Parental uncertainty in plans and education of ukrainian refugee children in European countries: a pilot study introduction

Abstract

The aim of this article is to better understand parents' decisions regarding their children's education in the face of uncertainty in plans. The focus of this paper is twofold. First, the author shows how, even with sufficiently favorable mechanisms for integration into the host society, immediate protection status, and substantial material support, uncertainty affect the experience of refugee parents with temporary protection status. The author also wants to show how, at a time of the greatest uncertainty in the plans of refugee parents, distance education makes its own special and distinct contribution to the educational strategy. The survey was completely anonymous, with 160 respondents, 65 of whom currently reside in Germany, 61 in Poland as well as 34 in the UK. The pilot study involved parents from three countries – Poland, Germany and the United Kingdom. These are the countries that have received the most significant number of Ukrainian refugees. It was concluded that the desire to complete all possible strategies in the education of their children is highest among those who are in a state of greatest uncertainty. Such parents tend to continue educating their children remotely in Ukraine and in local schools in parallel. This strategy creates an unnecessary burden on children and possibly worsens their adaptation in local schools, but in the parents' opinion, it insures children from possible gaps in their education. It is necessary to develop more flexible criteria for different groups of refugee children, depending on their age and their parents' plans to return home