The aim of the project is to identify and to characterize what conditions are created in the Czech and Norwegian schools for immigrant children adaptation and to analyze the role of the key players in this adaptation process. The project presents a dissertation thesis which is a comparative study. The main research questions are: What is the current situation in immigrant children adaptation in Czech and Norwegian schools? And what are the roles of the main actors in the immigrant children adaptation process in the Czech and Norwegian school context?

School adaptation is being traditionally understood as a linear process. And if some difficulties appear in the adaptation process, there were family and/or children who were traditionally blamed (Brizuela and Garcia-Sellers, 1999). There are few drawbacks in this traditional approach which Brizuela and Garcia-Sellers (1999) comments in their work. They call for a broader conceptualization of the term (see their triangulation process, which includes variables related both to child, family and school), as well as McDermott (1987) which claims that adaptation also includes social, political, cultural, affective and cognitive factors that are equally important aspects of the adaptation process. Therefore, in the dissertation thesis I consider the school adaptation for a triangular process as well as Brizuela and Garcia (1999) and for complex process which include wider social, cultural and political context as well as McDermott.

Authors usually talks about the immigrant children as about children with special needs, such as for example Kristin McCarthy (1998) does. She presents several challenges which immigrant pupils have to face in the phase of adapting to the school environment in a foreign country. These challenges are: learning a new language, leaving home, life in two separate worlds, and confrontation with stereotypes. Harrison (1990) argues that the distinction between family environment and school environment creates often stress for the immigrant child because immigrant children often experience a discontinuity between these two important contexts which are important for their further development.

Immigrant children do not always adapt to the major society without any problems. Alvo (1991) conducted a research which says that children who have good results at school and are resistant, have a well-functioning social network composed of parents, friends and teachers who balance the discomfort of new life events. Puerto Rican´s research (1995) on the other hand has showed that when the immigrant children are able to acculturate to the mainstream life, teachers and parents reduce their support and it is often that than there is an increases in using drug and doing crime by immigrant children. In the literature, there are several paradigms that explain why some foreigners adapt to the school environment better than others and why some individuals go through the whole process better than others. This paradigm calls McCarthy (1998) as: developing view, multidimensional model and positivist approach.

These theoretical framework and background are also fundamental for me: Institutional theory, network theory (Masera, 1993), the concept of acculturation strategies (Berry 1992, 2002, 2006), Bourdieu: Culture Capital; Giddens: Models of Integration.

Bankston, C. and Zhou, M. (1997). The social adjustment of Vietnamese American adolescents: Evidence for a segmented assimilation approach. In Social Science Quarterly, 78, 508 – 523. Berreday (1964) Comparative Method in Education. New York: Holt. Berry, J. W. (1992). Acculturation and Adaptation in a New Society. Available from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-2435.1992.tb00776.x/abstract Berry, J. W. (2002). Psychological, Socio-cultural, and Marital Adaptation of Turkish Immigrants. In International Journal of Psychology. 37,13–26. Berry, J. W. (2006). Immigrant Youth: Acculturarion, Identity, and Adaptation. Available from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1464-0597.2006.00256.x/abstract Bray, Adamson, Mason (2007). Comparative Education Research. Approaches and Methods. The University of Hong Kong: Springer. Bray a Thomas (1995). Methodology and Focus in Comparative Education. Available from http://147.8.214.206/f/acadstaff/376/Bray_Methodology_%26_Focus.pdf Brizuela a Garcia-Sellers (1999): School Adaptation: A Triangular Process. Available from http://aer.sagepub.com/content/36/2/345.abstract ČSÚ (2015). Vývoj počtu cizinců v ČR v letech 2004 – 2013. Available from https://www.czso.cz/documents/11292/25687697/c01R01_2013.pdf/6e2eb29d-9102-4707-ad6c-f47f27dcbc06?version=1.0 Goodrick, D. (2014). Comparative Case Studies. In Methodological Briefs Impact Evaluation 9, Florence: UNICEF Office of Research. Lor (2011). International and Comparative Librarianship. Available from https://pjlor.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/chapter-4-draft-2011-04-20.pdf Masery, D. (1993): Theories of International Migration. Available from https://cis.uchicago.edu/outreach/summerinstitute/2011/documents/sti2011-parks-theories_of_international_migration.pdf Mason, M (2007). Different Models, Different Emphases, Different Insights. In Comparative Education Research. Approaches and Methods. The University of Hong Kong: Springer. McDermott, R. P. (1987). The exploration of minority school failure, again. In Anthro-pology and Education Quarterly. 18 (4), 361-364. McCarthy, K. (1998). ADAPTATION OF IMMIGRANT CHILDREN TO THE UNITED STATES: A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE. Available from http://crcw.princeton.edu/workingpapers/WP98-03-McCarthy.pdf. Phillips, D. (2006). Comparative education: method. In Research in Comparative and International Education. 1(4), 304-319. Rumbaut, R.G. (1997). Paradoxes (and orthodoxies) of assimilation. In Sociological Perspectives. 40, 483 – 511. Rust, V. D., Soumare, A., Pescador, O., Shibuya, M. (1999). Research Strategies in Comparative Education. In Comparative Education Review. 43(1), 86-109. Rust, V. D. (2003) Method and Methodology in Comparative Education. In Comparative education Review. 47(3), 3-7. SSB (2015). ANmeldte lovbrudd. Oslo: Statistic sentralbyra. Available from www.ssb.no/lovbrudda Watson, K. (1998). Memories, Models and Mapping: The Impact of Geopolitical Changes on Comparative Studies in Education. Compare: A Journal of Comparative Education, 28 (1), 5-31.