For centuries, the Bajau people sailed the seas between what we now refer to as Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines on houseboats of their own construction. Adept sustenance divers, they forage the sea floor for sea cucumber, fish, black coral and more, often spending over 60% of their working day underwater. On a single breath, the best of…

Besides the despicable atrocities and devastation, Russia's war in Ukraine caused the emergence of a group of refugees previously unknown in the U.S. and the world. The phenomenon of "Ukrainian refugees" is new to the immigration and resettlement agencies, host communities, employers, and educators. This research explores how five…

The purpose of this project is to develop a teacher empowering, equipping, and training program for Muslim refugee children. It is essential for teachers to understand the concept of Christian education, realize their calling and identity as a teacher, and know their functional roles, when teaching Muslim refugee children. The project had been…

Refugees have a significantly lower rate of higher education enrollment than the rest of the population, which can contribute to continued dependency on donors and can lower their chances of geographical and social mobility. This study sought to investigate the obstacles and facilitators which can support refugee enrollment and success throughout…

With the number of refugees continuing to grow across the world, teachers must be prepared for meeting the complex needs of refugee students. This qualitative study explores the experiences and perspectives of 17 educators in a school with a high refugee population. Using an action research approach, educators describe the key background…

As the record number of forcibly-displaced persons in the world continues to rise, more people of differing origins are sharing space and trying to live together. Prolonged displacement has turned into permanent resettlement and citizenship. To reflect this geopolitical transformation, education too must transform. In this vertical case study, I…

Exploring the experiences of refugee arrivals who have participated in community-based programming in multiple cities across the United States, this dissertation considers the role of such programming in refugee integration and implications for engaged scholarship. Through collaborative partnerships, IHE and USRAP offices offer both students and…

In the late 19th century, Asians were seen as foreigners who were called the "yellow peril" by Americans because they were seen "as perpetual foreigners who threatened the U.S. economy, society, and nation" (Tzu-Chun Wu, 2017, p. 1). Eventually, the model minority myth was coined and referenced as "Asians comprise the…

The Bible presents a clear call for God's people to welcome and care for foreigners seeking refuge, but many evangelical churches in America have not adequately responded to this call. Churches do not often see the obstacles that inhibit domestic church members' (DCMs') motivation to participate in ministry to refugees. Research shows that…

This dissertation study called Young Adults Acting On the World (YAAOW), addresses the injustices of withheld opportunities for critical literacy engagement and the marginalization of refugee-background students through a qualitative experiment of a critical, collaborative project, patterned after social design-based experimentation (Gutierrez,…

The Sullivan County School District, a pseudonym, is a specialized district in NYC catering to newcomers and students at risk for high school dropout. In the 2022-2023 school year, there was a significant increase in enrollment of asylum-seeking students living in shelters. Using an improvement science approach, the aim of this study was to…

This critical qualitative study explores refugee women and higher education (HE), an understudied area, to establish a foundation within HE to trouble refugee women's educational exclusion. Despite 79.5 million refugees globally (UNHCR, 2020), mixed responses persist, particularly amid authoritarianism in the U.S. evidenced by decreased…

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study is to analyze student's decision-making strategies as they engage in the processes of transferring institutions and awarding of academic credits. To date, research in higher education has explored the transfer experience of students at both vertical (2-year) and horizontal (4-year)…

The purpose of this study is to identify the needs of undergraduate students who are homeless or displaced, as well as examine the policies, procedures, and systems of Mountain University, a public four-year university, that may support or hinder students' retention and progression. This study will be driven by the following research question: How…

The purpose of this study was to understand the experiences of Afghan women refugees in community colleges. Using Yosso's (2005) community cultural wealth theory, the study explored Afghan women's motivation for attending college, the experiences that brought them to the college, the challenges they experienced while navigating the institution,…