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May 2009 - Doctorate awarded to staff member Man Hau Liev
April 2009 - Community Resettlement Programme
March 2009 - Free books donated for Refugee Students
March 2009 - Generous Donation from the Rotary Foundation
February 2009 - AUT University Centre for Refugee Education hosts 10th UN High Commissioner for Refugees
November 2008 - AUT University Centre for Refugee Education hosts Finnish delegation
Doctorate awarded to staff member Man Hau Liev
Man Hau Liev is a former refugee who fled Cambodia in 1980. He gained his doctorate from the University of Auckland on May 4 2009. His thesis is entitled: Adaptation of Cambodian refugees in New Zealand: achievement, cultural identity, and community development.
Community Resettlement Programme
A programme is being piloted by AUT Centre for Refugee Education which employs an innovative, strengths-based approach to teaching and aims to support refugee resettlement in the community.
The programme aims to develop confidence and augment empowerment of participants through affirmation and identification of existing strengths, knowledge and skills and through reinforcement of problem-solving strategies. In order to achieve this, the development of critical thinking skills through Socratic Dialogue1 is considered pivotal.
The programme introduces controversial, challenging and sensitive topics which frequently provide integration challenges for refugees (Canagarajah, 1999; Pennycook, 2001). Participants are invited to engage in discussions where their opinions, ideas and feelings are expressed, listened to, and analyzed or even challenged by the group. Host culture stances are also challenged and where there might be a conflict in values, behaviours or opinions, there is the potential for compromises and group solutions to be investigated. This models a problem-solving strategy that is considered useful for finding an intercultural position for refugees living in a new cultural environment (Byram, 2007).
The facilitators in this programme are experienced educators and social workers. The curriculum is designed so that within a given framework, the direction is determined by the group. This means that sometimes a topic may be extended to include learner areas of interest or concern, and additional elements are incorporated to meet learner needs. Importantly, there also exists for the facilitators the opportunity to reflect on their own responses and to learn what might be required of the host society to enhance the experience of integration for new arrivals.
The programme has been run in West Auckland with the Burmese community and is currently being offered for the second time in the central city (AUT campus) to a group of mixed ethnicities. It has been extremely successful with refugee participants asking for extensions to the programme in each case.
A research project being conducted by Hayward, Mortimer-Hughes and U documenting the Burmese Resettlement programme will be completed in 2009.
Socratic Dialogue 1 is the term given to discussion during which student thought is elicited, and thinking skills developed. The types of critical thinking skills teachers might wish to develop using Socratic dialogue are: interpretation, analysis, evaluation, inference, explanation, and self-regulation The teacher/facilitator attempts to probe beneath the surface, stimulate questions, identify and reflect upon assumptions, and discover implications and consequences.
 A selection of the books |
Free books donated for Refugee Students
In late 2008, Claire Balfour approached the Centre for Refugee Education with an offer to source free books for refugee students. Claire spent time with Centre Management and teachers discussing the most suitable text material for second language learners, especially those from a refugee background. Just as the first intake was about to begin in 2009, Claire returned to the Centre with a treasure trove acquired from book publishers and from friends: more than 16 boxes of books, 90% of which were brand new. Claire’s determination, generosity and commitment are a tribute to someone who has taken the time and made the effort to help others. The books which are a combination of readers, non-fiction (but related to refugee cultures) and literacy books will be used in classrooms to support reading programmes and some will also be given away to refugee families at the end of each intake.
AUT University Centre for Refugee Education hosts 10th UN High Commissioner for Refugees
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Mr Antonio Guterres 10th |
Mr Antonio Guterres, the 10th UN High Commissioner for Refugees (and former Portuguese Prime Minister (1996 – 2002), visited the Mangere Resettlement Centre on February 28th, 2009.
Before meeting with the managers of all on–site agencies, he was taken on a tour of the entire facility. It was during this time that he was introduced to the manager of AUT’s Centre for Refugee Education, Maria Hayward, who escorted Mr Guterres and his entourage around the AUT classrooms. AUT staff were praised for providing an extremely attractive and welcoming learning environment for on-arrival refugees.
Later the High Commissioner met with all heads of agencies for informal discussion of refugee related topics. He was interested in hearing how staff providing on-arrival programmes managed topics such as prejudice and conflict. AUT Centre for Refugee Education management responded to this by commenting on the approaches, practice guidelines, programme content and policies. Mr Guterres also commented on New Zealand’s high profile and humanitarian policies with regard to refugee resettlement.
The visit was a great honour to us all.
AUT University Centre for Refugee Education hosts Finnish delegation
On an overcast day in early November 2008 a large contingent of overseas visitors arrived at AUT’s Centre for Refugee Education.
The Finnish Honorary Consul (Ari Hallenberg) accompanied 14 delegates from the Tampere Vocational Adult Education Centre (TAKK). This is the second largest training centre in Finland with over 11,000 students. Tampere, which is Finland’s third largest city (population: 200,000), lies on two lakes 176kms from Helsinki.
Amongst the visitors were the Principal of the Institute, the Director of Marketing, and various section leaders. Members of the Finnish Chamber of Commerce, the Head of the Federation of Trade Unions, as well as city councillors completed the group that had flown direct from Finland.
The Centre Manager, Maria Hayward, showed a DVD of the Centre’s education programmes before answering questions. There was considerable interest in the Centre and its programmes and the group were very interested in New Zealand’s policy on and approach to refugee resettlement. They also expressed strong interest in the AUT programme and enquired about our pedagogical approaches and our programme content.
The visit concluded with a tour of AUT classrooms, and the last intake of the year was able to share part of their English lessons with people from a far away country on the other side of the world. As one of the guests remarked, it was a “very worthwhile and emotional visit”. They thanked staff with souvenir gifts from Finland.
Generous Donation from the Rotary Foundation
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Mat time on one of two rugs depicting countries of the world, purchased for the primary classrooms with money from Rotary |
Last updated: 23 Jul 2009 3:51pm