Program Intervention

In-service teacher training

The aim of the INSETT intervention is to enhance teachers’ insight into how refugee /migration experiences may impact young people’s psychosocial well-being and school functioning upon resettlement in a new country (Brenner & Kia-Keating, 2016; Pastoor, 2015, 2017).

In-service teacher training

In-Service Teacher Training (INSETT) (responsible expert: NKVTS, Norway; implementing partners: NKVTS, Norway; Uppsala University, Sweden)

The INSETT intervention works with a Manual and an Implementation protocol.

Watch our short video here explaining the INSETT intervention

The intervention, which is being developed by Lutine de Wal Pastoor (NKVTS), intends to strengthen teachers’ competence and self-efficacy in three areas:

  • Promoting refugee/migrant students’ mental health and psychosocial wellbeing;
  • Encouraging positive interethnic relationships and strengthening school belonging;
  • Fostering supportive interrelationships with parents, caregivers and/or guardians to promote school involvement.

In other words, INSETT seeks to make teachers and schools (more) ‘refugee competent’ (Pastoor, 2015).

The INSETT intervention runs over a period of 10-12 weeks. It consists of three interrelated course modules, i.e., two collective learning modules (whole-day seminars) and – in between – an individual module (the Augeo online course).

As a thematic framework, INSETT uses the Dutch Augeo Foundation’s online teacher training course “Providing support to refugee young people”. This online course consists of 8 sections, ‘lectures’ that can be followed flexibly and separately (4-5 hours of study in total). Each lecture deals with a special theme, including theory, case histories, exercises and recommendations for further reading.

Certain themes of the online course are elaborated upon in the two full-day seminars for the participating teachers. A joint introductory seminar starts off the INSETT intervention and explains its goals, content, design and methods, as well as its implementation in relation to the particular national and institutional context. Furthermore, main migration terms are discussed, as well as how the refugee/migration experience may have an impact on students’ school functioning and wellbeing.

After having completed the Augeo online course, a final follow-up seminar allows the participants to share their experiences and to elaborate more on certain topics of interest. Relevant topics here are, amongst others, trauma and stress, the therapeutic ‘window of tolerance’ (Ogden et al., 2006; Siegel, 1999), self-regulation and other coping techniques (Schultz, 2013). Another central topic is identity and belonging, especially the importance of developing a sense of school belonging which increases students’ well-being as well as the likeliness to succeed in school (Kia-Keating & Ellis, 2007).

The online Augeo course module included in INSETT can be accessed in Finnish, Norwegian or Swedish at the Augeo Academy online platform.

 

You want to know more? Click here or have a look at the resources!

 

Resources

In-Service Teacher Training Manual. Pastoor, L. d.W. (2019). RefugeesWellSchool Intervention Manual: In-Service Teacher Training (INSETT) – Psychosocial support to young refugees. Working Paper, 20.02.2019. Oslo: Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies.

In-Service Teacher Training Implementation Protocol. Hilden, P. K., Osman, F., Pastoor, L. d. W., Punamäki, R. L., & Andersen, A. J. (2022). RefugeesWellSchool implementation protocol: In-Service Teacher Training. Oslo, Gent: Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies, Ghent University.

Augeo online courses:

Finnish: https://www.augeo.nl/en/refugee-youth/finnish/

Swedish: https://www.augeo.nl/en/refugee-youth/swedish/

Norwegian: Læringsstøtte til ungdommer med flyktningbakgrun (augeo.nl)

Material on ‘Cultural competence – Theory and cases’ Osman, F. (2019): Cultural competence. Theory and cases. PowerPoint lecture presentation in the INSETT training introductory seminar. Uppsala University, Department of Public Health and Caring Science.

Material on_’Trauma_impact on learning and creating stability’. Punamäki, R.-L. (2019). Trauma impact on learning and creating stability. PowerPoint lecture presentation in the INSETT training introductory course.

Durbeej, N., McDiarmid, S., Sarkadi, A., Feldman, I., Punamäki, R. L., Kankaanpää, R., Andersen, A., Hilden, P. K., Verelst, A., Derluyn, I., & Osman, F. (2021). Evaluation of a school-based intervention to promote mental health of refugee youth in Sweden (The RefugeesWellSchool Trial): study protocol for a cluster randomized controlled trial. Trials22(1), 1-13.

Kankaanpää, R., Aalto, S., Vänskä, M., Lepistö, R., Punamäki, R-L., Soye, E., Watters, C., Andersen, A., Hilden, P. K., Derluyn, I., Verelst, A., & Peltonen, K. (2022). Effectiveness of psychosocial school interventions in Finnish schools for refugee and immigrant children, “Refugees Well School” in Finland (RWS-FI): a protocol for a cluster randomized controlled trialTrials, 23(79), 1-14.

Peltonen, K., Aalto, S., Vänskä, M., Lepistö, R., Punamäki, R.-L., Soye, E., Watters, C., de Wal Pastoor, L., Derluyn, I., &  Kankaanpää, R. (2022). Effectiveness of Promotive and Preventive Psychosocial Interventions on Improving the Mental Health of Finnish-Born and Immigrant Adolescents. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(6), 3686. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19063686