Conference Program

The Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 fundamentally reshaped educational realities across Europe and led to a substantial increase in the number of Ukrainian pupils in Czech schools. The Czech Republic is among the countries hosting the highest proportion of people under temporary protection (Eurostat, 2025), which places significant demands on schools to ensure equitable access to education and to support the meaningful participation of newly arrived pupils. Although national and international policies emphasise inclusive education, a persistent gap remains between these aspirations and pupils’ everyday experiences (Ainscow, 2020; Slee, 2018). This study focuses exclusively on the perspectives of Ukrainian and Czech lower secondary pupils and explores how they experience the inclusion of Ukrainian classmates in school life.

The study adopts a qualitative design based on semi-structured interviews with 16 Ukrainian and 16 Czech pupils from four lower secondary schools in the South Moravian Region. Data were analysed using thematic analysis, with attention to experiences of communication, classroom participation, peer relationships, and perceived support.

Findings indicate that Czech language proficiency is a central precondition for participation. Ukrainian pupils describe language as key to independence, confidence, and active engagement, while Czech pupils identify language differences as the main barrier to communication. At the same time, maintaining the Ukrainian language serves an important emotional function for newly arrived pupils and helps them cope with initial uncertainty.

Social inclusion emerges as a gradual and relational process rather than an automatic outcome of classroom placement. Friendships and informal peer support play a crucial role in reducing anxiety and strengthening Ukrainian pupils’ sense of belonging. However, a tendency towards linguistic clustering persists, which can limit broader peer interaction. Ukrainian pupils also report uncertainty about academic expectations and fear of making mistakes, which constrains their willingness to participate.

The findings demonstrate that pupil interviews provide indispensable insight into the subtle, everyday mechanisms of inclusion that are not always visible from an institutional perspective. They suggest that effective support goes beyond language instruction alone and requires systematically creating opportunities for safe communication, cooperation, and relationship-building among peers. For practice, this implies the need to design teaching and school activities that actively foster participation, amplify pupils’ voices, and contribute to making diversity a normal and valued feature of the school community rather than an exceptional condition requiring special treatment.