How can the Icelandic primary school system meet the needs of refugee children and support their learning and development

• Main Author: Anna Sigríður Sveinbjörnsdóttir 1991-
• Other Authors: Landsbókasafn Íslands
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: Grunnskólanemar; Flóttamenn; Barnasáttmáli Sameinuðu þjóðanna; Sérkennsla; Iceland
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1946/37875

Meistaraprófsritgerð í menntavísindum varin við Háskólann í Ósló The number of refugees arriving to Iceland over the past years has increased a lot, which has led to increased discussion in Iceland on how the country is managing to include refugee students in the school. The school can play an important role in helping the children to deal with their emotions and to establish meaningful connections in the new society, enabling and creating the children’s sense of belonging. The study is a qualitative study based on the results of semi-structured interviews with children studying in Icelandic primary schools. The purpose of this study was to gain insight in how refugee children at primary level experience Icelandic schools. The main results of the study indicate that the children are happy at school, they feel like they have received good support at their school even though many of them struggle with certain topics, homework and learning the language. The results also show that children in welcoming classes are not as included with their Icelandic peers as the children in mainstream class and they seem to struggle more with establishing friendships with their Icelandic peers. However, many of the children in both groups had experienced bullying at school. The conclusion is that there is a need to change the structure of welcoming refugee children in Icelandic primary schools in order to make refugee children more included. Key words: Refugee children, primary school, education, UN Convention on the Rights of the Child