Dissertation
A Study of Educational Resilience Amongst African Refugees in South East Queensland
University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland
Doctor of Philosophy, University of the Sunshine Coast
2020
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25907/00667
Abstract
This thesis is a calling to the Egberi, where the researcher tells a 'story' of the educational resilience of ten African refugee students in Brisbane, Queensland. Such stories are intended to be educational. It is hoped that this thesis makes the case that richer futures for African refugee students, and also for Australian society at large, are to be gained through a wider understanding of educational resilience. The drive to take on this project comes from the researcher's own experience as an African émigré to Australia. It also arises from her appreciation of resilience borne of social and relational processes, grounded in a unique African cultural process known to the world as Ubuntu, with its roots embedded in the concept of Ukama. The thesis approaches this resilience through the lens of cultural and critical futures studies (Inayatullah, 2002; Richard A Slaughter, 2004). It takes note of the impact of the past, the challenges and opportunities of the present and call of the future in the decision-making and assumptions of ten African refugees. Yet, to look to the future requires that we first look to the past, to the cultural experiences that inform this research. Therefore, the thesis interrogates the legacy of African and Australian pasts along with the contemporary forces at work in the lives of the interviewees and their communities. This inquiry is built around the Futures Triangle which offers a meta-structure for the thesis as a whole. Causal Layered Analysis (CLA) is applied in the final chapters as the critical tool to synthesise the insights from the interviews in order to generate a set of heuristic metaphors, two of which are applied to explore alternatives to the deficit model of African refugee students and point to a set of recommendations for higher education institutions, educators and policy makers. Ultimately, the thesis introduces a new and potent futures persona: the African Australian. This persona is strategically employed to link educational resilience to the rich resources of Ubuntu and Ukama drawn from African cultures and the strategic choices these students make in their new Australian context. Thus, educational resilience is understood as a hybrid capacity that challenges dominant deficit stereotypes of the African refugee and underscores the agency and resilience of the students interviewed for this research.
Details
- Title
- A Study of Educational Resilience Amongst African Refugees in South East Queensland
- Authors
- Hannah Dambo
- Contributors
- Marcus P Bussey (Supervisor)
- Awarding institution
- University of the Sunshine Coast
- Degree awarded
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Publisher
- University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland
- DOI
- 10.25907/00667
- Organisation Unit
- School of Social Sciences - Legacy; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; Engage Research Lab; School of Law and Society; Sustainability Research Cluster
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99450816302621
- Output Type
- Dissertation
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