Understanding the experiences of school belonging amongst secondary school students with refugee backgrounds (UK)

ABSTRACT Research into refugee students’ settlement in host countries highlights school belonging as essential to their wellbeing and academic achievement. This research aimed to understand how secondary school refugee students experience school belonging in the North East of England. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to understand the views of refugee students. Four superordinate themes were developed: agency, participation, safety and separation. Findings suggested that EPs could support the school belonging of refugee students through their capacity to work across school systems. In this, EPs could draw on the bio-psycho-socio-ecological model of school belonging, hence providing an ecological and interactionist approach to supporting this group and also highlighting additional factors which emerged for refugee students. The discussion around the findings highlighted the barriers and facilitators to the participants’ school belonging. Overall, the research findings contribute to a growing body of literature on the school belonging of refugee students in the UK.