This study aims to connect the dots between policies and practices in teachers' support for migrant students in Scotland. A universalist approach to integration of migrants in schools requires teachers to collaborate with specialists such as English as Additional language to support students withing the mainstream provision. In doing so they exercise a form of relational agency (Edwards, 2010) to mobilise the knowledge that exists within the school community. While contexts matter for the formation and dynamics of collaborative relationships and networks in schools, which contexts matter and how, however, often remains unestablished. Our study observes how teachers in three different schools collaborate with specialists to enact policy guidelines. The research questions are: 1) how the forms of teachers' collaboration reflect the policy arrangements within their school culture, and 2) in students’ perceptions. The study is informed by the principles of inclusive pedagogy, which sees diversity as the norm. In particular, the principle of inclusive collaboration among teachers and school staff is used as an interpretative lens for interactions that underlie teachers’ relational agency (Pantic & Florian, 2015) to codify the intensity and nature of teachers' collaborations and networks supporting migrant students, especially in their interactions with specialists. The study triangulates data collected with mixed methods, including social network and policy analysis, with qualitative fieldwork data collected in three schools in Scotland - Juniper, Beech, and Rowan (pseudonyms) - over the course of three years, from 2020 to 2023. The findings show how schools operating in the same policy setting have taken different approaches to addressing student diversity in their internal policies and to inform their daily practice. Teachers in different schools have used specialist support, such as the English for Additional Language teacher, differently in ways that are more or less aligned to the principles of inclusive pedagogy. Findings also show that policies largely focus on academic learning, with little to no mention of socialization and a sense of belonging, which is also reflected in students’ perceptions. Migrant students are primarily seen as speakers of a different language, flattening the heterogeneity of the group. Overall, this study unveils teachers’ relational practices in the support of migrant students at the intersection between the prevailing approach in Scotland and school-specific cultures of collaboration.

Edwards, P. A. (2010). Relational Agency: Working with Other Practitioners. In Being an Expert Professional Practitioner (pp. 61–79). Springer Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3969-9_4 Pantić, N. & Florian, L. (2015). Developing teachers as agents of inclusion and social justice. Education Inquiry 6(3), 333-351.