Abstract:

In the context of globalisation, boundaries between countries and individuals are blurring, with political, economic, or social factors determining the emigration and re-emigration of families. Statistics show that over 200 children of school age will immigrate/re-emigrate to Lithuania in 2022 and 1000 in 2020. At the national level, the aim of education is to fully integrate returning and arriving pupils into educational institutions, ensuring flexible, comprehensive education in all subjects.

The problem of the study is based on the assumption that the re-emigrants face a variety of difficulties (language barrier, identity, lack of teacher competencies, lack of educational resources, curriculum mismatch, and changing educational environment) which are crucial to overcome. Science education provides the conditions for pupils to develop critical and creative thinking, problem-solving skills, and personal challenge, which are essential for personal development.
The study aims to reveal the views of pedagogues working with returnee children about their engagement and cooperation in the classroom.

There was a qualitative opinion survey – semi-structured interviews with 8 science teachers conducted from November 2021- January 2022. The teachers involved in the study have the same characteristics, i.e. teachers of chemistry, physics, or biology who work with returnee children. The interview approach provided the researchers with the prerequisites to gather general, open data and different teachers' opinions. Based on the informativeness of the data collected, the study interviewed as many informants as possible, as long as the information was not repetitive. The data obtained during the interviews are presented in an audio recording. The content analysis method was used for the analysis of the research data. The content of the discussions was transcribed in protocols. The analysis has been conducted by consistently analysing the content of a text, dividing the content under investigation into analytical units, i.e. categories, and sub-categories. The latter is coded (e.g. [P1] etc.) according to the order of reflections presented by the surveyed, aiming at the anonymity of the research participants.

The data of the empirical study revealed that children's engagement in science lessons is perceived in two ways: they are motivated, actively involved in the activities, and interested in the content of the lessons, and they relate science competence to their future profession. On the other hand, lack of adult attention, personal psychological barriers, lack of skills and abilities, and changes in the education content make engagement more difficult. Educators see the main difficulties that affect children's engagement in the classroom as language barriers, demotivation, lack of background knowledge, children's psychological state, and lack of group work skills. It also reveals the aspects that help pupils to be engaged in the classroom, namely finding alternative solutions, learning concepts, intrinsic motivation and the development of scientific competence.

Keywords:

Engaging, collaborating, returnee pupils, re-emigration, science education, interview.