Education International Research
Conclusions and general recommendations The aim of this volume is to bring together experiences from Germany, Italy, Spain and Sweden, with regard to the education of newly-arrived students. Four general observations can be made to explain why educational systems have failed to provide meaningful and equal education to these students:
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a.
Schools are trying, in various ways, to change their newlyarrived students in terms of the students’ language, way of learning, culture, values, and future dreams. But they are doing very little, if anything, to change themselves, their organisations, and internal social and pedagogical practices.
b.
Schools tend to primarily shift the responsibility to external factors: insufficient resources, lack of specialised, second language and language support teachers, absence of coordination and cooperation with other sectors and political-administrative levels in society, and the “large influx of refugees�. Even the lack of professional development of school staff is linked to resources.
c.
Instead of making every effort to include newly-arrived children into the mainstream, schools prefer to segregate them in their own classes and groups, not because it is in the best interests of children, but because it is anticipated as an easier model for schools themselves. Research-based recommendations on an individualised approach, including sometimes separate classes, are mistakenly taken as a justification for this policy.
d.
A comprehensive framework for providing a structure of opportunity (Merton, 1996) to newly-arrived students through the educational system has been replaced by fragmented local projects, reliant on civil society and dependent on the individual efforts of committed teachers and principals.