Investment in Second Language Learning and Higher Education

Narratives of Syrian Refugees in Turkish Universities
Erscheinungsjahr 2026
ISBN: 978-1-80041-936-0
Verlag: Multilingual Matters

Buch, Englisch, Band 136, 192 Seiten, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 470 g

Reihe: New Perspectives on Language and Education

Builds on Norton’s work on investment to contest pervasive deficit perspectives that portray refugees as helpless victims or a public burden.

Set in Türkiye, the country with the largest number of refugees in the world, this book expands the limited literature on higher education for refugees, particularly the gap in research in displacement settings.

It examines the experiences of Syrian young adult refugees studying in Turkish universities, highlighting the intersections between linguistic, social, economic and structural challenges and the students’ resourceful approaches to overcoming these barriers. Their stories depict both unique and common experiences of accessing higher education during displacement and underscore the importance of quality language instruction, interpersonal relationships, and supportive faculty members.

It contests pervasive deficit perspectives that portray refugees as helpless victims or a public burden and calls into question assumptions about integration in the nation of asylum being the ideal long-term outcome for refugees. The book also lays a methodological foundation for future decolonizing work in applied linguistics, centering the experiences of refugees and disrupting Northern dominance of forced migration scholarship.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Hauber-Özer, Melissa

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Soziologie von Migranten und Minderheiten
• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Mehrsprachigkeit
• Sozialwissenschaften Pädagogik Schulen, Schulleitung Universitäten, Hochschulen

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Chapter 1. Introduction

Chapter 2. Identity and Investment in Language Learning

Chapter 3. Advocacy Ethnography

Chapter 4. Overview of Findings

Chapter 5. Narrative Portraits of Displacement During High School

Chapter 6. Narrative Portraits of Displacement During University

Chapter 7. Experiences, Investment Strategies and Future Goals and Identities

Chapter 8. Implications and Conclusions

Appendices

References

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Hauber-Özer, Melissa
Melissa Hauber-Özer is an Assistant Professor and Co-Director of Qualitative Inquiry in the Department of Learning, Teaching & Curriculum, University of Missouri-Columbia, USA. She is co-editor of The Routledge International Handbook of Critical Participatory Inquiry in Transnational Research Contexts (2024, with M. Call-Cummings and G. Dazzo).