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Taking up the challenge : an interpretive phenomenological analysis of teachers’ perceptions regarding the presence of asylum seeker and refugee pupils (ASR) within mainstream primary schools in the Midlands, and the implications this may hold for educational psychologists practice

The increase in Asylum Seeker and Refugee (ASR) applications in recent decades (Hart, 2009) has led to an increase in the numbers of ASR children attending schools in the UK. This study utilizes Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), a relatively new qualitative research approach within psychology (Smith et al., 2010), to gain the perceptions of a cohort of teachers who work on the ‘front line’ with these pupils to understand the impact their presence has on those teachers, their classrooms and the wider school and community. Using IPA has allowed the researcher to add a distinct psychological perspective to the limited extant research literature in the field, and has provided rich and contextualized accounts regarding the teachers’ perceptions of those children. The findings suggest that these teachers are generally optimistic about ASR children and recognize the important protective role schools can play in supporting them. However set within a context of rising work pressures some of the teachers’ frustrations with the wider systems are surfaced and the impact on ASR children is discussed. The study discusses how psychological theory can be adopted to support teachers in their work alongside ASR children and the role educational psychologists should play in supporting this agenda.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:556838
Date January 2011
CreatorsBailey, Simon
PublisherUniversity of Birmingham
Source SetsEthos UK
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
Sourcehttp://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/2931/

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