Questions for newcomers

I woke up this morning and realized that I was becoming fairly acclimatized to things here. Then I panicked because being acclimatized means that I have learned something and haven’t recorded it. After interviewing students, teachers and ngo’s it occurs to me that they all plan their work with important background knowledge about their students. If we don’t have this information about our students in Winnipeg we will not be able to adequately teach them. So, here are the questions we need to find answers to...

What was the source of the conflict and how long was it going on?

Civil war is different in its effects on students than natural disaster, acts of terrorist destruction or other push factors for refugees and immigrants. Likewise, a localized dispute of a relatively short duration will not have the same destabilising effect on the cultural and family values of the students we are dealing with. 

Did the student come with family?

If a student came with a family it is essential that schools connect with them. War tears at the fabric of family life and we may need to spend as much time working with the family to acclimatize them as we will with the students. If the student doesn’t have a family we need to identify the supports the child needs and find ways to provide them.

Did the student leave from a village, a town or a city?

Each of these locations have very different approaches to and understandings of education and its purpose. The student will be the best guide to finding out what their home community has prepared them to think about education and the good life.

Did the student live in a camp before leaving – and if so, for how long?

Camp life is a category altogether different from any other category of community structure. Long term residence in a refugee or idp camp likely means disconnection from cultural traditions and community values.

What resources were available to the student in terms of health, education, psycho-social support?

Students who come to us are as varied as the circumstances from which they come. Generalizations like I have just made here can be shown to be completely flawed by individual students who have somehow managed to succeed and thrive because of protective factors they possess. 

Was the student an active combatant, an abductee or displaced?

As one of my teachers here told me, “we are all war affected”. However, there are large degrees of variance when it comes to depth of trauma.

What cultural beliefs, practices does the student remember or engage with?

Teacher after teacher has identified cultural traditions such as music, dance, drama and story as being key to returning students to the “normal life”. We need to learn more about them and implement them at all levels.

What family life skills and values (e.g. cooking, laundry, money management, conflict management, understanding of sexuality, etc.) does the student have?

When we meet a student, particularly an older student, we naturally make assumptions about their capacity to do the things we knew when we were that age. You know what they say about making assumptions.

Children leaving school to go home for the holidays