Carol Rifelj Faculty Lecture Series

From Trauma to Resilience: New Directions for Literacy Education Research in Refugee Resettlement Communities

Lecture by Shawna Shapiro

In this talk, I examine the evolution of educational research within refugee resettlement communities in the U.S. and abroad.  This line of scholarship has been criticized for highlighting student deficits and ignoring assets.  I consider how researchers are responding to this critique by foregrounding concepts such as resilience, agency, and multiliteracies. Using examples from my research in and around Burlington, as well as from co-authors’ studies in North America, Europe, and Australia, I answer the question: How can adopting an asset orientation help to improve educational equity for refugee-background students?