2021 Volume 53 Pages 143-161
This study investigates the challenges in supporting newcomer students, particularly seen in secondary education. The findings are based on a comparative analysis of different supportive practices between elementary and secondary schools.
The key findings are as follows. First, the support practices to ensure students’ academic ability and recognition towards them are seen in both educational stages. However in the secondary schools, the targets and purposes of those supports are more limited as compared to its counterpart. This stems from the challenges specific to junior high-schoolers such as entrance exams for high schools and different friendship-building from the elementary schools. These eventually lead teachers to deliberate more carefully about the possibility that teachers actions in secondary schools can to cause negative impacts on students more than teachers in elementary schools do.
Second, in secondary school, where academic ability is weighted heavily in their education, information that teachers primarily refer to from elementary school centers on students’ learning levels than on ethnicity-related issues. This implies that if schools in different educational stages share information more on students themselves, including their expression of ethnicity, educational hurdles can be mitigated to support for students’ obtaining recognition.
The findings form the analysis indicate that it is worth examining the support practices for newcomer students in light of the institutional situation surrounding teachers’ images. Collaborative information sharing implications for newcomer student support, especially to tackle the challenges related to their ethnicity is essential.
