Bridges and barriers: Karen refugee-background students’ transition to high school in Australia

Abstract

This chapter reports on research into the experiences of six Karen refugee-background adolescents as they made the social, academic and institutional transition from a supported, short-term English as an additional language (EAL) school to mainstream high school in Melbourne, Australia. A longitudinal ethnographic case study design enabled the collection of rich, cross-cultural and multivoiced data, allowing a deep and trusting relationship between researcher and students to evolve. A core data source was the collection of eight themed pictures hand-drawn by each of the students at critical times of their transition. The drawings depict student perspectives on different elements of transitio..