Over the last few years, the global population of Afghan refugees has risen to 6.4 million people. According to the Migration Policy Institute’s analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data, the Afghan immigrant population in the United States alone has nearly quadrupled, to approximately 195,000 over the last decade, making it critical that school staff (including educators, along with administrators, counselors, administrative and support staff, etc.) have the knowledge and tools necessary to support the families and students who arrive in their school communities.
Child Trends has partnered with the Center for Schools and Communities, as part of the Center’s Afghan Refugee School Impact Support to Schools Initiative, to provide professional development, training, and consulting services to school staff in Pennsylvania who serve Afghan refugee families. This work centers on two topics: culturally responsive family engagement and trauma-informed approaches. This toolkit, a culmination of our joint work, is designed to be a resource that school staff can reference to support their work with Afghan refugee families. While most of the information in this toolkit is relevant to school staff across the United States, a few resources are specific to Pennsylvania.
This toolkit is organized into two sections, both of which are intended to help school staff better understand the unique experiences of Afghan refugee students and their families and equip them with the skills to foster safe and nurturing environments.
The following key terms are used throughout the toolkit. Many terms include a hyperlink to a resource with a more extensive explanation of the concept. Definitions for refugee, asylee, and immigrant can be found here.
Afghan is the appropriate adjective to use when referring to students or families from Afghanistan. It is not the same as “Afghani,” which refers to Afghanistan’s currency.
Adversity refers to difficult situations a person has experienced.
Culturally responsive family engagement refers to practices that respect and honor families’ cultural uniqueness, life experiences, and perspectives to build authentic and respectful partnerships.
Displacement is the forced movement of people to leave or flee their home country because of conflict, heightened violence, human rights violations, or environmental disasters.
Resettlement is an act whereby refugees are permitted to relocate to another country that has agreed to admit them with a legal status ensuring international protection and ultimately permanent residence.
Stressor refers to any event, force, or condition that results in physical or emotional stress. Not all stressors are bad. For example, stress about a test can motivate a student to study. However, toxic stress results from extreme or chronic stress when an individual does not have sufficient supports to deal with stress.
Trauma is a response to an event or set of circumstances that is experienced by an individual as physically or emotionally harmful or threatening and that has lasting adverse effects on the individual’s physical, social, emotional, or spiritual well-being.
Trauma-informed approach refers to a model of care that realizes the widespread impact of trauma and understands potential paths for recovery; recognizes the signs and symptoms of trauma; responds by fully integrating knowledge about trauma into policies, procedures, and practices; and seeks to actively resist re-traumatization.
Resilience is the process of successfully adapting to a difficult or challenging life experience. It is not a trait someone does or does not have, but rather the result of the interaction of individual and environmental factors. For example, someone who responds with resilience in one situation may not respond this way in another.
The following image can help school communities build skills that meet the needs of Afghan refugee students and their families. It offers a visual representation of how adversity can accumulate over time, as well as the benefits of positive coping skills and a robust support system to reduce students’ exposure to adversity and help them respond with resilience.
Figure: “Stress bucket” for refugee youth and families
Figure depicts a visual representation of how adversity can accumulate in students and their families over time.
Image is authors’ own, but was conceptually inspired by: Brabban, A. & Turkington, D. (2002) The Search for Meaning: detecting congruence between life events, underlying schema and psychotic symptoms. In A.P. Morrison (Ed) A Casebook of Cognitive Therapy for Psychosis (Chap 5, p59-75). New York: Brunner-Routledge.
Keep in mind that experiencing adversity does not always result in trauma. A supportive environment and adequate coping skills can help students respond with resilience in the face of adversity. Below, we define each component from the image.
The Build Knowledge Among the School Community tab answers potential questions that school staff may have about supporting Afghan refugee students and their families. It includes:
The Take Action tab includes information on the Plan-Do-Study-Act Framework, which can inform school communities’ work with Afghan students and their families, along with lists of strategies and tools for supporting these students and families and a set of resources for families themselves.
This toolkit was developed with funds from the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s Afghan Refugee School Impact Support to School program.
Rodriguez, Y., Taylor, L., Guros, C., & Stratford, B. (2024). A toolkit for school communities to work with Afghan refugee families. Child Trends. DOI: 10.56417/5797j2461f
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