Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, more than 350,000 Ukrainian refugee children have arrived in Germany (Statistisches Bundesamt, 2024). Among them are children with disabilities, whose educational experiences remain largely invisible in research, policy, and practice. While global displacement has reached unprecedented levels—exceeding 120 million forcibly displaced persons worldwide, nearly 40% of them children (UNHCR, 2024)—little is known about how disability and forced migration intersect over time, particularly in relation to education.

Existing research has highlighted the multiple and intersecting forms of exclusion faced by refugee children with disabilities, especially during the early phase of arrival in host countries (Bayraklı, 2024; Malloy et al., 2023). However, far less attention has been paid to how these experiences evolve after several years of residence. This planned follow-up study builds on earlier qualitative research that explored the educational experiences of Ukrainian refugee children with disabilities during their first one to two years in Germany (Bacakova, 2025). It shifts the analytical focus to children who have now been living in Germany for approximately four years, asking how longer-term residence shapes experiences of schooling, recognition, exclusion, and belonging.

The research is theoretically framed by Emmanuel Levinas’s philosophy of ethical responsibility to the Other (Levinas, 1986), alongside inclusive education scholarship that challenges technical and procedural approaches to inclusion (Slee, 2011; Veck, 2009, 2014). From this perspective, inclusion is understood as an ethical relation grounded in attentiveness, responsibility, and openness to difference, rather than merely as access to support measures or educational placement.

The study is further informed by the concept of epistemic ignorance (Kuokkanen, 2008), which highlights how educational institutions may overlook or marginalize non-dominant ways of knowing. Applied to the context of forced migration, this concept allows for an examination of how refugee children with disabilities continue to encounter educational practices that prioritize perceived deficits while disregarding the epistemes shaped by displacement, disability, and transnational educational histories.

By foregrounding children’s voices (Messiou et al., 2024), the planned paper explores whether themes identified in the initial study - such as children’s ongoing struggle for recognition and experiences of epistemic ignorance - persist, transform, or intensify over time. In doing so, it contributes to current debates on inclusive refugee education and global justice by questioning assumptions that time alone leads to inclusion, and by emphasizing the enduring ethical responsibility of education systems toward refugee children with disabilities.

The follow-up study is part of a broader mixed-methods research project on the educational experiences and aspirations of Ukrainian refugee children with disabilities and their families in Germany. This phase of the research will draw on qualitative interviews with five Ukrainian refugee children with disabilities who have been living in Germany for approximately four years. The children will be between 8 and 15 years of age and will attend either mainstream or special schools. Participants will be recruited through non-governmental organizations and support networks working with refugee families and families of children with disabilities. Interviews will be conducted in Ukrainian or Russian, depending on the child’s preference, by bilingual researchers experienced in child-centered and ethically sensitive research. The interview design will be flexible and adapted to individual needs, allowing children to reflect on their educational trajectories, relationships at school, and future aspirations. The interviews will explore children’s past and present educational experiences in Germany, with particular attention to perceived changes over time. Topics will include school placement decisions, language learning, experiences of inclusion and exclusion, interactions with teachers and peers, and evolving educational and life aspirations. All interviews will be transcribed, translated into English, and analyzed using an inductive coding approach (Strauss & Corbin, 1994). The analysis will be informed by inclusive education theory (Slee, 2011), ethical perspectives on responsibility and recognition (Levinas, 1986; Veck, 2009, 2014), and epistemic justice (Kuokkanen, 2008), while remaining open to new themes emerging from the data. Findings will be considered in dialogue with results from the initial study to explore continuity and change across different lengths of residence.

The follow-up study is expected to provide deeper insight into how refugee children with disabilities experience education beyond the initial phase of displacement and settlement. While some challenges identified in earlier research (Bacakova, 2025) - such as limited recognition of children’s abilities and experiences - are likely to persist, the study is expected to reveal new dynamics related to longer-term residence, including shifts in aspirations, strategies for seeking recognition, and perceptions of belonging within schools. The findings are expected to challenge the assumption that inclusion naturally improves over time, instead showing how epistemic ignorance and deficit-oriented practices may remain embedded within educational institutions. At the same time, longer residence may enable children to articulate their perspectives more clearly and to critically reflect on their educational pathways. By highlighting these temporal dimensions, the paper aims to contribute to debates on inclusive refugee education and global justice, emphasizing the need for sustained ethical engagement, epistemic openness, and educational hospitality. The study will offer implications for educators, researchers, and policymakers seeking to develop inclusive education practices that recognize refugee children with disabilities not as problems to be solved, but as subjects whose voices, knowledge, and aspirations matter over time.

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