From February to May 2022, the war in Ukraine prompted Poland to accommodate 3.37 million refugees from conflict zones, in addition to 850 thousand Ukrainian economic migrants already residing in the ...country. A substantial proportion of these refugees, primarily mothers with children, swiftly integrated into the Polish educational system, with some children commencing schooling within a week of their arrival. This influx significantly diversified the then predominantly monolingual landscape of Polish schools. Given the uniqueness of this situation and the fact that Poland has historically remained mono-national and monolingual for decades, Polish teachers suffered from a lack of preparedness, resources and expertise to effectively navigate their teaching practices in multilingual classes. To understand the specificity of this situation, taking especially into account the perspective of educators, we have designed a qualitative study drawing on focus group and individual interview reports. We were particularly interested in determining how teachers' agency was activated in times of crisis. The findings reveal how the newly-emerging linguistic and cultural heterogeneity is perceived by teachers, how it is manifested in school and home environments, and the extent to which possibilities for synergies exist between the two. The findings also highlight the fact that, despite teachers' inexperience and unpreparedness for the new educational context, they instantly responded to the challenges that emerged. This can be exemplified by teachers' collaboration in material design as well as the willingness to participate in courses sensitizing to migrant students' needs (e.g., linguistic, educational, or emotional ones).
The survey of teachers’ perspectives on the teaching of refugees and immigrant pupils by Kurbegovic (2016) is used to evaluate five dimensions of teachers’ self-perception: ...Selfefficacy, Implementation Practices, Cultural Competence, Competence/Preparation and Student Needs. The present study is aimed at analysing the self-awareness of primary school teachers of the teaching of refugee and immigrant students in Italy. The survey of Kurbegovic within its 30 items (Cronbach’s Alpha = .86) was conducted on a sample of 190 teachers who teach in primary schools in Rome. After removing 2 items that are cross loading, the exploratory factor analysis (Maximum likelihood method with Oblimin rotation) confirms a five-factor structure and shows a good construct validity and reliability. Current research reveals that the survey of teachers’ perspectives on refugee and immigrant populations is appropriately adapted to assess Italian primary school teachers’ views. This tool demonstrates its usefulness not only for research but also for pedagogical practice and can help to create an inclusive classroom environment that provide students with equal access to the curriculum and learning experiences.
What happens when a monolingual school in an economically deprived area of an inner
city becomes a multilingual, multiracial school as a result of government policy
(The Immigration and Asylum Act)? ...How do children from asylum-seeking families, many
of whom have never had formal education prior to arriving in Scotland and all of
whom are new to the English language, make meaning of the school community? This
article will report on how a bilingual unit has become an integral part of the
mainstream school due to creative pedagogy. The article will discuss how this highly
mobile pupil population has enabled the school to take more cognisance of learner
perspectives and has allowed a creative pedagogy to emerge in the school.
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