Social acceptance of immigrant children in primary school

Slovenia is growing more and more diverse regarding nationality, ethnicity and religion. As many other countries, it is facing the challenge of immigration. Children establish their first contact with cultural difference in schools attended by children from various minorities and cultural backgrounds. More and more immigrant pupils are included into the Slovenian education system. Upbringing and education are essential in the process of including children of immigrants into a new environment. For a successful inclusion of immigrant children, it is necessary to find quality pedagogical practices within the concept of inclusion. The concept of inclusion in schools also includes the principle of interculturality. In the education system, this principle has to be present in different areas of intercultural activity. An intercultural school environment is an environment in which intercultural contacts are something of everyday occurrence, and ethical, cultural and linguistic differences are seen as an enrichment of the school environment, not as something unusual, different. As the shaper and moderator of the pedagogical process, the teacher has an important impact on the inclusion of immigrant pupils. Due to the ever more frequent migrations, intolerance of immigrants is growing in Europe. Slovenia is no different. Teachers as well as pupils that come across difference might react to it with intolerance and socially exclude immigrant pupils due to prejudice and stereotypes. Similarly, the lack of social and cultural capital might determine the level of social exclusion of immigrants. This master's thesis focuses on first generation immigrant children. These are children who were not born in Slovenia, their mother tongue is not Slovenian and who are included into the primary education system after having moved to Slovenia. These children belong to vulnerable groups of pupils and require special care when it comes to the inclusion in primary school. In the school environment, studies of peer relationships are quite common. They are usually conducted on normative samples of pupils, but less is known about subgroups. Subgroups of pupils often have certain particularities that lead to bigger problems in interpersonal relationships with peers. Socially isolated pupils run a higher risk of developmental and psychosocial problems in adulthood. This is why we dedicated the empirical part to the examination of the social acceptance of (first generation) immigrant pupils in the first triad of primary school. In the study, we used the descriptive method of pedagogical research and a combination of qualitative and quantitative research approaches. The study included 97 pupils of the first triad of a Ljubljana primary school, aged 6–9, of which seven were immigrant pupils, and six of their teachers. The empirical part presents the analysis of the sociometric test used to measure social acceptance, the in-depth analysis of interviews with pupils and teachers, and the results of observations made during the study. The study showed that immigrant pupils in the first triad are less socially accepted by their peers due to various factors. The thesis contributes to the existing studies of immigrant children, while providing an insight into subjective perceptions of peers about immigrant pupils. With the results of this study, we would like to draw attention to the meaning of good interpersonal relationships in the class and to the importance of fighting prejudice and stereotypes among the young. Above all, we wish to encourage teachers to raise the social and cultural capital of immigrant pupils. Immigrant pupils must receive support and adjustments in many forms to be able to integrate successfully into the class