The Transitions Project offers events and activities to support students and their teachers in students' transitions to tertiary study in New Zealand.
Call for contributions - a book by refugee-background young people
We are welcoming contributions of creative writing and/or visual art for a book by young people with refugee backgrounds aimed at other young people in New Zealand.
The idea for this book originated from discussions between refugee-background youth from Dunedin and Invercargill and project staff involved in the Secondary to Tertiary Transitions Project. The editorial team (including young people from a refugee background and former Transitions Project staff) are Vivienne Anderson, Anna Burgin, Alejandra Ortiz Ayala, Natasha Smilie, Nikole Dayana Torres Ararat and Nagham Ghazzoul.
We aim for this book to be an engaging text for young people and an educational resource for students and teachers that privileges the voices of young people from refugee backgrounds on their own terms. The book will be a collection of visual and written creative works with reflective questions and supplementary chapters added by the editorial team.
The Otago Daily Times spoke with some of the book team in early 2024.
Read the Otago Daily Times article
We are welcoming submissions until 9 August 2024.
View details about the book and submission guidelines
For more information or to send in submissions, please contact
Email [email protected]
Film premiere 2022
Not Just Dreams is a documentary film created by Ali Mostolizadeh, a filmmaker and member of the Transitions Project team, in collaboration with student participants of the Transitions Project.
The film features project participants as they explore, navigate and express their journey of resettlement and education in southern Aotearoa New Zealand. The film was partially funded by a UNESCO Minor grant in 2021–2022. We premiered the film for project participants and their families, local teachers, school leaders, Ministry of Education staff, and resettlement support staff at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery in late November and Centre Stage Invercargill in early December 2022.
The film is an educational resource and may be released more widely in the future. Please contact the project team for more information:
Email [email protected]
Watch the Not Just Dreams film trailer on YouTube
Secondary to Tertiary Transitions Project workshops
Workshops completed
2022
- February to October (Dunedin-based tertiary students): Weekly 'Afternoon tea club' catch ups (ongoing)
- July (Dunedin-based secondary and tertiary students): Pathways into health professional programmes – learning from senior students and graduates
- February: Tertiary Education Orientation Workshop (Combined Dunedin and Invercargill students who are enrolling in Dunedin-based Polytechnic and University Programs)
2021
- July (Combined Dunedin and Invercargill event, held in Dunedin): Fieldtrip to Dunedin; Colombia National Day dinner and salsa night; University of Otago and Otago Polytechnic tours; Combined dinner and workshop with tertiary students focused on education pathways, stress and coping.
- April: Mapping education pathways; exploring tertiary education options, application processes and funding opportunities; Southern Institute of Technology tour and lunch (Invercargill); Iftar dinner (Dunedin)
- March (Dunedin and Invercargill): 'Welcome meet-ups' and information sessions
2020
- December 2020 (Dunedin and Invercargill): End of year celebration; revisiting maps; 2020 film preview; planning 2021
- October 2020 (Dunedin and Invercargill): Career speed-dating; starting film project
- July 2020 (Dunedin and Invercargill): Mapping a successful life; meeting schools' liaison officers from local tertiary education institutions
- April 2020 (via Zoom): introductions; mapping educational pathways; project planning
Celebrations
2021–2022
Our talented documentary filmmaker Sayedali (Ali) Mostolizadeh won New Zealand National Commission for UNESCO Minor Grant funding for 2021-22 for the project “Refugee-background students navigating education pathways in Aotearoa New Zealand: A participatory film”.
Congratulations to Naya Ghazzoul, who was accepted and won a scholarship to participate in the 2021–22 Women in Engineering Canterbury (WiE CAN) residential programme at the University of Canterbury and Fatima Omidwar who won a scholarship to attend the February 2022 Outward Bound Southern Cross course, sponsored by the Human Rights Commission.
Publications
Anderson, V., Ortiz-Ayala, A. , Mostolizadeh, S., Burgin A., Oranje, Jo., Fraser-Smith, A., Laufiso, P., Cooke, J, & Atkins, G. (2023). Refugee-background students in Aotearoa: Supporting successful secondary to tertiary education transitions. Teaching and Learning Initiative.
Refugee-background students in Aotearoa: Supporting successful secondary to tertiary education transitions
Anderson, V., Ortiz-Ayala, A. & Mostolizadeh, S. (2023). Refugee-background students in southern New Zealand: Educational navigation and necessary self-sufficiency. In Pinson, H., Bunar, N. and. Devine, D. (Eds.), Research handbook on migration and education – international perspectives. Edward Elgar.
Research handbook on migration and education – international perspectives
Anderson, V., Mostolizadeh, S., Oranje, J., Fraser-Smith, A., & Crampton, E. (2023). Navigating the secondary-tertiary education border: Refugee-background students in Southern Aotearoa New Zealand. Research Papers in Education, 38 (2) , 250-275. doi:10.1080/02671522.2021.1961300
Anderson V., Ortiz-Ayala., & Mostolizadeh, S. (2023) Schools and teachers as brokers of belonging for refugee-background young people. International Journal of Inclusive Education, doi:10.1080/13603116.2023.2210591
Anderson, V., Cone, T., Rafferty, R. & Inoue, N. (2021). Mobile agency and relational webs in women's narratives of international study. Higher Education. doi:10.1007/s10734-021-00714-7
Anderson, V. R., Cone, T., Inoue, N., & Rafferty, R. (2020). Narratives of navigation: Refugee-background women's higher education journeys in Bangladesh and New Zealand. Sites: A Journal of Social Anthropology and Cultural Studies, 17(1), 15-39. doi:10.11157/sites-id458
Rafferty, R., Burgin, A., & Anderson, V. (2020). Do we really offer refuge? Using Galtung's concept of structural violence to interrogate refugee resettlement support in Aotearoa New Zealand. Sites: A Journal of Social Anthropology and Cultural Studies, 17(1), 115-139. doi:10.11157/sites-id455
Transitions Project coverage online
- Helping find path to tertiary study (Otago Daily Times, 15 June 2021)
- Aspiring doctor determined to help other former refugee (Otago Daily Times, 5 June 2021)
- Project explores former refugees' educational pathways (Division of Humanities, University of Otago, 18 May 2021)
- Nagham Ghazzoul: From nothing to everything
- Global connections on refugee education: The Secondary to Tertiary Transitions Project, New Zealand