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Digital media are beneficial for research of complex refugee issues, as they allow refugees to express their personal experiences of complex issues in ways that are not restricted by language barriers or limited in authenticity, while also offering researchers a way to systematically compare refugees' varied experiences. We used a computerised concept mapping task to ask 74 young refugees (teenagers and young adults), from three separately recruited samples, to think about their experiences with various challenges they might face during settlement, distinguishing between their challenges in terms of size. Our analyses focused on one major challenge in Australia, learning the English language, and how it related to ten other challenges of resettlement. The three samples differed in educational setting, cultural background, age, and time in Australia. These refugees faced multiple challenges in their lives. Regardless of differences between the groups, the 74 shared a single pattern of experiences in which English language was substantially bigger, and more frequently endorsed, than other challenges. The three samples differed in how they described their experiences with their English language challenges. Our findings suggest a need for more support learning the English language, even for those who might be assumed to have good levels of conversational or academic English. This support needs to extend beyond the 510 hours of support received upon arrival in the country. Findings also suggest that such support could help young refugees overcome other challenges as they settle in Australia, especially in their academic, social, and employment experiences.

We report the relationship between the cultural and educational challenges of immigrant adult students. Thirty-five recently arrived adults in a bridging course completed a self-administered, online computer interview to rate their exploration and commitment to their heritage and Australian cultures, and express their experiences with their own challenges (size and effect of challenges, people who helped them deal with their challenges). Students' biggest challenges differed in relation to their bicultural identities (their cultural identities for both heritage and Australian cultures): money and school tasks for the more bi-culturally committed; English and personal skills for the less. Students who were more bi-culturally committed appeared to experience some advantages in their experiences with their challenges. How newly arrived immigrants develop their bicultural identities can have implications for how they address their challenges, and find a place for themselves within the new culture and their heritage culture. (Contains 1 figure and 2 tables.)

We examined self-descriptions of children of Somali refugee families in Australian primary schools, focusing on how children's school-related skills and needs relate to the interpretive frames of mainstream and ethnic cultures. Three groups of Grade 5 and 6 children (Somali, Disadvantaged, Advantaged) made choices among school-related skills, and rated feelings and needs for the transition to high school. Findings indicate a general goodness of fit between emphases of the mainstream culture and Somali children's choices (sport, maths), while reflecting some values of their ethnic interpretive frames (rejecting art, music). Gender stereotypic differences did not interact with culture. Children's computer-based choices provide a basis for bringing together studies of development and acculturation, and for differentiating between refugee status and socio-economic disadvantage. (Contains 2 tables, 1 figure and 1 note.)

To bring out Giyoo Hatano's contributions to the understanding of culture and cognitive development, we note first his special style--thoughtful, inventive, and always focused on central issues and on combining theory with data--and then, for three areas, some of the conceptual advances he proposed. The areas have to do with ties between cognitive and social development (links between skills and identity provide the selected advance), the nature of expertise (adaptive expertise is the selected advance), and the place of what is "naturally given" (selected is the emphasis on specifying what is biologically given, what is culturally ready-to-hand, and their interconnections). He will be missed both as a scholar and a person.

Proposes a framework that considers differences in the type of work contributions to family (amount, style, person specificity, and consensus), the impact of various circumstances (age, gender, competence, preference, family position of individual, ethnic background, custom, parents' needs, or availability of children), and the feelings people express about such contributions. (DLH)

Refugee children's experiences are situated in specific places where they interact with significant people. They are not usually asked about their perspectives although they are social agents with distinctive perspectives and feelings about relationships and events. We investigated the perspectives of refugee children on their experiences of places and relations as they resettled in Australia after their families fled from violence in Syria and Iraq and transitioned through Middle Eastern countries. One hundred-and-nine children chose to work with a computer program in either English or Arabic. They sorted feelings associated with home, school, and where they lived before and rated being nurtured at home. Hierarchical cluster analysis revealed five subgroups of children with distinctive patterns in their sorting of eight feelings for three places. Three subgroups had patterns of positive feelings about home and school. Two smaller subgroups had mixed, ambivalent feelings about either school or home. One subgroup was strongly positive, and two others were negative about before settlement. Subgroups identified on their sortings of feelings differed in their experiences of being nurtured, with positive feelings of places related to higher ratings of being nurtured at home. The study points to the importance of children's perspectives and feelings in how they interpret experiences with people and places and argues against assuming that refugee children are homogeneous in their experiences or perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]