The University of Arizona
Faculty-Staff Research Outreach Instruction Student corner
    Research:
   
   
Refugee Children in School
Anthropology and Education

Current work in the Anthropology and Education Section spans a wide range of topics, approaches, methodologies, age groups, and geographical region. One current project, developed in close conjunction with the Tucson Unified School District, studies how newly-arrived refugee children - from countries as diverse as Somalia, Cuba, Sudan, and Afghanistan - are adapting to an American school district, and how the school district is adapting to serve the needs of these children. Data for this project is gathered by U of A undergraduates, who spend an entire school year conducting participant observation research in classrooms across the local district. This unique internship program trains undergraduate Anthropology majors in the theories and methods of applied anthropology by investigating genuine research questions; students' first-hand experience in schools also gives them particularly valuable insight into the current literature on the Anthropology of Education. In the summer of 2005, undergraduate interns also independently designed and implemented an experiential outreach project for middle school-aged refugee children in Tucson, to help them acquire survival skills outside of the classroom. Analyses of research data from this on-going project is in progress, and will contribute to works on refugee resettlement, language and literacy acquisition, critical race studies, as well as experiential learning for undergraduates.



©BARA - The Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology
   

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