Migration processes and refugee movements in Europe are often a consequence of global social and political fractures and upheavals, in which the European Union is becoming increasingly embroiled. At the same time, these dynamics potentially challenge established bodies of knowledge, professional practices, and institutional routines within education systems in Europe and may themselves produce fractures in established ways of knowing and doing. Against this backdrop, this paper examines continuities and fractures in how professionals and schools address newly arrived students in the context of the current refugee migration from Ukraine, and the knowledge they draw on.

Although refugee migration itself is not a new phenomenon in Europe, the arrival of refugee students from Ukraine following the Russian invasion in 2022 caught many European education systems unprepared. As a consequence, schools partly drew on contested practices of separation (Kemper et al. 2022) that exist since the 1970s and were reactivated during earlier refugee movements, particularly in the mid-2010s (Karakayali et al. 2017; Terhart/von Dewitz 2018).

However, refugee migration from Ukraine is subject to specific legal regulations and political discourses that differ from those regarding previous refugee movements (Council Implementing Decision 2022, European Commission 2022; KMK 2022). Moreover, schools are increasingly challenged by multiple societal and institutional fractures, including digitalisation, the post-pandemic situation, heightened mental health concerns among students, and a shortage of educational professionals.

Against this backdrop, the paper explores the extent to which professional knowledge repertoires and established institutional practices in response to forced migration from Ukraine, as well as images of ‚the migrant other‘ (Castro Varela/Mecheril 2010), are challenged, fractured, reconfigured, or stabilised.

Based on qualitative interview analyses with school teachers, principals, and school social workers in secondary schools in Germany, we focus on ways of knowing (and not knowing) that may be associated with new patterns of institutional (Gomolla/Radtke 2009) and symbolic inclusion and exclusion of newly arrived ‘refugee students’.

Drawing on practice theory (Reckwitz 2003; Berdelmann et al. 2019) and knowledge-sociological perspectives, the paper focuses on professional knowledge repertoires and institutional practices of (re-)establishing institutional and symbolic boundaries. From this perspective, school practices are understood to be both contingent and dynamic, and shaped by implicit, historically embedded knowledge repertoires (Reichertz 2007), as well as contemporary socio-political discourses.

The paper addresses the following questions:

• Which funds of knowledge and ways of knowing do educational professionals draw on when addressing current refugee migration in schools?
• Which narratives and what (institutional) knowledge about refugee migration and ‘the migrant other’ are enacted, contested, or reproduced in the context of the arrival of students from Ukraine?
• Which social distinctions and symbolic boundaries that foster inclusion and exclusion are constructed or deconstructed?

By analysing the continuities and fractures within school practices and professional knowledge repertoires, this paper sheds light on the (re-)production of new and existing forms of inclusion and exclusion of newly arrived students. It also reflects on the challenges posed to schools and educational research by the normalisation of racist and populist knowledge and anti-migration discourses in Europe.

The study’s qualitative research design combines guided interviews and document analysis. Empirically, it is based on 40 guided interviews conducted in 19 public secondary schools in two German federal states (Saxony-Anhalt and Rhineland-Palatinate). All of the participating schools had enrolled children and young people from Ukraine in the 2022/23 school year. The interviews aimed to elicit descriptions of current school practices in response to the forced migration from Ukraine, as well as reflections on perceived changes and/or continuities compared to schools’ previous responses to refugee movements (Karakaşoğlu 2024). Due to the fragmented nature of the German secondary school system, the sample includes different school types, including community/comprehensive schools and grammar schools. Historically, the latter have largely been exempt from accommodating newly arrived migrant students. To capture a range of professional perspectives, interviews were conducted with school principals, teachers in regular and reception classes, German-as-a-second-language teachers, and school social workers. This multi-perspectival approach is based on the assumption that interpretations of forced migration and practices of accommodating refugee students may vary according to professional position (tom Diek/Rosen 2023). To contextualise school practices within their political and legal framework, the interview data were complemented by an analysis of selected policy documents, including regulations and directives issued by the educational authorities of the two federal states. The data analysis followed a multi-stage coding process, based on the coding paradigm of Grounded Theory methodology (Strauss/Corbin 1990). First, dominant themes and organisational and pedagogical practices related to current refugee migration were identified. Subsequently, a selection of contrasting interview sequences was analysed in depth. This analysis focused on both narrated organisational and pedagogical practices, and the actors' reflective engagement with these practices within the interview situation. The reconstructed professional and institutional knowledge on forced migration was conceptualised as emerging from the shared experiential space of individual schools (Helsper 2008), the ‘conjunctive experiential space’ of professional milieus (Mannheim 1980), and from biographical experiences and professionalisation processes.

The analysis reveals three key findings. First, in the context of war-related migration from Ukraine, new ways of knowing and differentiating have partially emerged in schools. These are associated with specific narratives about ‘Ukrainian students’ and natio-ethno-cultural distinctions (Castro Varela/Mecheril 2010), based on the students and their families’ ‘national origin’. For instance, Ukrainian parents are portrayed as being highly ambitious with regard to their children’s education careers, while Ukrainian students are simultaneously characterised as being unmotivated due to their presumed intention to return to Ukraine. These attributions are closely linked to how well students and parents adapt to or disrupt established school routines and expectations. Second, some distinctions articulated by educational professionals are closely intertwined with institutional differentiation practices introduced by school authorities. Such practices include specific (and contingent) organisational arrangements and regulations for newly arrived students. These are not only implemented, but also critically reflected upon and, in some cases, contested by the interviewees. This highlights the ambivalence of professional knowledge and practice, as institutional requirements are both reproduced and questioned in everyday work. Third, the findings suggest that narratives relating to ‘unjustified privileges’ and the exploitation of the welfare state, which are widespread in populist movements and have become normalised in European migration discourse, also influence school practices and professional attitudes towards refugee students and their families. While these broader societal discourses are adopted, adapted and sometimes resisted within schools, they nevertheless contribute to processes of symbolic inclusion and exclusion. Beyond their empirical implications, the findings raise questions regarding the role and accountability of educational researchers in the production of empirical knowledge. In a society that has normalised racist and exclusionary forms of knowledge in the context of (forced) migration, there is a particular need for critical reflection on how such knowledge is generated, interpreted, and utilised.

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