There is a widely recognised disjunction between the policies and practices of inclusive education for minority-language students. Using interview data, we analyse how teachers mediate tensions between their newly arrived refugee youth (NARY) students’ aspirations for higher education and limited opportunities to tailor teaching within Norway’s unitary educational system. The teachers are sympathetic to their students’ struggles with past experiences and with having to adapt quickly to an educational system alien to them and relate to NARYs as ‘close strangers’. They see aspirations for higher education in the foreseeable future as unrealistic for most NARYs. Using ‘sensemaking’ theory as an analytical resource, the teachers can be seen as using a ‘biding time’ approach, waiting patiently for students to opt for vocational instead of academic education. This makes it difficult for NARY students to make informed decisions about their aspirations, and it suppresses critique of how policy ideals of inclusive education are implemented in practice. Teacher education can be improved with more emphasis on how teachers can support and guide NARYs and involve them in their sensemaking of aspirations. This study also identifies challenges with a single-track unitary educational system, not tailored for individual differences between newly arrived language minority students. © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

DOI: 10.1080/2331186X.2024.2398683
ISSN: 2331186X