Currently, refugee Ukrainian students attend German mainstream schools, leading to growing heterogeneity in learning groups. More than 90,000 Ukrainian students admitted to Germany since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine through May 2022 need to be swiftly integrated (Deutschlandfunk Kultur, 2022). A topical concern for education policymakers and school practices is the problem of how best to integrate them into the German school system, with the objective of having them transition successfully into mainstream classes. Successful integration largely depends on how quickly refugee students can learn the German language and participate in the education system’s normal offerings (Freudenberg-Findeisen et al., 2021). Systematic research data on the school integration or inclusion of refugees is scarce (Preuß, 2018), but has already shown that social and ethnic segregation of students with migration backgrounds and refugee biographies works to the educational disadvantage of this vulnerable group (Baur & Gröpler, 2020). Refugee students are further disadvantaged among other things by the lack of appropriate pedagogical approaches (Schwaiger & Neumann, 2014) and by teachers feeling inadequately prepared for dealing with refugee students in the classroom (Schuelka, 2018). To help shrink the gap between the right to inclusive education and the potential educational disadvantage of refugee students, schools and teachers are encouraged to provide inclusive teaching offerings (UNESCO, 2023), for example, by employing a range of differentiation models and practices. Against this background, the aim of the present study was to examine which inclusive practices teachers implement to cater the needs of Ukrainian students and what limits the inclusion of Ukrainian students. To explore the research question, eight semi-structured guided interviews with (four) elementary and (four) advanced secondary school teachers were conducted and analyzed (intercoder reliability coefficient of .87 [Holsti, 1969]) using qualitative content analysis (Mayring, 2014). Findings reveal that teachers employ certain differentiated practices such as tiered assignments and tutoring systems. In contrast, differentiated practices such as mastery learning or open education, are seldomly implemented. Additionally, teachers reported a manifold of difficulties ultimately limiting the implementation of differentiated practices. The main difficulty teachers mention is the language barrier. These results, practical implications as well as future lines of research are discussed.

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