Formal education
Yet another crisis? Syrian refugee children and Turkish education system in turbulence
This study aims to explain the current and future situations of Syrian refugee children (SRC) in the Turkish education system in light of the views of teachers and administrators. The focal point in the study is to ascertain the situations that affect and are affected by the involvement of Syrian refugee students in the Turkish education system. In addition, findings…
2024
Loneliness, lack of support, and educational challenges: Teachers’ experiences working with refugee children
For the first time, Lithuania has faced such a flow of refugee families with children, and it is natural that until now there is not enough experience and research in the education of refugee children in Lithuania. Until now, the focus has been on the integration and socialization of refugees, with very little attention paid to the education of refugee…
2025
Arrival infrastructures and refugee enrolment in higher education
Refugees enrolling in host country higher education can improve their position in the labour market. However, little is known about the patterns underlying enrolment, and existing studies have only examined explanations at the individual level. This is problematic because opportunities to enrol in education are also dependent upon structural factors, and by ignoring this, studies run the risk of depicting…
2025
Unpacking labels: A mental health perspective on refugee students in higher education and their geographies of belonging
The population of refugees and forced migrants is increasing worldwide, and there is an increasing portion who aspire to pursue higher education. This research paper highlights the gap in existing literature regarding the experiences of refugee students in universities and the best practices for supporting them. Utilising qualitative methods, this research includes media analyses and nine interviews from wellbeing teams…
2024
Imagining new ways of representing refugees – Teaching proposal
How to build an educational proposal that allows bringing awareness of the insidious influence of media imagery on our consciences? How to ethically apply this teaching proposal to the contemporary human odysseys of those considered “illegal”? I decided to create a teachingproposal with two goals: • Revealing the impact of mainstream images of migration in the minds. • Finding alternative…
2024
Education for late arrivals: Examining education provision for displaced young people arriving in the UK late in the education system
This report presents the ndings from a research study that examined the experiences of displaced young people, aged 13-19, who arrived in the UK late in the education system – referred to as late arrivals. The research study used a mixed methods approach and reected the experiences of more than 400 individuals, predominantly charity, education and local government stakeholders. It…
2024
Report on analysis of out-of-school children in the national population: Türkiye country report
This report on Türkiye highlights significant challenges that remain in access to education for Turkish children despite substantial progress in primary and secondary education. Vulnerable groups, including children with disabilities, those involved in child labour, victims of early and forced marriage, and those affected by migration and refugee crises, face persistent barriers to education. Since 2011, the influx of Syrian…
2024
Problematizing integration
This chapter looks at the challenges currently preventing the implementation of integrative education in Cyprus. The ethnonationalist educational systems of North and South Cyprus are considered separately. Recent changes in political discourse and their distinct historical contexts, especially after the 1974 war, are described. The author also explores both authorities’ common use of history education as a political and ideological…
2024
Experiences of Syrian refugee students in Turkish higher education
This chapter is drawn from an ethnography chronicling the experiences of a group of Syrian young adults enrolled in Turkish universities while under temporary protection status. The author uses excerpts from an in-depth interview with a participant enrolled in Gaziantep University to illustrate different stages that young Syrians go through when entering Turkish tertiary education. These include entering Turkish society,…
2024
A day in the educational life of a teenage refugee in Thessaloniki, Greece
This chapter takes the form of a thought experiment, in which the reader is invited to consider the case of Rasoul, a fictional sixteen-year-old refugee in Thessaloniki, Greece. His narrative acts as an amalgamation of the findings from an observational study seeking to understand why only half of the eligible migrant youth population in Greece is enrolled in post-compulsory education.…
2024
Applied ethnopoetic analysis, poetic inquiry and a practice of vulnerability: uncovering and undoing the vulnerabilities of refugees and asylum seekers seeking access to Higher Education
This paper discusses the experience of four refugee and asylum seekers seeking access to Higher Education. The methodological framework intersects applied ethnopoetic analysis and poetic inquiry, underpinned by Freirean, Translanguaging dialogue. The approach foregrounds participants’ voices to address a structural refusal to recognise the repertoires of multilingual marginalised participants. The paper deals with two types of vulnerability: vulnerability imposed on…
2024
Safety, belonging and success in education for refugees in Europe: A systematic review
This systematic review aims to explore refugees' educational access, experiences and outcomes in Europe since 2015. The review follows a systematic process of reviewing and synthesising texts compiled in the Hub for Education for Refugees in Europe (HERE) Knowledge Base to fill gaps in knowledge about the educational trajectories of learners of refugee and forced migrant backgrounds who have arrived…
2024
Perceptions of Ukrainian and other refugees among eighth-graders in Slovenia: Characteristics of students towards inclusion of refugee students in mainstream schools
Background: There is a lack of empirical data on the school-age population's attitudes toward refugees. Despite this, the attention being paid to the integration of refugee students in schools worldwide is increasing. Objectives: First, the present study aims to explore the attitudes of eighth-grade students in Slovenia regarding refugees and to investigate whether there are differences in their attitudes based…
2024
Performing the good (im)migrant: Inclusion and expectations of linguistic assimilation
This paper analyzes how language is framed as a route to full inclusion, particularly for unaccompanied asylum-seeking students labelled as disabled. It is based on a qualitative study carried out in the Italian city of Rome, which, although cosmopolitan, is often characterised by nationalistic political landscapes. The manuscript reveals how institutional biases (re: race, ability, and migration) about unaccompanied forced…
2024
School leaders’ experiences and perceptions of the movement of Ukrainian child refugees into Irish schools
In March 2022, Ireland's minister for education announced that Irish schools were taking in student refugees from the Ukraine. This study explores Irish school leaders' experiences of this transition through qualitative research incorporating semi-structured interviews with six school leaders. Findings reveal a phased process focussing initially on introducing students to the school community followed by the introduction of students into…
2024
Inequitable discourses on refugee students resisted and maintained by educators: The perspective of decontextualisation
This paper examines discourses that place refugee students in an inequitable position in school. Focussing on decontextualisation–a depoliticising way of seeing education that overlooks contexts–the paper is based on semi-structured interviews with teachers (n = 15) and open questions of a survey data (n = 267) collected from teachers, principals and teacher assistants at the end of 2022 in Finland.…
2024
Career aspirations of refugee women in Turkey within the context of higher education
Access to higher education for refugees remains a focal point in discussions concerning human rights. In the aftermath of the Syrian civil war, Türkiye has become a significant host country for forcibly displaced individuals. While the Turkish government has implemented an open-door policy toward refugees, the actual participation of women in higher education and the workforce falls short of anticipated…
2024
Stuffing the refugee education pipeline: The integration process and the exclusion of refugees from knowledge production in a Western destination country
The number of forcibly displaced people, including refugees, has been increasing exponentially over the last few decades. Refugees settled in Western destination countries face several challenges in successfully accessing and participating in higher education and in becoming knowledge producers. This is in sharp contrast to uncritical assumptions that refugees settled in these countries are better off in terms of pursing…
2024
Consequences of a welfare benefit reduction for refugee families on children’s school absence and crime
I investigate the effect of lowering welfare benefits for refugees on children's outcomes in Denmark. For identification, I exploit a reform that gave refugees lower benefits if they were granted residency after September 2015. The exact date of residency is plausible random due to the nature of the asylum process. By using Danish register data, I compare children who were…
2024
Creating a welcoming ethos: Reception of Ukrainian refugee children and families in Romania
This study examines psychosocial mechanisms used by the Romanian community to facilitate the adaptation of Ukrainian refugees—a challenging process due to their low level of trust resulting from war trauma. Data from four focus groups, involving Romanian professionals and educators, Ukrainian professionals, and institutionalized Ukrainian children in Romania reveal three themes: ethos of reception, educational needs, and professional solutions. We…
2024
Lives in limbo: Syrian youth in Turkey
More than a decade since the start of the war in Syria, Turkey is home to almost four million of that country’s displaced citizens. Youth is one of the most vulnerable groups within the refugee population, as they struggle with language and education barriers and demands on them to assimilate while retaining their own culture. Lives in Limbo gives voice…
2024
Educational pathways in Italy: Emanuel’s perspective—Reflective essay for the special issue: “Community sponsorship and complementary pathways: Global movements for resettling refugees Driven by Local Actors”
Educational pathways present a new avenue for refugee resettlement, offering opportunities for academic advancement and integration. This paper departs from the academic papers in this special issue to offer the perspective of Emanuel, a refugee from Eritrea, and his personal experience navigating the University Corridors for Refugees (UNICORE) project in Italy. UNICORE, facilitated by collaborative effects between Italian universities and…
2024
Responding to the needs of refugee learners in schools in Wales during the pandemic
This research investigated how schools and staff in Wales were able to respond to the needs of refugee learners and their families during COVID-19 school lockdowns. Interviews were conducted with a purposive sample (n = 12) of educators working with refugee learners in primary and secondary schools across Wales, including headteachers, class teachers, English as an Additional Language (EAL) specialists,…
2024
Exploring the educational frontier: Teachers’ perceptions of refugees in Turkey
This study aims to identify teachers’ perceptions of the concepts of ‘refugee or refugee people’ through a metaphorical study. The study uses descriptive research employing metaphors to determine teachers’ perceptions of these concepts. Study participants were 320 teachers who worked in different parts of Turkey during the 2023–2024 academic year. The results showed that most teachers feel sorry for refugees,…
2024
Disability, migration, and education: Greek primary teachers’ conceptualisations
The present study aims to investigate primary school teachers’ views regarding including migrants/refugees with disabilities (M/RD students) in the Greek educational system. The research questions concerned the attitudes of educational stakeholders towards the inclusion of migrant-refugee students with disabilities, teachers’ views about characteristics of the Greek educational inclusion policy regarding M/RD students, and teachers’ ideas regarding the inclusion of M/RD…
2024
Asylum spaces as spaces of nonrecognition: The ambiguities of welcoming and educating asylum-seeking children in Norway
Asylum has historically been a refuge for the persecuted. However, it now faces a fundamental antagonism between asylum and law, which often overlooks the rights of children seeking asylum. This paper explores the historical concept of asylum law from its inception in antiquity and the Roman era and its entanglements with the education of children. It also examines asylum’s relevance…
2024
Ukrainian refugee children in the Estonian education system during the Russian invasion of Ukraine: Vulnerable, traumatised and displaced
On 24 February 2022, Russia started an invasion of Ukraine. Since then, many families—mostly women and children—have left the country to save their lives. Estonia hosts over 50,000 refugees of different ages, including children. Adapting to an unfamiliar environment is always stressful for people in one way or another, particularly when the reason for the forced move is as traumatic…
2024
No country for young refugees: Barriers and opportunities for inclusive refugee education practices
The recent refugee crises in Ukraine (2022) and Syria (2011) have created millions of refugees, 40% of whom are children. The education systems of countries hosting refugees struggle to integrate such large populations. In addition, language barriers and the stigma associated with refugees hamper inclusive and equitable education opportunities for these children. There is thus a risk of “lost generations”…
2024
Teacher voices on teaching students with a refugee background in Greece
Global developments on migration have created new challenges in many education systems with regard to the inclusion and education of students with a refugee background during the last decade. This study aims to investigate teachers’ experiences and views on teaching students with a refugee background in Greek public schools. Following a qualitative design, semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine teachers.…
2024
Immigrants and refugees at German universities: Diversity, internationalization and anticolonial considerations
This book takes a critical and historical perspective in parsing the current state of play for refugee and immigrant students in Germany, addressing federal, state, and institutional innovations as well as gaps in service. Drawing from de/post/anticolonial theory, it considers the levels of support for diverse groups including migrants, refugees, and racialized Germans, investigating why a comparatively well-resourced higher education…
2024
Kritické temporality: Vzdělávací trajektorie dětí uprchlíků z Ukrajiny [Critical temporality: Educational trajectories of refugee children from Ukraine]
The article deals with the issue of education of children from refugee families. The concept of critical temporalities provides a framework for thinking about these young people's threatened present and future. The aim is to show how the temporalities of different institutions and spaces interact and navigate the life courses of young people at one of the key moments in…
2024
The relationship between teachers’ cultural intelligence and multicultural education attitude: The mediating role of intercultural sensitivity
In this research, the relationship between teachers’ cultural intelligence and multicultural education attitude was investigated with the mediating role of intercultural sensitivity. The main research aim was to contribute to the cultural intelligence and multicultural education literature. The research was conducted with a cross-sectional correlational method, and the data was gathered from 600 teachers working in the six of the…
2024
Educational and social integration challenges of Ukrainian refugee students in Würzburg, Germany
Refugees face considerable challenges when leaving their homes, friends, and family members. They have to fight with uncertainty, instability, and adaptation to new ways of life, new communities, rules, and traditions. Successful integration of refugee schoolchildren is a holistic process that involves actions from the government, school authorities, teachers and classmates, as well as refugee families. Despite numerous measures that…
2024
Locked-down learning amid COVID-19: Young refugees in Greece and their supporters co-navigating a new crisis
Greece, and the hundreds of thousands of refugees currently trapped in the country, are no strangers to ‘crisis’. Financial collapse and migration mismanagement were already severely impacting newcomers’ ability to participate in education before COVID-19 lockdowns made the situation even more dire. Based on interviews from a study on young refugees’ (aged 15–25) engagement with education in Greece, this paper…
2024
Pull-out classes for newly arrived students from Ukraine–An obstacle to social inclusion
Building on earlier developments in the field of inclusive education research, creating a sense of belonging and togetherness is seen as a necessary goal for schools, especially in times of crisis and unexpected outbreaks of war. Against this backdrop, the current qualitative study sheds light on Ukrainian refugee students’ self‑perceived social inclusion after their entry into the Austrian education system.…
2024
Educational leadership and integration support for refugee children from Ukraine in German Schools in 2022–2024
In times of wars, the role of educational leadership in ensuring progressive development of education is accompanied by the task of supporting students in crises. This chapter outlines the measures to support refugee students from Ukraine, provided by German schools in 2022–2024. Decentralised education management and mandatory school attendance are emphasised. Various models of school integration and measures implemented by…
2024
Inclusive education for refugee students from Ukraine—An exploration of differentiated instruction in German schools
Currently, refugee Ukrainian learners are attending German mainstream schools, leading to an even more diverse student population. Given that the German school system is committed to provide inclusive education for all, this study aims to examine how teachers address Ukrainian students learning needs by means of differentiated instruction. To this end, a qualitative study was conducted in which eight elementary…
2024
The relationship of the three “As” of adaptation: Acculturation, adjustment, and academic engagement of Ukrainian war refugees in Estonia’s schools
The article reports on a qualitative study of how schools in Estonia were incorporating Ukrainian war refugee students in the spring of 2023. Observations and interviews were conducted in 7 schools with teachers, school administrators, psychological support staff, refugee students in grades 7–12, and their parents. The study found that schools were balancing three overlapping goals: (1) to ensure psychological…
2024
Scale of perceptions of future primary school teachers on unaccompanied foreign minors: Exploratory and confirmatory analysis
Unaccompanied foreign minors (UFMs) face stigmatisation and social exclusion in Spanish territory. Given their growing presence in schools, it is crucial that trainee teachers have valid and real information about these students in order to provide equitable, personalised, and quality education to all their students in the near future and to mitigate any uninformed prejudices and stigma developed before they…
2024
Students’ learning outcomes from being a mentor in the Nightingale Mentoring Programme for Adult Refugees in Norway
Purpose: This study aimed to identify and describe how mentoring influences the mentor, by operationalising and specifying learning outcomes involved in mentoring. Design/methodology/approach: This study used an action research approach, by uniting theory and practice to explore new ways of learning and evolve the field of practice in education. Thematic analysis was used to identify and organise patterns or themes…
2024
Assessing polish teachers’ competencies in working with Ukrainian refugee students: A comparative study across different contexts
The rapid influx of refugee students from Ukraine has posed challenges to the education system and teachers in Poland. In the current study, we aimed to determine how teachers in Polish schools, at various stages of education, assess their own competencies to work with Ukrainian refugee students. The sample consisted of 684 teachers who declared that they worked with refugee…
2024
Linking with technology in the education and adaptation processes of refugee children
In this section, the needs of refugee children are discussed within the framework of Maslow's hierarchy and family systems theory, and explanations of children's participation in educational processes, the use of technology in educational processes, and teacher guidance are given. In addition, the study aims to determine the knowledge, awareness, and experiences of preschool teachers in Turkey about integrating technology…
2024
Opening Polish schools to Ukrainian refugee children and providing them with spiritual support: Survey results
Following the Russian Federation’s attack on Ukraine, many women and children were forced to flee their homeland out of fear for lives. Poland, as a country bordering Ukraine, has accepted the most refugees, compared to other EU states. Soon after, Ukrainian school-age children began their education in Polish schools, but the process of their enrolment and adaptation to a new…
2024
Exploring preservice teachers’ social domination orientation and prejudice toward Syrian refugees: The mediation of empathy
With the global increase in refugees, understanding and improving the educational experiences of refugees has received more attention in academic research. This study aims to investigate the perspective of preservice teachers (PSTs) towards Syrian refugees, who are one of the largest groups of refugees in Turkey. The study explores the relationship between PSTs’ empathy, their social dominance orientation (SDO), and…
2024
Negotiating futures: How schools shape belonging for young newcomers in Belgium, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden
Scholars draw increasing attention to the importance of belonging for young refugees’ and migrants’ well-being, indicating the need to develop an in-depth understanding of their experiences seeking to belong in resettlement. For refugee and migrant newcomers, schools might constitute particularly significant spaces in their negotiation of belonging, due to being a central developmental and acculturative context in resettlement, and a…
2024
Revisiting education resilience of Syrian children in Turkish education ecosystem
Resilience is studied by researchers from various disciplines such as psychology, psychiatry and biological disciplines. Though the resiliency literature has expanded to a considerable extent, only a few studies have examined the resiliency patterns in child asylum-seekers/refugees. Using the constructivist perspective, the aim of the research to identify whether Syrian asylum-seeker children are able to develop resilience in Turkish education…
2024
The pathways of unaccompanied foreign minors evaluated by the social workers: A case study in Italy
Social workers, who are responsible for unaccompanied minors (UAM), have in-depth knowledge of those minors’ backgrounds and the reception pathways they follow. The social workers support key aspects of UAM integration such as learning the host country’s language, school integration and vocational training. Via 566 interviews collected through a survey carried out in collaboration with the Municipality of Milan, we…
2024
Integration of displaced students into the culturally and linguistically different school environment
The rapid increase in the number of refugees arriving in the last decade and the discussion about the integration of Syrian refugees into Turkish society has received special attention. As an important tool of socialisation in childhood, the educational system and school environment need to be structured using refugee-friendly and equity-based methods to meet the needs and expectations of refugee…
2024
The effect of teacher multicultural attitudes on self-efficacy and wellbeing at work
Teachers are pivotal in creating safe and efficacious learning environments for ethnic minority students. Research suggests that teachers’ multicultural attitudes, self-efficacy, and wellbeing at work may all play important roles in this endeavor. Using survey data on 433 teachers in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, the present study used structural equation models to analyze the paths…
2024
“The schools try, but…”: A holistic perspective on the social adaptation of Ukrainian refugee students in Czech schools
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Czech Republic faced an unprecedented influx of Ukrainian refugees. This study aims to examine the social adaptation of Ukrainian students in Czech schools from a holistic perspective, incorporating the viewpoints of refugee students and their parents, headteachers, and teachers. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with these actors from the six lower secondary schools that…
2024