Students with refugee background in the Polish educational system in the context of a lockdown period

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to analyze chosen problems and challenges related to developing teachers’ competencies to work in a culturally diverse environment (Polish reality) in the context of the first lockdown period. The text consists of two complementary parts. The first one shows the main issues connected to teacher education from the perspective of higher education. The second one presents the situation of students from refugee backgrounds related to their participation in remote education during the lockdown period (including the research interviews carried out by the author of the chapter). The analyses presented in the chapter show that one of the priorities of teacher education is to develop their professional competencies in the field of providing remote education with culturally diverse groups taking into account the needs of students from migrant backgrounds (especially refugees). The interviews conducted by the author of the chapter present the fact that remoteeducation was associated with many difficulties for refugee students. This resulted from the fact that the teachers did not take into consideration the situation and special needs of this group of students. This chapter may be useful for anyone interested in preparing teachers to work in a culturally diverse environment taking into account new challenges. The issues analyzed in it may provide inspiration for designing further research on the teachers’ competencies in remote education in a culturally diverse environment.