A Survey Study Examining Teachers’ Perceptions in Teaching Refugee and Immigrant Students

Abstract

There is limited research around best practices in working with refugee and immigrant students. Since teachers spend the majority of the school day with students, their insights about how best to serve these populations of children and adolescents is critical. This dissertation study conducted an online survey study with 139 elementary school general education teachers in a large urban school district to examine teacher beliefs and attitudes about the following factors in meeting the needs of refugee and immigrant children: teachers’ perceived self-efficacy, attitudes toward implementing new and innovative practices, cultural competency, prior preparation and overall competency, and perceptions about the needs of refugee and immigrant students. Results indicate that overall, teachers feel confident, culturally competent, and are open to implementing practices to serve refugee and immigrant students; the majority of teachers reported that they didn’t think that refugee and immigrant students have unique needs, which conflicts with current research; only minority status was found to be a unique predictor of beliefs around student needs. Implications and future research are discussed.