Childcare professionals who work with refugee children face a number of dilemmas: how can you offer a child and parent a safe start in the group when you do not share a common language? How can you involve parents whose minds are occupied with worries about work and family members who have remained behind in a war zone in the child’s development? What can and cannot you do for parents when, due to a lack of a social network, they share their problems with childcare professionals?

The number of refugee children in groups is increasing, particularly as a result of family reunification and family formation. Even in regions where there were previously hardly any refugee children, childcare professionals are now increasingly dealing with children and parents from countries such as Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Eritrea and several other African countries.

The e-learning course offers the opportunity to practise with realistic case studies involving common dilemmas. In addition, the e-learning course provides practical tips, tools and relevant links to further information that you can use right away.

Applying the same approach across an organisation is possible by not only taking the e-learning course individually, but also making it part of discussions in the workplace (blended learning). Are you a location manager, coach or organisational pedagogue? Then the e-learning course provides guidelines for discussing the dilemmas and how to address them in the groups, during team meetings and on training days.

Contents of the e-learning module ‘Working with refugee children and their parents in childcare’

  • Description of the learning objectives and how you can get started with them
  • Videos featuring colleagues’ experiences in practice
  • Case studies involving 10 everyday situations with refugee children and their parents in childcare
  • Assignments to practise in the workplace
  • Useful tools and references to relevant information

The blended learning module was developed by Sardes, Sociaal Werk Nederland and Pharos, in cooperation with staff from childcare centres, and made possible by Het Kinderopvangfonds and the Ministries of Education, Culture and Science and Social Affairs and Employment.

The e-learning course ‘Working with refugee children and their parents in childcare’ can be found on the Pharos learning platform. You can create an account free of charge and take the e-learning course.