Language Teachers’ Identities as Frames or Blinkers? An Urgent Call for Awareness Raising

The qualitative research study presented in this chapter investigates the relationship between three elementary school language teachers’ identities, role definitions, and the way they orchestrate instruction for a group of recently arrived refugee children from South Asia. It is argued that political will is not just needed to resettle a quota of refugee children; it is also needed to ensure the supports are in place for their successful long-term resettlement; it cannot be considered successful if refugee children continue to suffer inequities, just in a different hemisphere. Therefore, the orientation of teacher identities is crucial since teachers are now positioned as front-line settlement workers. Refugee camps can never be Shangri La, even if they are located in the Himalayas, but Western educational structures that leave teachers blinkered, unable to see refugee children’s full identities, are not the answer either. It is concluded that for successful long-term resettlement, the government must invest in teachers who will interact with the children long after the head-count of bringing them to safe haven is over.