International students supporting refugee families learning English in Northern Ireland

In 2017, with an ongoing refugee crisis across Europe a group of five international postgraduate TESOL students at Queen’s University Belfast volunteered on a project entitled “I’m learning English”. The aim of the project was to design an initial English Language support course for newly arrived refugee families in Northern Ireland. Having been inspired by visits to community organizations who lead volunteer English Language Teaching, these university students were eager to make a positive contribution to life in Northern Ireland and beyond. Under the auspices of a UK non-governmental organization and working collaboratively with their tutor, they applied their subject knowledge and understanding of TESOL and designed a short course for initial English Language support for newly arrived adults and children in Northern Ireland. The short course has been used in classes with newly arrived refugees across Northern Ireland and is freely available to any volunteer English language teaching group.
Framed within the discourse of the internationalization of higher education as a transformative process (Jones and Brown, 2007; Knight, 2008; Mak and Kennedy, 2012), this paper examines the impact of this particular university project. It examines how participation prepared students to contribute to a global and connected society; how the curriculum became more creative and enriched; and how it questioned the purpose and role of the institution in responding to a global society. The discussion draws on these examples to reflect critically on the academic practices and relationships which emerge in response to socio-geopolitical changes.