Refugee Education Australia Research Seminar: Understanding Family-School Partnerships through South Sudanese-Australian Lenses

Refugee Education Australia Research Seminar: Understanding Family-School Partnerships through South Sudanese-Australian Lenses

Join us to hear from John Jok (Deakin University) who will present findings from his research with South Sudanese parents and their engagement with schools

This presentation offers insights from doctoral research titled “Family–School Partnerships: South Sudanese-Australian Families’ Engagement with Schools.”

Grounded in lived experience and qualitative interviews with parents and school staff, the presentation explores how South Sudanese-Australian families experience family–school engagement and how educators experience collaborating with these families. It highlights a key finding from the study: South Sudanese-Australian parental habitus and its influence on engagement with their children’s education.

Through this research, my presentation highlights how South Sudanese-Australian parents are deeply committed to their children’s success, yet their engagement with schools is shaped by habitus, past experiences, and systemic structures.

About the researcher

John Jok is a early career researcher in education, with primary expertise in family–school partnerships and family engagement in education, focusing on the engagement of refugee- and migrant-background families with schools in the Australian educational context. My research examines how family–school relationships are shaped by institutional practices, social inequality, and cultural difference within multicultural education systems. Prior to academia, John spent 7 years as as a School Community and Family Liaison Officer in Australian secondary schools.