Across Europe, the growing number of pupils with immigrant backgrounds has increased the need to examine multilingual learners’ school experiences beyond academic outcomes, including the social and emotional dimensions shaping educational equality (Immigrant Students and the Effectiveness of Basic Education 2025). In Finland, as elsewhere in Europe, this requires understanding how belonging and recognition develop in everyday school life.

This study investigates immigrant pupils’ life narratives and experiences of being heard in Finnish comprehensive schools, drawing on culturally responsive pedagogy. These perspectives resonate across Europe, where belonging is a shared concern and diversity is viewed as a resource. Pedagogical practices aim to challenge structures that reproduce inequality while supporting learning and belonging (Ladson-Billings 1995; Lucas & Villegas 2013; Abdulhameh et al., 2024; Alisaari et al. 2025b).

Belonging has become central in diverse societies (Cummins 2021; Kauhanen et al. 2024; Tiermas et al. 2025). Yuval-Davis (2006) describes it as an emotional attachment shaped by ethical and political values, while Berry’s (1997) acculturation theory highlights the importance of maintaining cultural heritage alongside integration—an idea relevant to European integration debates.

Finnish research has focused mainly on language‑aware pedagogy (Alisaari et al., 2022; 2025a), leaving pupils’ own accounts of recognition and support during school transitions underexplored (Abdulhameh et al., 2024; Bruhn et al., 2023; Juutinen, 2018; Kilpi-Jakonen et al., 2022). Similar gaps appear in European studies. While ethnic diversity may be valued, other identities, such as gender and sexual diversity, can be less accepted (Alisaari et al., 2025a). These findings highlight the need to understand how inclusion ideals intersect with experiences of racism, homophobia, and exclusion.

The study aims to promote educational equity by strengthening pupils’ sense of belonging and agency. Research shows that immigrant‑background pupils often lack equal opportunities for academic success (Pulkkinen et al., 2024), underscoring the need to support wellbeing, learning, and participation across Europe.

This study focuses on two research questions:  

1. What kinds of life stories and experiences do immigrant pupils share about their home countries and Finnish schools? 

2. What experiences of being heard do they describe?

By foregrounding pupils’ narratives, the study examines how belonging is negotiated through school practices, peer relations, and societal discourses, aligning with European goals to strengthen learner voice and inclusion.

Situated at the intersection of policy, pedagogy, and multilingual classroom realities, the study emphasises children’s rights and the importance of listening to their perspectives. Although belonging and participation are linked to wellbeing, these connections remain insufficiently explored in European contexts (Anderson & Graham, 2016). As the EU prioritises inclusion and equity, understanding how these principles materialise in daily school life is essential. This study contributes insights into how immigrant pupils narrate recognition, safety, and participation, informing efforts toward more inclusive and socially just education across Europe.

This study employs qualitative ethnographic discourse analysis, specifically nexus analysis (Scollon & Scollon 2004), to investigate immigrant pupils’ life narratives and their experiences of being heard in Finnish comprehensive schools. Nexus analysis conceptualises discourse as semiotic and embodied social action situated at the intersection of historical, cultural, and interactional trajectories. Language use is understood as one element within these broader sociocultural processes (Tiermas 2025). In this study, the researcher acts as an active participant in the field, engaging dialogically with pupils and the school environment. The research process is iterative, flexible, and sensitive to context. For this study, the data consist exclusively of 10 pupil interviews. The participants interviewed for the study are between 15 and 22 years old. The data will also include pupil-produced work: audiovisual and visual art. The visual art activities involve three classes of pupils aged 8 to 16. Nexus analysis is particularly suited to combining multimodal data and examining belonging and participation within their situated contexts. The method has been widely applied in Finland in studies of language biographies, language education, multilingual learning, teacher education, and integration (Intke-Hernandez 2020; Kuure et al. 2018; Pietikäinen 2012; Strömmer 2017; Tiermas 2025). It offers a powerful analytical lens for identifying how agency and belonging are shaped through everyday practices of interaction and meaning-making. The analysis proceeds in two stages relevant to this article: Narrative and interactional analysis of pupil interviews, focusing on how pupils describe their school experiences, cultural adaptation, and encounters with teachers and peers. Multimodal analysis of pupil work, examining visual, auditory, and textual elements in relation to pupils’ backgrounds and self-representations. The preliminary findings are synthesised through the concept of the nexus of practice, identifying key intersection points where social action, spatial context, and cultural meanings converge. Nexus analysis thus enables a multidimensional understanding of how pupils construct and communicate their experiences across time, space, and interaction, making it particularly valuable for research in culturally diverse school settings.

The preliminary findings of the study indicate that hearing and understanding immigrant pupils’ life narratives is a complex and often challenging process, particularly during the early stages of schooling when pupils have limited proficiency in the language of instruction. The lack of shared linguistic resources makes verbal storytelling difficult, and many pupils initially struggle to articulate their experiences, emotions, and memories through spoken language. In this context, non-verbal modes of expression, such as drawings, visual art, photographs, movement, and sports, emerge as crucial alternative pathways for communication. These forms of expression allow pupils to convey aspects of their identities, histories, and emotions that they cannot yet express verbally. Artistic and embodied practices thus function as meaningful narrative tools, enabling pupils to share fragments of their life stories and to participate in classroom interaction despite linguistic barriers. The life narratives shared by pupils often include themes of survival, transition, and resilience. Many describe experiences of displacement, separation, uncertainty, or significant change. These narratives highlight the emotional and psychological dimensions of migration that may remain invisible in everyday school practices unless explicitly invited and sensitively received. From the perspective of being heard, the preliminary findings underscore the importance of empathetic and attuned encounters between pupils and adults. Moments in which teachers or other school staff listen with patience, openness, and genuine interest are described by pupils as deeply meaningful. Such encounters contribute to feelings of safety, recognition, and belonging, key elements in the early formation of trust within the school community. Overall, the preliminary findings suggest that supporting immigrant pupils’ narrative expression requires multimodal approaches and relational sensitivity. When pupils experience that their stories, verbal or non-verbal, are received with understanding, the foundation for participation, wellbeing, and belonging is significantly strengthened.

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