Educational leadership and policy studies in refugee education: a systematic review of existing research

Given the growing concerns regarding the education of the rapidly increasing refugee children population around the world and the scholarly attention towards refugee education contexts in educational leadership and policy fields in recent years, we were urged to locate and understand the research contribution to the relevant knowledge base. This study, therefore, aims to systematically review the existing educational leadership and policy literature in relation to K-12 education of refugee children to demonstrate the overall trends of the related studies in terms of context (year, country, school level, and journal outlets), type of study, methodology, and topical focus. We conducted a systematic review of literature by following the steps identified by PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses), including the processes regarding data sources, search, data collection, eligibility criteria, data selection, and data analysis. Overall, the results of our review suggest that educational policies addressing the refugee children and educational contexts shape the implementations of educational leaders and consequently the refugee students' opportunities in schools. The results and implications for future research are discussed in more detail based on the results of the review.