The presentation investigates the educational integration of Polish students and students with migration backgrounds within the Polish school system. Recognizing the profound impact of migration on a child's educational journey, this research centers on their perspectives, guided by Lundy's participation model (2007), which emphasizes children's voice and agency. As Poland experiences cultural diversity due to increased migration, understanding effective integration strategies is crucial for promoting equitable educational environments. This study explores the integration process within one of the elementary Polish schools, using insights from a school-based initiative to cultivate intercultural understanding and learning.

The data comes from the innovative "Everyone has the right to be different" project at a 4th and 5th grade in a state school in Warsaw, supervised by researchers from the Faculty of Education, University of Warsaw. Launched in 2023, the project, the findings of which can serve as a model for the Polish education system, aims to integrate students with migrant backgrounds alongside their Polish peers. It values all languages of origin equally, using English as the initial language of instruction. The curriculum designed for the project promotes linguistic and cultural heritage sharing and facilitates a shift from multiculturalism to interculturalism, fostering interaction among diverse groups. It cultivates pro-social attitudes and offers a basis for functioning in a multicultural world (Ortega & Sánchez 2011). It incorporates elements from student’s cultures using a unified language of instruction, transforming the entire school into a more inclusive community. Teachers receiving ongoing support and training focused on operationalizing inclusion and interculturalism using the Canadian 3H Model of Inclusive Teacher Education (Cohen et al., 2018) (head, heart, and hand), which enables the application of concepts according to the context, into practice.

This research is centered around a child-adult approach and prioritizes the stories of students with migration backgrounds after two years in the intercultural class. Data collection employs art-based research methods, such as analyzing children's drawings and creative writing, which acknowledges diverse communication styles. This approach prioritizes participatory techniques to amplify children's voices, complemented by teachers' and parents' data for a comprehensive analysis grounded in Art. 12 of the CRC, the right to participation and have a voice.

The study's core questions include: 1) how do children with migration background perceive their access to education and experiences within the Polish school system after two years of integration? 2) what factors promote student well-being, belonging, and social/educational inclusion within diverse classrooms, and how can they be reinforced? 3) what solutions and methods support students, teachers, and parents develop intercultural skills? 4) what practical challenges arose during project implementation, and how did students, parents, and teachers address them? This presentation will analyze these dimensions based on the experiences, perspectives, and voices of the students, educators, and parents.

The study employed methods grounded in the ethical research of adults with children (Alderson & Morrow, 2020) and the transformative humanistic approach (Mertens, 2021) prevalent in childhood studies and intercultural education. All participants, including students and their parents, provided consent and were informed about ethical research practices that emphasized their rights, data anonymization, and access to study findings. Before interviews with children, we designed safe space activities (Kennan, Brady & Forkan, 2019) to create a comfortable environment. These activities included students' stories gathered using the project method based on Lundy's participatory model, art-based methods combined with semi-structured interviews involving 18 children. These methods explored their perceptions of integrating into a cross-cultural peer group, the challenges and benefits they encountered, and their ideas for change, including sharing their stories through images and words. Focusing on children's voices, this approach is the foundation for interpreting their viewpoints on the issues affecting them. To conclude the interviews with children, we used joint activities designed to invite them to reflect on their everyday lives, their willingness to participate in various activities, and their perspectives on inclusion and influence, encouraging reflection. Additionally, 24 adult participants, including parents, teachers, and other school staff, participated in semi-structured interviews and systematically completed questionnaires featuring open-ended questions.

Findings from a study conducted in the second year of the experiment indicate the value of a participatory approach when creating educational environments for students with migration experiences. This approach should promote children’s participation, agency, and creativity, enabling them to express their views on issues relevant to their daily lives. Regular monitoring of the teaching, learning, and integration processes in the studied environment allows for the collection of valuable information on the effectiveness of the implemented process, including the approach used and methods are chosen, as well as potential future improvements that can be used to develop educational strategies applicable in a broader, systemic context. Actively engaging parents and teachers in the process enables the project team to address better challenges that may arise during various stages of activities. Through the activities undertaken in the project, students and teachers no longer perceive the migratory context - it becomes transparent: “All students in the class are children.” Research findings also show that children are essential social actors (Drieschner and Staege, 2019), actively contributing to adults’ understanding and analysis of childhood within migration studies. Children's opinions and suggestions are a key part of the conclusions summarizing the research while also being a matrix for change and enabling children’s agency, empowering them to participate actively in the learning process and social school life in the new context. The findings provide essential guidance for researchers, policymakers, and educators working to support students with migration backgrounds.

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