Inclusion
Representing vulnerable, Syrian migrant children’s insights: Testimonies of inclusion and exclusion in schooling
This chapter describes the words of Syrian migrant young people in two different contexts, taking a human rights framework. One human right that we focus on is the right for children to voice their views and concerns and have these acted on. We provide a background section on the Syrian political situation and its impact on Lebanon, to foreground the…
2023
Pockets of positivity: School leaders’ strategies for developing school inclusion for students with refugee and asylum-seeking backgrounds
Currently, millions of children and families with refugee and asylum-seeker experiences find themselves living in new countries, with different languages, dissimilar cultures, diverse expectations, and different forms of schooling. For school leaders, the challenge of integrating these students and their families, some of whom may have endured and be dealing with trauma and loss, can be challenging. This paper presents…
2023
Considerations for preparatory education for asylum-seekers and refugees in Iceland
UNHCR’s Representation for the Nordic and Baltic Countries has submitted considerations for setting up preparatory education for asylum-seekers and refugees in Iceland. The UNHCR Global Education Strategy 2030 highlights the educational challenges faced by refugee children, with many not attending primary or secondary school, leading to negative impacts on their future careers and livelihoods. In Iceland, a surge in arrivals…
2023
Together or separate? Tracing classroom pedagogies of (un)belonging for newcomer migrant pupils in two Austrian schools
Even though receiving newcomer pupils in schools is not a new phenomenon, many education systems grapple with finding adequate schooling arrangements that foster belonging and inclusion. Over the years, policy-makers and school practitioners seem to echo recurring dilemmas in terms of what language support models may promote optimal inclusion, and whether and how to support the language of schooling while…
2024
Ukrainian refugees in Poland: Two schools under one roof—One is offline, the other one online
With the unprecedented refugee crisis in Poland, democratic education is all about designing a thoughtful crisis response. This response, through making public schools more inclusive and responsive to the needs of various learners, can save Poland from developing a tiered and thoroughly unequal system of schooling. We should be wary of technology’s potential to, both, aid and disrupt this process.
2024
‘They usually look happy.’ Approaches to the adaptation ofUkrainian refugees in Czech schools
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, a high number ofUkrainian refugee children came to the Czech Republic, a countrywith little previous experience with refugee schooling. This studyexplored how Czech lower secondary schools in the 2022/2023academic year managed to adapt to Ukrainian refugee students.We collected data from six schools that received high numbers ofUkrainian students; we interviewed principals, teachers,…
2024
“(Maybe) I am going to school-age educare because now I have a residence permit”: Children’s non-access to school-age educare in a Swedish asylum context
Sweden’s school-age educare has been identified as important for children’s access to play and meaningful leisure. However, research has not addressed asylum-seeking children’s access to school-age educare or its potential role in asylum contexts. This article draws on data from a 1-year ethnographic fieldwork with children in a Swedish asylum context and explores asylum-seeking children’s perspectives and experiences in a…
2024
Imagining a better world: Assessing the immediate and delayed effects of imagined contact on attitudes toward refugees in elementary school
Introduction: Preparing host-society children for contact with refugees coming into their classes poses a new and important challenge for countries with little prior experience in integration. Imagined contact is a prejudice-reduction intervention that can be particularly useful in this context. However, its long-term effects and potential age-related variations in its efficacy among primary school children remain understudied. Methods: This study…
2024
Schooling for refugee children: A social justice perspective informed by children from Syria
Schooling for Refugee Children is a collaboration between five authors who explore their interactions with refugee children displaced from Syria to the Lebanese borders and London. Through a programme of carefully tailored research activities, they analyse the children’s representations of their personal journeys and current circumstances, especially with regard to ongoing schooling. The children’s experiences are expressed through their own…
2024
Europe region quarterly update: Education (January – March 2024)
The report calls attention to challenges encountered by displaced children and youth across Europe and offers recommendations for government and non-government stakeholders to undertake in ensuring sustainable access for young learners who remain out-of-school. Additionally, UNHCR highlights key publications and showcases initiatives undertaken with partners to enhance access to learning.
2024
Learning to navigate ‘unsettlement’: Young refugees’ (re-)engagement with post-15 education in Greece
This qualitative study provides an ethnographic exploration of the experiences of young refugees (aged 15-25) in Greece as they engage with education, amid and despite their uncertain and precarious conditions – here theorised as (manufactured) conditions of ‘unsettlement’. Instead of focusing only on their deficits – as in much refugee education research – it asks: How do young refugees in…
2023
Conceptualising the art of belonging for young refugees and asylum-seekers: Reflections from England and Sweden
The concept of belonging has grown in prominence in research and policy relating to new arrivals from refugee and asylum-seeking backgrounds. Arguably, belonging is replacing integration and inclusion as the panacea to perceived problems associated with places and societies where new arrivals settle. Belonging is also prominent in the literature about formal and informal educational contexts. This paper problematises the…
2024
Integration
Strategic temporality permeates the integration experience of Turkey’s Syrians in a number of ways. First, given their temporary legal status, there is a grey area between reception and integration, which is highly symbolic of ambiguous inclusion (Kaya & Nagel, 2021). Until recently, there has been no publicly announced national integration policy; instead, there was only a discourse about uyum (social…
2023
Educational strategies to support the inclusion of displaced pupils from Ukraine in Italian schools
The war in Ukraine caused a huge number of displaced people in a very short time. Amongst the refugees were many school-age children who needed to continue studying in the schools of the host countries. Host schools and teachers had to arrange inclusive strategies to integrate the displaced pupils. This study analysed the factors that facilitated the inclusion of displaced…
2023
Refugee and migrant children’s views of integration and belonging in school in Ireland–and the role of micro- and meso-level interactions
Schools are chief among the social institutions impacted by migrant flows as key sites of integration and support for migrant children. This article focuses on micro-and meso-level interactions and their importance to experiences of belonging and socio-educational integration for migrant children. It explores outcomes from qualitative research in Ireland conducted as part of a European research project investigating the socio-educational…
2023
Multicultural learning environments in Turkey: A new challenge about refugee education
Due to globalization, migration trends, refugee crises, and global media during the past few decades, social and cultural components of societies have undergone significant change. New multicultural societies have a big effect on daily life, culture, and education by bringing new perspectives about being local and universal. Including refugees in the school system creates a new learning environment for local…
2023
Schooling of refugee students from Ukraine in Austria and its risk for creating educational inequity
Due to the unexpected outbreak of war in Ukraine and the resulting forced migration, access to education became an immediate priority for refugee children and youth. Against this backdrop, this study highlights school models of Ukrainian students and sheds light on the associated distribution of school resources using data from 14 problem-centered interviews with school personnel. Results indicate great diversity…
2023
Young refugees and asylum-seekers in Catalonia: An analysis of the implementation of policies and programmes for their social inclusion
Young refugees and asylum-seekers, over 18 years old, face many obstacles in accessing socio-educational services in Catalonia (Spain). This study aims to identify policies and programmes that facilitate or hamper their socio-educational pathways and transition to the labour market in the Catalan context. From a multilevel approach, we analyse the correlation between policies and institutional responses at the macro level…
2023
Development of a refugee education competency framework: Turkish context with Syrian refugee students
This study was based on the current Turkish education system, which attempts to integrate nearly one million school-age refugee children into regular schools. Although the activities carried out in Turkey point to positive developments regarding the integration of refugee students, some of the problems observed in refugee education still exist. The current research, which aims to develop a ‘framework of…
2023
(Im)possibilities of parity of participation in school settings in the lives of unaccompanied youth
Despite the rhetoric of inclusion and equal participation, educational practices end up producing social exclusion. In this research, we are interested in practices where outcomes fail to match efforts with respect to students’ opportunities to participate equally. The research was carried out as a focused ethnography with young people who arrived in Finland as unaccompanied asylum-seeking youths. The results show…
2023
Social practices with young refugees and asylum seekers: Emergency policies and shortcomings of the Spanish reception system
Young refugees and asylum seekers face obstacles in their socio-educational pathways and employability in Catalonia (Spain). This study analyzes the social practice of professionals who provide reception services to young people in not-for-profit organizations. The results show the lack of transformative capacity of social practice, the precariousness of resources, and increasingly restrictive policies weakening the objective of social intervention to…
2023
Ukrainian parents’ engagement with Czech public schools: Challenges and roles for parents
Even though school-based parental involvement has been linked to academic and behavioral benefits for children, little is known about the links between parental involvement for Ukrainian refugee families and contextual factors such as Czech language fluency, teaching styles, and student assessment. Identifying the barriers and limitations to cooperation between the home and the school might contribute to helping refugee children…
2023
Educational inclusion or inequality? Opportunities and barriers for refugees with a temporary suspension of deportation for the purpose of training in the German vocational education and training system
This article examines the legal novelty of the so-called ‘Ausbildungsduldung’ (temporary suspension of deportation for the purpose of training) in Germany. Since research on this topic is still sparse, the current article analyses the impact of toleration status on training trajectories of young refugees. These trajectories are strongly linked to the completion of vocational training and thus successful integration achievements.…
2023
Quality of life and social inclusion of migrants and refugees attending an elderly care training in four Mediterranean countries: Results from the HERO project
The progressive population ageing observed in Western countries determines a growing need for long-term care for older people. At the same time, migrants and refugees often have integration difficulties in regards to the hosting country society and labour market, with one reason being the lack of EU recognition of the educational degrees obtained in their native country. Creating educational opportunities…
2023
Adjusting the teaching process for refugee students from Ukraine. The perspective of Polish teachers
Teaching refugee students in inclusive classrooms is challenging for Polish teachers as the number of these students in schools has dramatically increased. This research aimed to explore Polish teachers’ experiences with adapting their teaching process for these students. An Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis was used, and 30 teachers participated in six focus group interviews. Two themes were identified in the analysis:…
2023
Recognising the newcomer: Education policy and teaching practices in Norway and England
Education policies in different countries recognise the needs and abilities of newcomer students in different ways, with consequences for their social inclusion and academic progress at school. We highlight the importance of context to debates around the politics of recognition in newcomer education by drawing on qualitative research in Norwegian and English secondary schools. Taylor’s (1994) political theory of “recognition”…
2023
Participatory architecture workshops with asylum seekers and local people: Experiences from the Crossing Cultures project in Southern Italy
Background: Participatory architecture can promote dialogue across cultures while working together to create physical outputs. A team of academics with a background in architecture, psychology and health sciences evaluated a participatory architecture workshop in Southern Italy as part of the Crossing Cultures project. The goal was to explore participants’ experiences and perceived benefits. In the context of situated learning, the…
2023
Increased educational disadvantages of refugee students in German language support classes during Covid-19 school closures in Austria: Perceptions and pedagogical reactions of Austrian teachers
The integration of students with a migration biography into the national school and education systems is prioritized by several countries across the world (Bešić et al. 2020; Hilt 2017). However, such a drive for ensuring inclusive educational opportunities for all students varies from one school system to another. The interpretations of the conceptual meaning of inclusive education do not always…
2023
Policy and practice on inclusive higher education in the UK and Kenya: A theoretical framework and recommendations
This article presents a study that was undertaken as part of a collaborative project between a UK university and a university in Kenya. The study aimed to investigate policies and practices of Inclusion and Inclusive Education in the two universities. Here, we present how Inclusion and Inclusive Education are conceptualized in the two geographical contexts, and review literature on Inclusion,…
2023
Governing resettlement beyond safety: Multilevel governance as a model for sustainable resettlement of unaccompanied refugee children in rural Sweden?
This article explores the sustainability of the resettlement of unaccompanied refugee children from their perspective. Against the backdrop of a critical assessment of the multilevel governance of resettlement, it compares two rural municipalities. Unaccompanied refugee children in the municipality with a disempowering local governance model were hindered to engage with civil society, while in the municipality with an enabling model,…
2023
Journeys to higher education in displacement: A narrative portrait of Syrian refugees in Turkish universities
Despite high aspirations to pursue personal development, self-sustaining employment, socio-economic integration, and stable futures in their host, origin, or resettlement countries through higher education, intersecting legal, economic, linguistic, and sociocultural barriers severely constrain refugees’ options. There is limited research on how refugee students overcome these barriers to access higher education, particularly in displacement settings like Turkey, which perpetuates a deficit…
2023
A multimodal ethnographic approach: Exploring the social and educational experience of young refugees and asylum-seekers
This study provides an in-depth understanding of the structural and contextual factors that foster or hinder the educational pathways and employment opportunities of young refugees and asylum-seekers in Catalonia (Spain), and how their expectations and aspirations vary and change before and after forced migration. The authors implemented a multimodal ethnographic methodology that explore, the potential of photography, to analyze how…
2023
Countering the deficit: A policy critique of the Syrian refugee education response in Turkey
Turkey hosts the largest number of refugees of any nation globally, and the influx of Syrian refugees has placed massive strain on the Turkish education system. In response, the Promoting Integration of Syrian Children to the Turkish Education System (PICTES) program was implemented to help strengthen the Turkish public-school system and increase education access for Syrian refugee students. This chapter…
2023
Syrian refugee students’ sense of school belonging and educational aspirations
This study investigated the Syrian refugee students’ sense of school belonging and educational aspirations in Türkiye. The study used a mixed methodology. The sample consisted of 318 Syrian students in middle (grades 5–8) and high schools (grades 9–12) in a metropolitan municipality located in a large city in central Anatolia in the fall of the 2021–2022 academic year. The quantitative…
2023
The organization of school integration for refugee children and youth in Germany: Identifying gaps in the current state of knowledge
According to international and European law, such as the Declaration of Human Rights (Article 26), the International Convention for the Rights of Children, and the European Reception Directive, Germany is obliged to grant refugee children similar access to education as to its nationals. While some German states incorporate refugee children in regular classes, other states set up so-called ‘welcome classes’…
2023
Ukrainian refugees struggling to integrate into Czech school social networks
We provide a brief insight into the integration of Ukrainian refugees in school social networks in the Czech Republic following the mass migration caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Our sample contains twelve classrooms with a total of 266 students in grades 5 to 9; 21.05% of the students were of Ukrainian origin. We employed multiplex exponential random graph…
2023
Young refugees’ inclusion and belonging upon entering upper secondary education in Norway
In Norway, as in other Western countries, the increasing number of refugees in recent years has turned the education of refugee children and young people into a central issue. The challenge countries face is how their education provisions can contribute to young refugees’ successful inclusion into mainstream schools as well as into host societies. The aim of this chapter is…
2023
Multicultural education and students with special needs: A case study from Greece
Students of different ethnic backgrounds (e.g. refugees, immigrants) who also have special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are considered as a ‘high risk’ group within the school context, whereas teachers do not realise how deeply the teaching process is embedded within their students’ own cultures or the stigma or bullying they might face. The aim of the present study was…
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
Inclusion of Ukrainian children with special educational needs (from among displaced people) in the Czech Republic
The article presents the results of a study of the peculiarities and difficulties of educational and social inclusion of Ukrainian children with special educational needs who found protection from the war in the Czech Republic. The sample was formed according to the criteria we defined. The results obtained using a semi-structured interview testify to the social significance of the outlined…
2024
The social cohesion dilemma: Theoretical reflections on critical music pedagogy
Critical pedagogy has become a crucial element in managing post-migration societies, especially concerning the social cohesion dilemma that diversity creates. Through an ethnography of critical music pedagogy with refugee youth that emerged from an activist context in the city of Dresden, Germany, this article demonstrates what is at stake for empowerment. Music pedagogy that aspires to be critical remains a…
2024
“We try to give a good life to the children”: Refugee parents and ECE professionals experiences of the early childhood education partnership in Norway
Introduction: Children in Europe and Norway grow up in an increasingly culturally diverse society. As of 2022, 20% of children in Norwegian Early Childhood Education (ECE) institutions have a minority background. It is essential for parents and ECE professionals to work together to ensure a good start for these children. The partnership between the ECE institutions and parents is a…
2024
Researching educational barriers in participatory real-world labs: Vocational training of refugees in rural counties in Germany
Introduction: As a result of the large-scale arrivals of refugees and migrants, Germany is facing the challenge of providing inclusive education pathways not at least for a successful integration into the labor market. In our research project laeneAs (Ländliche Bildugnsumwelten junger Geflüchteter in der beruflichen Ausbildung/The Rural Educational Environments of Young Refugees in Vocational Training), we focus on educational barriers…
2024
Inclusion of Ukrainian schoolchildren seeking refuge from the war into the Czech education system
This paper addresses the inclusion of Ukrainian schoolchildren who were forced to leave their homes because of Russian military aggression. The research is aimed at identifying the specifics of the inclusive process regarding the children of war and analyzing the features that are different compared to traditional approaches to the inclusion of forced migrants. Building upon the results of a…
2024
Introduction
The book aims at a thorough investigation of critical dimensions of the socio-economic and labour market trajectories and prospects of young people Not in Employment, Education and Training (NEETs) in disadvantaged areas of the Mediterranean Southern Europe, namely in island, coastal or peripheral regions of Greece, Cyprus, Italy and Spain. Moreover, it aims at linking youth’s social situation and dynamics…
2024
Risk and protective factors in the training-employment trajectory of young adult migrants who have left the guardianship system
In recent years, young people's economic and employment possibilities have been compromised, especially in the case of vulnerable populations such as unaccompanied foreign minors who migrate to Spain and enter the guardianship system. The aim of this study was to identify this group's most representative training trajectories, and determine the risk and protective factors involved in their insertion to the…
2024
Online schooling and the digital divide: Challenges and opportunities for migrant students’ educational inclusion
This research note presents the key findings of a small-scale, mixed-methods international study which explored the challenges and opportunities of online schooling for the educational inclusion of Newly Arrived Migrant and Refugee Students (NAMRS). The study was conducted in 2022 in England, Germany and the Netherlands and the findings are based on the analysis of the experiences of NAMRS, their…
2024
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the inclusion of refugee students in Greek schools: Pre-service teachers’ views about distance learning
Over the last two years, the prolonged massive school closure due to COVID-19 has provoked significant constraints for refugee children. The present study aimed to investigate the perceptions of Greek pre-service teachers on refugee education during the COVID-19 pandemic. A questionnaire was addressed to 32 native university students (n = 32) who attended Education Departments in Western Macedonia in Greece.…
2024
Understanding how classroom drama workshops can facilitate social capital for newly arrived migrant and refugee adolescents: Insights from Denmark
Art-based interventions, such as classroom drama workshops (CDWs), increasingly form part of a collection of mental health-promoting activities introduced in school settings. While research points to the potential benefits of CDWs for the mental well-being of refugee and migrant adolescents, the mechanisms to such improvement are less understood. In this article we respond to the need for qualitative evidence of…
2024
Addressing social disparities in special education placement in three welfare states: Student demographic correlates of the share of students identified with special educational needs at the school level using TALIS data
The number of students with special educational needs (SEN) is growing rapidly. This study compared the correlations between the share of students identified with SEN and student diversity (socioeconomic status and ethnicity) at the school level in three countries. We used the principal questionnaire from the 2018 Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) to examine data from principals in three…
2024