Strength and Resilience of Refugee Students: School Supports

By Rachel Ruiz

For my professional training, I decided to attend the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) convention held in New Orleans, Louisiana. This convention is held every year in a different location in the U.S. and provides mini skills workshops, poster presentations, research paper presentations, and guided discussions about various topics within the School Psychology field. I chose this experience because it provides a thorough overview of the many issues and innovations that school psychologists face during practice today. While I was at NASP, I learned about many different populations of students and how school psychologists nationwide interact and intervene with these students.



The specific event I chose to highlight here is research paper presentation I attended about working with refugee students. The title of the presentation is “Strength and Resilience of Refugee Students: School Supports” and was presented by students of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. The primary investigator, Angelina Lee, presented her study along side her student peers Shalini Arya, and Dorna Rahimi on February 12th, 2016. Lee’s study was about the resilience and strengths students who are considered refugees from outside of Canada demonstrate in their schools and community. This study aimed to gain a better understanding of the types of qualities these students have despite the adversity and trauma children from refugee families often face when relocating to a new community. The investigators did this by implementing a form of Narrative Therapy called Tree of Life (see below for more details) when interviewing and building rapport with refugee students from Mexico, Costa Rica, Columbia, and Bangladesh. Based on their findings, the investigators highlighted 6 main themes that emerged from the data they collected: empowerment, empathy/helping others, cultural sensitivity and appreciation, aspirations and goals, and new opportunities and experiences. Their findings implicate that students who have faced this type of trauma can still demonstrate great resilience and hopefulness in their new lives.

The counseling technique used to obtain information about refugee students in this study is called Tree of Life. Tree of Life follows a Narrative therapy approach by enabling children and adults to tell their own stories, construct their own goals, and to grow through their own experiences. This technique was originally created to work with vulnerable children and adults whom have experienced hard times and traumatic events in their lives. Tree of Life works by allowing children to speak about their lives in way that highlights their strengths and ambitions by having them draw their own tree of life (see picture).

A facilitator may guide this activity by sitting down with a child and discussing the various components of their trees as they draw them. For instance, for the roots of their tree, students are asked to draw and write about where they came from. Another example is the branches of the tree that highlight a student’s hopes and dreams for the future. Various parts of the tree, including the trunk, ground, and leaves, are given meaning by the student as they answer questions pertaining to these components that help tell a story about where they came from, who they are, and what they aspire to do. At the end of the activity, the student and the facilitator discuss the drawing the student has produced, highlighting the resilience and strengths the student has at school, home, and the community.

I believe this technique would best be used for young students from diverse backgrounds because it allows them to tell their own story in a visual way that is meaningful for the student and provides the student with a physical reminder of their resiliency. Although this technique was used when working with refugee students, I believe it can be applicable to other contexts and student populations. For instance, children who have experienced homelessness, children who have endured critical illnesses, and children who have experienced loss of a loved one are some examples of student populations this approach can be appropriate for. Any student who has gone through difficult experiences and transitions can benefit from highlighting their individual strengths and aspirations for the future. Sometimes when we encounter students who have been through a lot in their personal lives we are quick to think of the trauma and hurt they may be enduring. The Tree of Life approach is an amazing way to highlight the positives of a student’s character and their ability to bounce back from adversity. It also gives children a voice and sense of empowerment over their own lives and future. A way to measure it’s effectiveness would be to take qualitative data on a student’s adjustment progress at school while implementing this technique over time with them. For instance, in the study, the investigators reported having students comment about their general mood as the sessions progressed and their involvement with school and community based activities.

The age group and population should be considered when implementing the Tree of Life technique in an intervention. I believe this activity may need to be modified when working with older students so that the activity represents something that is age appropriate and meaningful for their transition into adulthood. Second, this technique may be especially useful for students who are learning English as a second language because it can help them conceptualize themselves and represent who they are in ways that may be difficult due to language barriers. I plan use the drawing of the tree and discussion activity with elementary school aged children whom I work with individually. I believe it would be most appropriate to use for students who have been through trauma as a means to empower, motivate, and recognize how strong these students are.

As a side note: I found the website that discusses some of the Tree of Life approaches and how it was used in different countries. This website was used to aid the approach of the paper presentation I attended.

http://dulwichcentre.com.au/the-tree-of-life/