Knowledge sharing to support newly arrived refugee families’ settlement and children’s educational outcomes: insights for educators

Forced displacement of people is increasing globally. In this context, sharing of knowledge amongst practitioners involved in refugee settlement can generate new insights into resource availability, quality, innovation, and creation of Communities of Practice. The research discussed in this paper, which adopted a qualitative, participatory methodology, had two aims. First, to gather community hub leaders’ and centre facilitators’ knowledge and practices relating to newly arrived refugee families’ settlement and their children’s educational outcomes in Australia. Second, to translate this knowledge into a Knowledge Translation Framework (KTF) to support practitioners’ work with families and children. Thematic analysis was conducted on interviews with 32 participants from 21 community hubs and centres across Australia, to examine their practices supporting the settlement of refugee families and children’s early learning, and transition to school. Collectively, the findings highlight the importance of a holistic, place-based, soft-entry support grounded in reflective practices, empowering families, and building connections, trust, and relationships with them. Also, they accentuate that refugee support is intertwined with contextual knowledge and factors of geographies, organisational systems, environments, families’ well-being, resources, and practitioners’ ongoing professional development. The implications of these findings and the KTF for various stakeholders, including educators, in enabling newly arrived families’ settlement and promoting children’s educational outcomes are discussed.