Uprooted: Liberian Refugee Student in a Midwest Public High School: the Complexity of Making Meaning of Their Major Transitions to New Geographic and Cultural Environments

The study of nine Liberian refugee high school students explored their experience as a result of civil war. Part of that experience was being uprooted from Liberia to live in refuge camps and then move to Midwest City where they attended Haywood Public School. The study described the complexity of what Liberian students faced making meaning of their major transitions to new geographic and cultural environments. Complexity arose from the fact that as refugee students moved from one place to another, they left behind families, schools, language and familiar social structures; and learned to navigate in a very different environment (Delores, 1997). Specific findings revealed how refugee students tried to maintain what they remembered of Liberian culture while they tried to find their place in a new school where they struggled with curriculum, teachers, and language and faced tensions with peers particularly with African American peers. Regardless, Liberian refugee students coped by focusing on what they perceived to be opportunities in their new environment, even though their refugee status meant that U. S. immigration law could force them to return to Liberia.