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In 2017, 22% of the Canadian population are foreign-born immigrants and one in five is a visible racial minority. Canadian schools and classrooms mirror the diversity of the society and are populated with more and more immigrant and refugee students from diverse ethnic, cultural and linguistic backgrounds each year. Uprooted from their home countries and familiar environments, immigrant and refugee students experience barriers and challenges in new living and educational environments. The increasing number of immigrant and refugee students and their unique educational needs and challenges have called building welcoming and inclusive schools a priority in Canadian education system. This chapter addresses the urgent need for high-impact policies, practices and praxis to build welcoming and inclusive schools for immigrant and refugee students through cross-sector community engagement. Based on several empirical studies, critical and extensive literature review and authors’ professional reflections, this chapter introduces a theoretical framework of building welcoming and inclusive schools for immigrant and refugee students and introduces the promising strategies of engaging community stakeholders, including educators, students, parents, governments and community organizations and agencies.

The objective of this chapter is to analyze educational leadership policy in New Jersey, US, and Ontario, Canada, focusing on the inclusion of the unique needs of systematically marginalized students, specifically refugees and forced immigrant (RFI) youth. Modes of inquiry are qualitative document analysis of New Jersey and Ontario leadership policies, preparation requirements, and standards. The objective of this paper is to present an extensive literature review of policies related to educational leadership and supporting RFI youth and their teachers as well as to reveal gaps in policies and examine pre- and in-service training requirements. Within the field of comparative and international education, this chapter highlights the institutionalization of trends in educational leadership at state or provincial levels and how these macro-level policies influence educators’ abilities to meet the needs of students from marginalized communities, such as refugees and immigrants.

This research explores the perceptions and practice of principals in schools integrating migrant and refugee children into the Israeli formal education system. The aim is to offer theoretical and methodological insights to the discourse on educational leadership.

This qualitative (phenomenological) study used semi-structured interviews to attain a deeper understanding of the experiences of school principals as culturally relevant educational leaders.

The study corroborates previous findings regarding: the need for a holistic multidimensional approach; the focus on language and communication; and the complexities and dilemmas involved in the practice of educational leadership. The study analysis revealed three central dilemmas: applying equal-opportunity and cultural diversity policies; schools as protected spaces and serving the social reality beyond the school; and full assimilation and recognition of specific cultural identity.

The research was conducted in a small number of schools and only with principals. A follow-up study could also include teachers, officials and representatives of the various organizations working with the migrants and refugees.

Beyond financial resources, school leaders need professional (culturally responsive) guidance to support the multifaceted and complex needs of students, in part by being adaptable and flexible, and aware of the aims and practice of education for an unknown future.

The originality-value of the present study is threefold: it explores school principals in a relatively unexplored context (the Israeli formal education system); it applies two models for organizing and analyzing research findings; and it contributes new insights on the dilemmatic nature of educational leadership.

The present study provides insight on Roma students' understandings and experiences during their participation in a learning program under the aegis of Future Literacy Approaches and reports on the range of cognitive and social skills which can be cultivated through such literacy experiences. A case study research design was applied with an after-school evening class attended by 12 Roma students in a region of Greece. Thematic analysis of the qualitative data indicates that Roma students' engagement in the Future Literacy tasks of the program strengthened the acquisition of skills that could be useful for their daily lives, including the capacity to construct their own representations of daily life, and finding creative solutions to real-life situations. Activities provided students with the space and time to express their aspirations for self-empowerment and changed life conditions in the future. Findings provide one way to address the urgent need for Roma to challenge marginalization through leveraging their own active roles as citizens.

The purpose of this study is to aim at: (1) investigating the vulnerabilities/obstacles that hinder refugees in hosting countries from obtaining quality and adequate education and (2) proposing a Framework for Action to transform these vulnerabilities into capacities.

Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment (VCA) was used for the purpose of this research. A survey strategy was adopted and data were collected using semi-structured interviews with refugee families. One hundred and twenty families were interviewed.

The study identified a number of vulnerabilities; including mainly unavailability of educational facilities; quality of the available education; social challenges and psychological needs. The findings revealed that there was a lack of comprehensive and strategic frameworks for mitigating refugee educational crises.

The lack of adequate and quality education for refugees in host countries is likely to increase illiteracy levels and subsequently trigger humanitarian and natural disasters on the long run. This research emphasizes the importance of developing comprehensive frameworks for quality and adequate refugee education.

To the author's knowledge, and after an extensive review of the existing literature, this is the first study to employ VCA to investigate the extent of the current refugee educational crisis in Jordan. VCA is more commonly used in the context of natural and environmental disasters threatening societies. Relevant authorities need to be aware of the significance of refugee education at individual, communal and national levels, as well as the significance of education to refugee well-being.

Inclusive education is about welcoming diversity, and improving the quality of education for all learners, where no one feels excluded and everyone receives support. Inclusive education is not about meeting one child's needs at the expense of another child; instead, it aims to provide full participation for all learners, both special and regular students (UNESCO, 2005). It has been stated that countries cannot progress in isolation. They must build an overarching educational strategy, which means that educational advancement will be linked to new social and economic policies. A considerable school change is required and, as a result, inclusive schools emphasise diversity as a key function, which helps students learn and caters to individual needs. Objectives and key results (OKRs) are one of the management tools that can be used in schools that focus on inclusive education. They also allow a school's activities to be aligned with its core inclusive education objectives. Furthermore, OKRs can assist a school in setting a challenging goal that will motivate it to grow beyond its current capabilities.