if you only put [newcomer students] all in one class, they won’t be able to [experience] their new life.” She elaborated that full integration would “help them gain confidence into opening up and into the new world” (Michigan, Girl).
Further, newcomer students described feeling confident and accepted when they participated in student groups, teams, and clubs. As one student shared, “everyone start[ed] picking me as their friend” after his soccer coach selected him to play in a game (Austin, Boy). Another student highlighted how participation on the robotics team allowed him to achieve goals: “we make a team together, we work together, and we have a reward last year for the [fastest] improving team in the last two years. We go from last to top 10” (Michigan, Boy). Students were also members of cultural heritage groups. One student described joining his school’s “Arab Student Association, so you can do sports in it and they can help you with student mentors” (Michigan, Boy).