Discussing forced migration in classrooms with refugee students and their peers

Blog post Part of special issue: Refugee education: Challenging stereotypes and deficiency approaches

Discussing forced migration in classrooms with refugee students and their peers

Nick Haswell, Postdoctoral Researcher at Tampere University, Finland Maria Petäjäniemi, Postdoctoral Researcher at Tampere University, Finland Mervi Kaukko, Professor of Multicultural Education at Tampere University, Finland 15 Jun 2026

The ongoing instabilities in the world have caused a record number of refugee children to seek protection in Finland and continue their schooling there. Yet the Finnish education system has been slow to adapt to this new reality. The needs and experiences of refugee students are seldom mentioned in official documents, partly from a wish to avoid stigmatising students based on their background, and partly from the recognition of a great diversity within and between refugee groups.

In this blog post we report on key challenges encountered by Finnish teachers working with students with refugee backgrounds, including the invisibilisation of refugee issues in educational policy, and a lack of teacher training for working with students with refugee backgrounds (). One consequence of these challenges is that teachers often find it difficult to discuss refugee-related issues with students.

In our research, teachers highlighted a fear that talking about refugee issues might burden, frighten, or even traumatise students. The teachers, however, understood the importance of discussing the topic with their students, while at the same time trying to build a safe atmosphere in the classroom and to treat all students with respect. We identified three main approaches teachers took to achieve these goals: balancing, giving space and invisibilising.

Balancing

The most common approach teachers used was balancing the needs of their students. This means they gave refugee students space to talk about their experiences if they wished but did not themselves initiate discussions about potentially difficult or traumatic subjects. This flexible approach required that teachers adapt to changing situations and different group dynamics through their ability to read situations, to listen and to be present.

Giving space

Another approach teachers referred to was giving space to refugee-related themes into classroom discussions by more actively encouraging students to discuss their experiences. This approach included creating respectful and safe spaces for all students regardless of their background and keeping discussion themes conversational and appropriate for the group.

Invisibilising

A third approach used by teachers was invisibilising issues related to forced migration, including differences in students’ needs, and in students’ circumstances and backgrounds. Justifications for this approach included protecting students from being labelled, avoiding conflict or stigmatisation, and highlighting equality rather than difference. Yet, in these attempts equality often meant sameness, which may be problematic (see for example ). These difficulties are also reflected at the policy level, where racism is often framed through universal notions of equality that obscure its structural dimensions and make it harder for educators to address it explicitly (). Other common reasons for invisibilisation were uncertainty about what topics are safe enough to raise with children and how to sensitively handle these topics considering they might be somebody’s lived experiences.

‘Silence can be harmful if it is not based on the student’s own wishes … Silence can produce inequality – even if the intentions are good.’

Our research showed that talking about refugee-related issues presents a variety of challenges and that all three approaches mentioned above can be justified in certain situations. However, protecting refugee students should not lead to their silencing. Silence can be harmful if it is not based on the student’s own wishes. If enforced, silence can obscure part of refugee students’ identity while normalising the experiences of mainstream students. In this way, silence can produce inequality – even if the intentions are good.

Despite the difficulty of the subject matter, teachers reported that as refugee students’ language skills improve, they often want to talk about their experiences. Appropriately encouraging and giving space to these kinds of conversations in the classroom can support all students’ identities and sense of belonging and help break taboos around discussing their experiences. Giving refugee students support and respect in sharing their experiences can also go a long way towards dispelling misconceptions and misunderstandings about them as a group ().

Nick Haswell

Postdoctoral Researcher at Tampere University, Finland

Nick Haswell is an Australian-Finnish postdoctoral researcher in the fields of refugee studies and multicultural education at Tampere University, Finland. He is currently involved in projects related to refugee education in Finnish schools, and to newly arrived migrant students’ transitions in Finnish education and society. His previous research examined the significance of social participation, relational trust and environmental relations in the lives of young refugees. Haswell is a trained visual arts practitioner and teacher, and he brings these experiences and skills into his research work. He is interested in arts-based research methodologies, both in how these approaches illuminate the experiences of people beyond language and in how they facilitate and enhance the dissemination of research findings in ways that respect participant voices. These methodological interests dovetail with Haswell’s work as co-founder of the creative working group We Who Smile, which organises...

Maria Petäjäniemi

Postdoctoral Researcher at Tampere University, Finland

Maria Petäjäniemi, PhD, is a postdoctoral researcher at Tampere University, Finland, in the Faculty of Education and Culture. Her research examines the mechanisms and discourses of education systems that shape, enable and constrain equality, participation and change. She draws on critical fields of inquiry such as feminism and post-structuralism. Currently she works in national and international research projects related to forced migration and education.

Mervi Kaukko, Professor

Professor of Multicultural Education at Tampere University, Finland

Mervi Kaukko is a Professor of Multicultural Education at Tampere University, Finland, and an Adjunct Researcher at Monash University, Australia. Her research focuses on refugee students’ education and societal participation, often using participatory approaches informed by practice theory.