Week 27: Trends Influencing Education in New Zealand

What?

In reading the OECD’s Trends Shaping Education (2016), I was struck by the trend of globalization, with my attention being caught by climate change. I began wondering about the impact this will have for us in New Zealand.

Climate change has been in the news this week, with the United State's withdrawal from The Paris Agreement. Whether or not people believe that humans are responsible for increasing temperatures, or whether it is a natural climatic event, the reality is that sea level changes are going to create issues in schools internationally.

If countries become uninhabitable, then the people who live there will have to leave, be it through voluntary emigration or by becoming refugees. The children from those countries will end up sitting in front of us in our classrooms.

Is migration a growing trend?
According to the OECD, although migration has always happened, but since 1985, the numbers have increased greatly, as can be seen in this table:

This graph shows that larger number of migration has occurred in previous years, but what about the future? Although exact numbers cannot be known, the following estimates have been predicted by Azosea and Ševčíkováa (n.d.), which shows the overall world population growing, with the migration projections (in blue) mirroring it.

So What?

Why will climate change migration be a problem in New Zealand's educational future?

I have been looking at the way migration impacts schools. There are many ways in which being a migrant can affect the students in our classes. 

The diagram shows the myriad of different problems that migration can have on students in our classrooms. This impact may be magnified further if the students are refugees who had to flee their homelands, sometimes due to environmental causes.

Immigrant students may have arrived with a variety of traumatic experiences, such as:

• students who have witnessed wartime atrocities
• grieving refugee students whose family and friends have been repatriated to different countries
• having to leave pacific countries whose islands are uninhabitable because of the environmental impact of climate change (such as the sea-level rising on Kiribati)

What now?

How will New Zealand help the immigrants of climate change?

As I look at all the different impacts of migration due to climate change that schools will be facing in the future, it is clear to me that a number of steps will need to be put in place, both by schools and teachers, but also nationally by the Ministry of Education and a variety of other organisations and government departments (such as health, housing and social development). 

Nationally, there will need to be:

• housing
• medical support
• interpreters
• mental health services
• community support agencies
• trade and skills training
• employment support

For me, as a teacher, I will need to be thinking about:

• how to communicate with parents
• upskilling in working with students for whom English is an additional language
• providing socialization opportunities
• being aware of the students' mental health states, and access support where needed
• helping students make new connections to the city
• being able to access support for economically disadvantaged students
• encourage migrant students to take up opportunities within the school
• provide students with access to technology outside of class time (and ensure they can use it)

I am aware that, as a result of low income, lack of language proficiency and low parental education, immigrant children are a higher risk that affects their well-being intensely, which can persist over generations (Wikiprogress).  

As I write this, I am also reflecting that for some of our Māori students, they feel a deep sense of loss through having lost connection to ancestral lands and I need to be aware of the effects of this too, many of which are similar to the impact of migration on children.

References

Azosea, J. J., & Ševčíkováa, A. H. (n.d.). Jonathan J. Azose. Retrieved June 04, 2017, from http://www.pnas.org/content/113/23/6460.full

Effects of Migration on Child Well-being. (n.d.). Retrieved May 29, 2017, from http://wikiprogress.org/articles/children-youth/effects-of-migration-on-child-well-being/

National Intelligence Council. (2017). Global trends: The Paradox of Progress. National Intelligence Council: US. Retrieved from 

https://www.dni.gov/files/images/globalTrends/documents/GT-Main-Report.pdf

Trends Shaping Education 2016 | OECD READ edition. (n.d.). Retrieved June 03, 2017, from http://www.keepeek.com/Digital-Asset-

Management/oecd/education/trends-shaping-education-2016_trends_edu-2016-en#.WTNQzROGOAx