By Mohsen Rajabi
Teachers increasingly find themselves on the frontline in identifying and responding to the psychological and psychosocial needs of refugee and asylum-seeking children, particularly in contexts where specialist services are scarce, parental support is disrupted by migration, and language or legal barriers persist. In these post-migration settings, teachers are often the first adults to recognise early signs of distress in children exposed to war, displacement and other adversities.
But here is the gap in our knowledge: most of the existing evidence about school-based support comes from high-income countries, where resources and training opportunities are more readily available. Much less is known about how teachers in resource-poor schools, where most of the world’s refugee children actually live, navigate this responsibility. To address this gap, a new study by a team of researchers from the UK recruited a hard-to-reach sample of school teachers in socio-economically deprived communities in Iran – home to around 3.8 million refugees – to hear their experiences and practices. Their findings were published in the European Journal of Psychotraumatology on 10 September 2025.
The research findings are based on qualitative interviews with 30 teachers from 11 schools, each of which had at least 30% of students who were newly arrived refugees. The results showed that many refugee children see their teachers as a trusted emotional anchor after migration, and schools were often described as the most accessible place for timely psychosocial support. Teachers highlighted that close, consistent relationships with refugee students were fundamental and worked as a strategy to identify trauma-related mental health needs and to make trauma disclosures easier. They also described how a welcoming school climate and positive recognition from non-refugee peers could foster belonging and give children the confidence to seek help.
At the same time, teachers noted that they cannot do this alone. Regular contact with refugee caregivers is essential if school-based support is to translate into longer-term wellbeing at home. However, many refugee caregivers face ongoing migration-related stressors: financial hardship, low awareness of mental health, and continuing post-migration pressures, all of which can make engagement with schools difficult.
So what should be done? The findings suggest three interconnected priorities. First, teachers need basic training, clear referral pathways and access to school-based counsellors – not only to help them respond to trauma-related needs but also, in some cases, to seek support themselves when they experience secondary trauma from hearing students’ personal stories. Second, schools should cultivate inclusive climates, where peers and native parents adopt non-discriminatory attitudes that support refugee children’s sense of belonging. Third, home–school partnerships are key: bringing caregivers into the process strengthens support beyond the classroom walls. Future psychoeducation programmes or policy reforms can help to facilitate engagement of refugee caregivers with the school staff.
In sum, schools are uniquely placed to offer informal and practical support to refugee children. Even in resource-poor communities where refugee families have limited access to healthcare and social services, teachers can play a vital role in supporting the complex needs of refugee children who have lived through multiple adversities to adjust, learn and thrive in host communities. But this requires recognising that teachers cannot and should not carry the burden alone. The responsibility is shared across refugee caregivers, native parents, non-refugee peers, and wider systems of support.
