What are the experiences of education for Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Minors in the UK?

In recent years, there has been a rise in the refugee populations across the world and in the UK.

With this rise, there has been an increase in the numbers of Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Minors (UASMs) in the UK.

Although, other research papers have highlighted that this particular population value and prioritise education upon resettlement, there has been little research that has looked at their experiences within the UK education system.

The empirical paper (Chapter 3) includes research that was conducted which looked at the educational experiences of six UASMs.

Semi structured interviews were conducted and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to analyse the data.

Five themes were identified: Education facilitating socialising, Education and English proficiency leading to a better life in the UK, the impact of transitions, the impact of external stressors and a desire for additional resources to learn at one's own pace.

The results are then discussed with implications being provided for EP practice as well as wider implications.

The review paper (Chapter 2) provides a systematic review of the experimental research that assessed whether mentoring programs improved participant's sense of school connectedness.

This review summarises the findings of 13 experimental studies that implemented a mentoring programme and included school connectedness as an outcome measure.

The effect sizes found in each of the included studies were predominantly small or insignificant, suggesting that the mentoring programs that were analysed did not significantly improve scores of school connectedness.

This chapter also includes a discussion regarding the variability in mentoring programmes and the manner in which school connectedness is measured as well as implications for EP practice.

Chapter one provides a comprehensive introduction to the entire thesis including the conceptual link between the review and empirical paper.

Chapter four provides a detailed dissemination plan and a discussion regarding how the findings could influence change in different contexts.