Structural exclusion and aspirational capital: a scoping review of refugee parental engagement, educational disadvantage, and inclusive schooling in South Australia

Refugee-background students attend school in affluent nations but are being structurally excluded due to curricula that fail to recognise their knowledge, insufficient language support, and parental engagement paradigms aimed at mainstream parents. This scoping review identifies structural barriers to parental engagement of refugee-background secondary school students in South Australian schools, including barriers associated with the SACE credential framework. A PRISMA-ScR search of peer-reviewed empirical studies (2000–2026) used: ERIC, ProQuest Education, Scopus, A + Education, Informit, and Google Scholar, supplemented by theoretical and methodological sources. Altogether, 36 studies were thematically synthesised. Six barriers were identified: language and communication (28); systemic opacity and credential complexity, especially SACE (18); deficit ideology and racialised exclusion (22); digital and social capital exclusions (16); mental and psychological barriers including trauma (14); and institutional enablers (12). These findings reveal an aspiration-structure paradox: refugee parents strongly aspire to their children’s academic success, yet are systemically excluded from recognised parental engagement paradigms. Educational disadvantage is created by structural factors that can be addressed by structural measures. Inclusive practice requires redesigned EAL/D support based on CALP timeframes (5-7 years); linguistically accessible SACE counselling; asset-based community collaborations; and multicultural education beyond tokenism. South Australia has the potential to take the lead.