Understanding Your Refugee and Immigrant Students: An Educational, Cultural, and Linguistic Guide

I consider this book very useful as a reference source for educators who are working with refugees because it offers background information on 18 cultures. Each chapter covers one culture and is structured the same way: After a brief overview of facts and figures about the countries geography etc., the author provides a personal perspective of a cultural insider, an overview of the country’s history, deep culture perspective, proverbs – unfortunately without context / explanation which makes it harder to understand them –, a folk tale, administrative perspective, a table called “Education at a Glance”, surface culture perspective including descriptions of what a classroom typically looks like in this country, the teacher’s status, teacher-student and student-student relationships, teaching and learning practices, dress codes, and – maybe most important of all – non-verbal communication and appropriate topics of conversation (among others). She also lists a few problems educators in the U.S. encountered with students from the respective background, along with possible solutions. However, the latter are sometimes difficult to understand due to an unclear writing style. Note that due to its release date, none of the Arabic Spring countries is included!

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Fast shipping; product is as described

Outdated.

I am just loving this book.

The information in the book is outstanding, however, it did not cover the countries that I was interested in. The information is well organized.

It's been a while since I read this, so my memory's not fresh, but it made a great impression on me. I loved the information on classroom etiquette in other cultures. Now I understand better why some students seem shy, or bring gifts, or cover their mouths when they talk. I also appreciated the lists of useful phrases in different languages. I plan to get this book from the library again, and would love to own it.**Update** I like this so much, but it's getting more and more out of date. I wish it covered recent political developments affecting immigration, and several countries that I'm surprised aren't represented at all. One idea is to have my advanced students do a project of creating mini-chapters (or updates) on their own countries following the model of this book. Sharing the results as a class should be interesting to the diverse group of students, as well. Still a great book, with each chapter focusing on a particular country; easy to pick and choose the chapters most relevant to you.

I loved the speed at which I received this book! It was much appreciated as the local book store botched getting the book in a timely manner.