Teachers' Lack of Cultural Competence and Discrimination Against Refugee Students in the United States

Background and Purpose: Approximately 3.7 million refugees have resettled in the United States, with 35–40% being school-aged children. Refugee students enrolled in U.S. schools encounter challenges such as adaptation, trauma from past conflicts, and integration into a new cultural environment. Many refugee children experience misunderstanding, mistreatment, and discrimination from teachers and school administrators. As the ability to understand and respond to diverse cultural experiences, teachers’ cultural competence can influence academic and social outcomes. However, few empirical studies have examined the association between teachers’ lack of cultural competence and refugee students’ experiences of discrimination in U.S schools. Guided by the Transformative Learning Theory, this study explores the association between children’s problems in school and perceived discrimination because of teachers’ understanding of cultures among refugee children in U.S. schools.

Methods: This study used the 2020 Annual Survey of Refugees, which collected cross-sectional data from refugees who arrived in the U.S. between FY2015 and FY2019. Of the 1527 completed household interviews, only 103 were relevant to this analysis. The sample included interviews where the principal applicant provided responses about school-aged children (5–19 years), with participants having to be at least 16 years old at the time of data collection. The outcome variable of children’s problems in school associated with teachers’ understanding of cultures was collected using the survey question asking about the experiences of oldest school-going refugee child in the household. Response options included the Child’s limited English ability, inadequate school resources to assist the child in achieving English proficiency, teachers not well prepared for children from your culture, discrimination, bullying, some other problems, do not read, don’t know, and refused (the last three were marked as mutually exclusive), and those not willing to answer as well as those who did not know were given their response options. Responses were recoded into two categories: 1) teachers not prepared/discrimination and 2) no problems reported. Chi-square tests of independence were used to examine the association between lack of teacher cultural competence and reported discrimination using SPSS.

Results: Results showed strong consistency in responses across variables, with a mean of 1.93 and narrow 95% bootstrap confidence intervals (1.88–1.98), indicating limited variation and high agreement among participants. The final 2x2 contingency table showed that 100% of respondents who indicated that teachers were not prepared to support students from their culture also reported that their child has experienced discrimination from some teachers. The chi-square test revealed a statistically significant association between lack of cultural competence and perceived discrimination (χ² (1, N = 103) = 103, p < .001). Because the assumption of minimum expected cell counts was violated, Fisher’s Exact Test was used and confirmed a highly significant association (p < .001). These results suggest that refugee students were significantly more likely to experience discrimination when teachers lacked cultural competence.

Conclusions and Implications: The findings underscore the urgent need for culturally responsive teaching practices. Integrating cultural competence into professional development and teacher education programs can significantly enhance refugee students’ academic success and social well-being.