Abstract:

The need to be accepted in the social group of which we are a member is an important social need that greatly influences our quality of life. The school classroom as a social group brings together different pupils among whom different social relationships are formed. Even in Slovak primary schools there are more and more pupils from different cultural backgrounds and with different mother language. Various foreign studies (e.g. Abacioglu et al., 2023, Fonseka, 2007) point to the specifics of relationships in these classrooms, whether in relation to school engagement or multicultural education. In our research, we were interested in the views of primary teachers with experience of pupils with different mother language on the relationships between pupils in these classrooms. We used a qualitative research design. The research sample consisted of 20 primary education teachers from twelve Slovak primary schools. The research method consisted of semi-structured interviews which, after verbatim transcription, were subjected to content analysis through open coding. The results of the framework analysis showed that the teachers' views were that the teacher's behaviour as a positive role model was important. The experience of most of the female teachers shows that pupils at the primary level behave respectfully and in a self-equal manner towards pupils with a different mother language. However, some teachers have also encountered the singling out of these pupils in the classroom. Responses regarding pupils' communication with pupils with a different mother language pointed to pupils' resourcefulness and use of non-verbal communication, supportive visual material, use of a translator or use of another language to communicate with each other. The findings of our qualitative research represent a pilot probe in our educational setting with a need for further investigation.

Keywords:

Classroom relations, pupils with different mother language, multiculturalism, interviews, content analysis.