In the era of globalisation, communication and technological development, spatial migration is a way of life for many people around the world. In recent years, Russia has been among the top five most popular countries for migrants, with donor countries being mainly CIS countries (Rakhmonov, 2021). A certain proportion are children of migrants (12 % in 2021), who have to adapt to new conditions, where educational institutions play a crucial role (Telsaç et al., 2022, Rakhmonov, 2021, OECD, 2009). The category of children with migrant background is the subject of general educational policy worldwide, including after the ratification of the UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (1951) and after the adoption of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Legal Migration (UN, 2018).

At the same time, inclusive education, which is currently a priority for many countries, excludes any discrimination against children with special educational needs (Article 3, §4), including children with migrant background. But children with  migrant background remain "in the shadows" (UNESCO, 2020) or are subject to segregation (Demintseva, 2020, OECD, 2015). And even if the category of children with migrant background is the subject of general education policy, following the adoption of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (UN, 2018), the migrant status is rarely taken into account in school funding (UNESCO, 2019).

Research shows that there are significant differences in educational attainment between native children and children with migrant background  (Eurodice, 2019, OECD, 2018). They are justified by various factors, including teachers' attitudes and expectations (Van den Bergh et al., 2010; Diamond et al., 2004). Pupils find themselves in an unequal position with their peers due to language and knowledge deficit (Gromova et al., 2020), feel themselves vulnerable (Dalgaard et al., 2016), due to strong pressure from school and society. In this way, the risk of educational (un)success increases (Sedmak et al., 2021). The OECD (2018) noted that the school (educational) success of children with migrant background should become a central pillar of educational policy at the international level. In this inclusive learning process of children with migrant background, the role of teachers' attitudes can be assessed as significant.

We found a number of papers that identified the relationship of teachers' attitudes with the achievement of students with migrant background  (Van den Bergh et al., 2010; Peterson et al., 2016; Bonefeld et al., 2017; Bonefeld & Dickhäuser, 2018; Redding, 2019; Triventi, 2020; Vieluf & Sauerwein; 2024).

Earlier researchers in Russia have studied the practices of teachers' work with children with migrant background (Wang, Lan & Khairutdinova & Gromova, 2022, Omelchenko, 2018) and teachers' attitudes towards them in Russia (Demintseva, 2022, Gromova & Khairutdiniva, 2019). But the aspect of academic (non)success of children with migrant background  in relation to teachers' attitudes has not been studied yet in Russia. Thus, the relevance of this study is substantiated.

The aim of the study is to determine teachers' attitudes towards children with migrant background and the relationship between these attitudes with academic achievement of children with migrant background.

The research questions of the study:

1. What teachers' attitudes are most represented in Russian schools with regard to children with migrant background?
2. How can these attitudes of teachers be related to the educational (non)success of children with migrant background ?

This study is based on a mixed design (Creswell, 2014). Quantitative (survey of teachers), qualitative (interviews of teachers) methods as well as test results of students are included. The main empirical base is the results (contextual and basic data) of the project "Longitudinal Study of School Failure Factors" of the National University Higher School of Economics. A random stratified sampling approach was employed at the school level within one big Russian region to select study participants. A total of 50 schools were included in the sampling process, from which about 2500 third- and six-grades students were participated in the study and 300 teachers of those classes. 300 teachers of 3d and 6th classes have participated in the survey and 20 teachers took part in the interviews in the end of 2024. By using the START computer tool at the start of the third grades and the PROGRESS (Federiakin, Larina, & Kardanova, 2021) computer tool at the start of the six grades, the academic performance of the pupils in reading and mathematics was evaluated. The purpose of these instruments was to evaluate pupils' basic literacy, which includes reading and numeracy. At this point, initial data processing is underway. Teachers' explicit attitudes were measured using a questionnaire with Likert scale statements. The scale showed good reliability and validity. Using these data, a comparison (average results of a student with migrant background - average results of a non-migrant student (via t-test / regression) was conducted. Then using regression analysis, we searched for relationships between teachers' attitudes towards children with migrant background and students' academic outcomes.

It was found that only 21.7 per cent of the participating teachers had children with migrant background in their classrooms. Experience of moving from one country to another was identified for only 9.2 per cent of all teachers (300). This factor is often considered significant for teachers ‘attitudes and consequently students’ academic performance (Redding, 2019), which we will also consider. We explored teachers' attitudes towards children with migrant background, who have these students in their class. Teachers are more likely to see children with migrant background as successful (57%). More often than not, they believe that students with migrant background have good behaviour at school (80%). 16.9 per cent of teachers against 13.8 per cent believe that migrant students have low motivation to learn. More than 80 per cent of teachers are convinced that students with migrant background usually have positive friendly relationships with their peers. About 30 per cent of teachers believe that students usually interact passively with the teacher. The study of the affective component of teachers' attitudes towards migrant children showed that a large proportion of teachers are anxious when new migrant students are added to the class. They get frustrated when migrant students fail to keep up with the curriculum (78.4 %). About 45 per cent of teachers feel uncomfortable when migrant students around them speak their mother tongue. A significantly higher share of teachers is happy about the success of migrant children and their successful adaptation at school.

1.Bonefeld, M., & Dickhäuser, O. (2018). (Biased) grading of students’ performance: Students’ names, performance level, and implicit attitudes. Frontiers in psychology, 9, 481. 2.Bonefeld, M., Dickhäuser, O., Janke, S., Praetorius, A.-K., and Dresel, M. (2017). Migrationsbedingte Disparitäten in der Notenvergabe nach dem Übergang auf das Gymnasium. Entwicklungspsychol. Pädagog. Psychol. 49, 11–23. doi: 10.1026/0049-8637/a000163 3.Creswell, J. W. (2014). A concise introduction to mixed methods research. SAGE publications. 4.Demintseva, E. (2020). ‘Migrant schools’ and the ‘children of migrants’: constructing boundaries around and inside school space. Race Ethnicity and Education, 23(4), 598-612. 5.European Education and Culture Executive Agency, Eurydice. Integrating students from migrant backgrounds into schools in Europe – National policies and measures, Publications Office, 2019, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2797/819077. 6.OECD. 2015. Helping Immigrant Students to Succeed at School – and Beyond. Paris, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 7.OECD (2018). The resilience of students with an immigrant background: Factors that shape well-being. OECD Publishing, Paris. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264292093-en 8.Peterson, E. R., Rubie-Davies, C., Osborne, D., & Sibley, C. (2016). Teachers' explicit expectations and implicit prejudiced attitudes to educational achievement: Relations with student achievement and the ethnic achievement gap. Learning and Instruction, 42, 123-140. 9.Rakhmonov, A. K. (2021). Education of migrant children as a contribution to Russia’s future. Управление, 9(3), 137-146. 10.Redding, C. (2019). A teacher like me: A review of the effect of student–teacher racial/ethnic matching on teacher perceptions of students and student academic and behavioral outcomes. Review of educational research, 89(4), 499-535. 11.Sedmak M, Hernández-Hernandéz F, Sancho-Gil JM, et al. (2021). Migrant children’s integration and education in Europe: approaches, methodologies and policies.Ediciones Octaedro. 12.Triventi, M. (2020). Are children of immigrants graded less generously by their teachers than natives, and why? Evidence from student population data in Italy. International Migration Review, 54(3), 765-795. 13.UNESCO (2019). Global Monitoring Report 2019: Migration, Displacement and Education – Building Bridges, not Walls. Paris, UNESCO. 14.UNESCO. 2020. Global education monitoring report, 2020: Inclusion and education: all means all. Paris. UNESCO. 15.Van den Bergh, L., Denessen, E., Hornstra, L., Voeten, M., & Holland, R. W. (2010). The implicit prejudiced attitudes of teachers: Relations to teacher expectations and the ethnic achievement gap. American Educational Research Journal, 47(2), 497-527. 16.Vieluf, S., & Sauerwein, M. N. (2024). Does a lack of teachers’ recognition of students with migration background contribute to achievement gaps?. European Educational Research Journal, 23(1), 3-27.