Models for Organising the Education of Ukrainian Children Who Have Fled the War in Lithuanian Municipalities: Psychological, Material, and Linguistic Support

Abstract

This article presents the situation of the education of Ukrainian refugee children in Lithuania. It analyses the political and practical actions taken by the Lithuanian state when, after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, schools unexpectedly received a large number of children from Ukraine who had not come of their own free will, having fled the war. This article presents how Lithuanian municipalities have acted and the decisions taken to strengthen the psychological microclimate and devise a suitable model of language education. The aim of this study was to describe the experience of different regions of Lithuania in integrating Ukrainian war refugee children into educational institutions in terms of psychological, material, and linguistic support. Semi-structured group interviews (n = 12) were carried out with municipal education department staff, the staff of pedagogical qualification centres, and school managers (n = 206) who have worked on the integration of war refugee children in their municipality. The interviews were analysed using thematic content analysis. The results were divided into the following groups: (1) psychological needs of the children, (2) physical needs of the children, (3) the chosen model of Lithuanian language education, and (4) support measures for the integration of the children. The study shows that the quick but timely decisions taken in Lithuania to recruit teachers from Ukraine have helped to resolve the traumatic situations regarding the integration of children.