| Summary: | <p><strong>Rationale and Objectives:</strong></p>
<p>This mixed methods dissertation investigated the educational resilience of unaccompanied and separated children (UASCs). With over 24.7 million displaced children worldwide, UASCs are a highly vulnerable population facing pre- and post-migration adversities that disrupt their education. However, research on their educational resilience remains limited.</p>
<p><strong>Methods and Analysis:</strong></p>
<p>Using a convergent parallel mixed methods design, this dissertation aimed to identify socio-ecological factors contributing to UASCs’ educational resilience and understand socio-interactional processes underlying their resilience. Study I systematically reviewed quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods evidence to investigate the existing evidence on the risk and resilience factors that influence the educational trajectories of UASCs in high-income countries. Study II analyzed PISA data from Jordan using correlational and regression analyses to examine how socio-ecological factors contribute to the promotion and protection of education for UASCs. Study III used a qualitatively driven mixed methods approach in Greece, combining statistical analysis of survey response data and reflective thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews to explore how socio-ecological factors contribute to the navigation and negotiation of education by UASCs.</p>
<p><strong>Findings:</strong></p>
<p>Salient factors were identified at various levels that influence UASCs’ educational resilience, with microsystemic and mesosystemic factors being particularly important. Findings also reveal how factors interacted through promotive, protective, navigation, and negotiation processes to shape educational resilience. A critical realist discussion integrated insights across the studies using mixed methods triangulation techniques revealing important methodological considerations for researching UASCs’ educational resilience.</p>
<p><strong>Novelty and Improvement:</strong></p>
<p>The dissertation reveals that educational resilience development among UASCs can be conceptualized as a combination of intermental activities (between the UASC and their environment) and intramental activities (within the UASC), where having supportive relationships at home, school, and community facilitates UASCs to transition over time from their zone of proximal resilience development to their level of actual resilience development. This dissertation filled a critical gap in knowledge about UASCs’ educational resilience development, generating implications for research, policy, and practice to better address their needs and circumstances.</p>
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