Foreign students at school in the opinions of students of preschool and early school education

Abstract

The article presents selected results of a study on the perception of the presence of a foreign student at school. It was conducted among preschool and early school pedagogy students at two universities - the Academy of Special Education and the Faculty of Pedagogy of the University of Warsaw. The presented results refer to the needs, benefits and challenges that, in the opinion of the respondents, are associated with the presence of students from other countries at school. As research has shown, respondents are aware of the needs related to the presence of a foreign student at school, and they consider it to be the most important for them to master the Polish language. Respondents associated the presence of a foreign student with increasing the chances of learning or growing tolerance for others. In the context of challenges related to the presence of a foreign student in the school space, the respondents hardly noticed the high probability of their occurrence. Among the most likely ones, they indicated those having an organisational rather than ideological basis.