'It sort of goes hand in hand the academic and the social': Teachers’ experiences working with the inclusion of immigrant students in mainstream lower secondary school classes in Norway

Schools today are multicultural organisations that are expected to promote equitable education for all students, and where teachers play a significant role in promoting inclusion. Students from immigrant backgrounds must negotiate new cultures and languages in addition to striving for inclusion. Teachers’ experiences may contribute valuable new knowledge regarding inclusion in education, especially during adolescence, which is a vulnerable time. This study investigated Norwegian lower secondary school teachers’ (N = 7) experiences of inclusion when working with immigrant students who had been transferred from introductory classes into mainstream classrooms. Results of the qualitative content analysis indicated that teachers use strategies such as facilitation of academic participation to create social attractiveness to promote academic and social inclusion. Further research is required to determine how immigrant students’ social and emotional functioning might best be supported in addition to language acquisition, and teachers require enhanced approaches to actively promoting inclusion in lower secondary school.