Investment in Second Language Learning and Higher Education - (New Perspectives on Language and Education) by Melissa Hauber-Özer (Hardcover)

About the Book

This book 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.

Book Synopsis

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.

Review Quotes

Melissa Hauber-Özer beautifully captures the courage, hope, and determination of Syrian students rebuilding their lives through education. This inspiring book invites readers to see learning as an act of resilience and belonging, reminding us that every new language learned is also a new way to dream, connect, and believe again.

-- "Rabia Hos, Southern Connecticut State University, USA"

This timely, thoughtful, and deeply researched volume offers powerful insights into how students with refugee backgrounds persist - again and again - in pursuing their educational aspirations, exerting remarkable agency within highly constraining systems. Hauber-Özer's work is essential reading for educators, researchers, and policymakers committed to justice in schools and societies.-- "Shawna Shapiro, Middlebury College, USA"

About the Author

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).