‘They usually look happy.’ approaches to the adaptation of Ukrainian refugees in Czech schools

Abstract

After the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, a high number of Ukrainian refugee children came to the Czech Republic, a country with little previous experience with refugee schooling. This study explored how Czech lower secondary schools in the 2022/2023 academic year managed to adapt to Ukrainian refugee students. We collected data from six schools that received high numbers of Ukrainian students; we interviewed principals, teachers, Ukrainian students, and their parents. The findings show that principals and teachers prioritised the psychological dimension of school adaptation in terms of the well-being of the Ukrainian students, and the sociocultural dimension in terms of building their social relationships with Czech peers and teachers. Academic adaptation took second place. This prioritisation contributed to creating a pleasant schooling experience for the Ukrainian students but also resulted in lower academic demands on them. This may negatively affect their future educational opportunities.