Intro / Project description
Transitions to a new country can be challenging for refugee and migrant children, their families and their teachers. This research aims to enhance transition to ECE and schools in Aotearoa. The study revolves around partnerships between ECE/School leadership, teachers, HMS Trust staff, families and researchers. It will explore the experiences of children, families and teachers and the challenges they face. Strategies for supporting educational transitions will be collaboratively developed and partner settings will choose aspects of these strategies to trial and then evaluate their impact on the participation, engagement and learning of refugee and migrant children.
Aims
This project aims to explore how former refugee and migrant children and their families experience transitions across early childhood education, primary school, and community-based settlement contexts in Aotearoa New Zealand. The research seeks to understand how these transitions are shaped through relationships, language, communication practices, and institutional structures within and across settings. A central aim is to foreground the perspectives of children, families, teachers, settlement teams and setting leaders. The project also aims to examine how educational and community settings support or unintentionally may limit families’ sense of belonging, participation, and access to information, particularly for families with limited English proficiency. Together the team will develop and trial strategies to enhance the transition. Through collaborative and qualitative inquiry, the research aims to identify practices that strengthen culturally responsive and relational approaches to transitions and to support teachers and setting leaders to reflect critically on their transition practices across diverse educational contexts.
Why is this research important?
Transitions into and across education systems are complex and can be particularly challenging for former refugee and migrant families who are navigating unfamiliar languages, systems, and expectations. This research is important because it centres the experiences and perspectives of children and families. By examining transitions across early childhood, school, and community settings, the study addresses gaps in understanding how everyday practices either support or limit belonging, participation, and access to what is needed, and trials and evaluate ways to support children’s learning and engagement. The research responds to the need for more equitable and culturally responsive transition practices in Aotearoa New Zealand.
What we plan to do
Data
The project will be conducted across six participating settings, including early childhood centres, primary schools, and a migrant and refugee settlement service. Qualitative data will be generated through interviews with setting leaders, teachers, and staff, as well as interviews with families who are part of the communities of each setting. Each setting will also engage in their own specific inquiry; Problem of our Practice [PoP], focusing on one aspect of their transition practices. Children’s perspectives will be included through participatory approaches, including drawing and conversation, to support children to share their experiences of transition in developmentally appropriate ways. Settings will implement and trial a range of strategies to enhance transition and gather a range of data to explore their impact.
Analysis
Data will be analysed using a qualitative, thematic approach to identify patterns and meanings across participant groups and settings. Analysis will attend to experiences of transition, belonging, language, and communication, and will consider how institutional practices and requirements shape families’ and children’s experiences across educational contexts.
