Adjustment Of Migrant Children At General Academic School Based On Reflective Approach

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DOI: 10.15405/epsbs.2021.11.215
SCTMG 2021
International Scientific Conference «Social and Cultural Transformations in the Context of
Modern Globalism»
ADJUSTMENT OF MIGRANT CHILDREN AT GENERAL
ACADEMIC SCHOOL BASED ON REFLECTIVE APPROACH
Tatiana Usheva (a)*, Tatyana Zhdanko (b), Alfiya Shumovskaya (с)
*Corresponding author
(a) Irkutsk State University, 1, Karl Marx Str., Irkutsk, 664003, Russia, itf76@mail.ru,
(b) Irkutsk Region Center for Assessment of Professional Skills, Qualifications of Teachers And Monitoring the
Quality of Education, 75 А, Lytkina Str., Irkutsk, 664023, Russia, tatiana-zhdanko@mail.ru,
(c) Pedagogical Institute of Irkutsk State University, 1, Karl Marx Str., Irkutsk, 664003, Russia, alenkiy27@mail.ru
Abstract
The paper brings attention to the urgent matter of migrant children in at general academic school. The
importance of the teaching staff work aimed at the support and adjustment of migrant children is shown.
The authors propose to provide support to migrant children in the general academic school through the
implementation of reflexive approach, i.e. the facilitation of dialogues between the participants in the
educational process, the subjective attitude to the activities and self-analysis by migrant children. The
article describes the types and methods of reflective interaction with migrant children. Methods of
reflective interaction make it possible to adequately perceive oneself, determine and analyze the reasons
for the behavior as well as mistakes made, understand the internals in the present in comparison with the
mental stability past and forecast the development opportunities. The comparison of both experimental
and control groups was carried out using the Spearman correlation analysis. The pedagogical work on the
adjustment of migrant children is described, which can be implemented in every educational organization.
The adjustment of migrant children at general academic school on the basis of a reflective approach are
based on the need for an individual approach to each child. Besides, they are based on the interaction with
a student and with everyone who surrounds the migrant child and subjective involvement in a variety of
activities during regular and extracurricular hours. It is also necessary to review various positions and
different views of one’s activities, i.e. different scale of the child’s activities.
2357-1330 © 2021 Published by European Publisher.
Keywords: Adjustment, migrant children, reflective approach, education, methodology

https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2021.11.215
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1. Introduction
Migration is viewed as one of the important population problems and is understood not only as the
mechanical movement of people, but as a complex social process, that affects many aspects of social and
economic life of people.
Population migration is any territorial movement of the population, which is associated with
crossing the internal and external borders of administrative-territorial entities in order to change their
permanent place of residence or temporarily stay in the territory to work or study without taking into
account the influencing factors, i.e. attracting or pushing out (Bondyreva & Kolesov, 2007).
Population migration is considered in the broad and narrow sense of the word. In the narrow sense
of the word, population migration is presented as a complete type of territorial movement, which ends
with a change of permanent residence, i.e. literally, it means resettlement. Population migration in a broad
sense is any territorial movement that occurs between different settlements. Depending on the nature of
the crossed borders, a distinction is made between internal and external.
External migration of the population consists of two streams: immigration and emigration. In the
flow of emigrants, the following groups are distinguished: emigrants who leave in search of temporary
work and emigrants who leave for permanent residence or tourist trips.
Internal migration refers to migration within one country or an administrative district. Based on the
temporary characteristics, migration is divided into temporary, permanent, seasonal and pendulum
migration. The final change of residence is characterized as irretrievable migration. The resettlement for a
long period of time, but limited to a certain period, is characterized as temporary migration. Migration for
reasons is of particular importance. Both economic and social reasons are the main ones for migration.
According to the type of organization, migration is subdivided into socially organized, which is carried
out with the participation of public or state bodies and with their economic assistance, and organized by
the migrants themselves.
Migration mobility of the population is fundamentally positive, since such a movement makes it
possible to evenly distribute the population in the social system. However, destructive political processes
that put in jeopardy people’s lives, form migration flows that from time to time arise in different parts of
the world. Because of the desire of people to save their lives, they are forced to leave their places of
permanent residence and seek shelter in other territories.
Forced migration is a set of territorial movements that are associated with a temporary or
permanent change in the place of residence of people for reasons that do not depend on them, as a rule,
against their wishes (military actions, natural disasters, environmental disasters, violation of fundamental
rights and freedoms) (Grigorichev, 2012).
The Concept of the State Migration Policy of the Russian Federation for the Period up to 2025
recognizes that currently the migration legislation of the Russian Federation does not fully meet the needs
of social, demographic and economic development, the interests of employers and Russian society as a
whole. It is aimed at attracting temporary foreign workers and does not contain measures that can
facilitate moving to a permanent place of residence, adjustment and integration of migrants (Mardakhaev,
2005).

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Important elements of the state migration policy of the Russian Federation are the laying of the
groundwork for the integration and adaptation of migrants, the protection of their rights and freedoms,
and the provision of social protection. The solution of these problems is hampered by the unjustified
difficulty of obtaining the status of a permanent resident in the Russian Federation, as well as by the lack
of regulation of the legal status of foreign citizens.
Permanent migrants who settle in places where industries are spread and who become permanent
employees at various enterprises may be preferable for business because of the possibility to increase
their professionalism, qualifications, adjustment to local traditions, including working conditions.
However, the costs associated with the social arrangement of such migrants are quite high and can be
recouped only after a long period of time.
The 1990 International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and
Members of Their Families establishes the following definition of a “migrant worker”: It a person who
will be engaged, is engaged, or has been engaged in a paid activity having no citizenship (Lebedeva,
1993).
Melnikova identified five stages of the process of social adjustment that are applicable not only to
migrants and can be considered universal:
 Stage 1: Weak orientation in the new environment, lack of knowledge and experience to solve
a problem situation, spontaneous behavior.
 Stage 2: Adequacy of orientation, acquisition of sufficient knowledge to solve problems.
 Stage 3: Conscious development of behavioral strategy to create a new system of interaction.
 Stage 4: Actions aimed at bringing changes.
 Stage 5: Productive interaction, adjustment of an individual, state of comfort and emotional
stability (as cited in Makarov, 2010).
Zakharchenko believes that among the population experiencing stressful situations, life problems,
special attention should be paid to migrant children, since they are the most difficult category. Numerous
relocations, tense situations give rise to a feeling of helplessness aggravated by the lack of experience of
behavior in a new society. In such situations, the role of the school increases dramatically. No matter how
difficult it is, that should be a teacher who makes great efforts for spiritual, social, and cultural adjustment
and provides pedagogical assistance to migrant students who find themselves in a foreign cultural
environment (as cited in Mokhova et al., 2014).
Consequently, it is necessary to develop certain conditions for the adjustment of migrant children.
Pedagogical conditions should include the following:
 Academic programs (they use different creative types of activities; joint activities of teachers,
educators).
 Opportunities for additional classes.
 Involvement of parents, both migrant children and children of the host society.
 Partnership of teachers and migrant children in the course of social adjustment, arrangement
and systematic work of experts, specialists, teachers.
The educational environment of the school has a high adaptive potential and is able to ensure both
social and cultural adjustment of migrant children in the host community.

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However, there are a number of factors that can “slow down” the social adjustment of migrant
children: unpreparedness of teachers to teach such children, a low level of tolerance in the educational
environment, a low level of general culture of migrant parents, which prevents the active interaction of
teachers and parents in the educational process.
For a child who has already adjusted it is typical to establish adequate system of relationships with
people accepting the norms, values and traditions of new society, the ability to develop his potential at all
levels.
Consequently, one of the most important conditions for the adjustment process of migrant children
to be effective is the maximum satisfaction of a number of urgent needs the most important among which
are the following: a sense of community, good relationships, soft skills, knowledge acquisition, belonging
to a certain group, self-fulfillment, confidence in future, material well-being, opportunity to be socially
and psychologically protected, favorable living conditions. In this regard, it is necessary to pay more
attention to the study of the process of social and psychological adjustment of migrant children, namely
adolescent migrants, since this issue is extremely relevant in modern reality. This requires the
development and use of a new concept of social and psychological activities for the adjustment of
adolescent migrants, scientific and practical foundations of psychological and pedagogical support of this
process.
The ideas of supporting the adjustment of migrant children at school on the basis of a reflective
approach are based on the need for an individual approach to each child. Besides, they are based on the
interaction with a student and with everyone who surrounds the migrant child and subjective involvement
in a variety of activities during regular and extracurricular hours. It is also necessary to review various
positions and different views of one’s activities, i.e. different scale of the child’s activities (Usheva et al.,
2020).
2. Problem Statement
The problem of the comprehensive study was to determine the features of supporting the
adjustment of migrant children at general academic schools based on reflexive methods application.
3. Research Questions
Theoretical analysis of the problem made it possible to put forward the following hypothesis:
social adjustment of migrant children at general academic school should be successful if to organize
individual support during the adjustment period, use interactive forms of education; organize joint
activities of the professional community on the adjustment issues.
In accordance with the goal and general hypothesis of the study, the following tasks were set:
1. To describe the main theoretical approaches to the problem of social adjustment of migrant
children based on the analysis of psychological and pedagogical sources.
2. To reveal the psychological and pedagogical traits of migrant children at school.
3. To analyze both social and pedagogical conditions of social adjustment of migrant children at
school.

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4. To determine the stages and methods of organizing experimental work on the deveopment of
social adjustment of migrant children at school;
5. To introduce the developed program of social adjustment of migrant children at school to the
educational process of the school and conduct a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the results
obtained.
4. Purpose of the Study
The purpose of the study was to develop, theoretically substantiate and experimentally test the set
of pedagogical conditions for supporting the adjustment of migrant children at school on the basis of
reflective approach.
The experimental base of the study: Secondary School No. 76 in Irkutsk named after the Guards of
Irkutsk-Pinsk Division, eighth grade students in the number of 62 people (experimental and control
groups).
5. Research Methods
The hypothesis regarding the importance of support provision for the adjustment of migrant
children at school on the basis of reflective approach has highlighted the importance of the data obtained
in the experimental work necessary to confirm theoretical conclusions.
In the course of achieving the research goal, a set of methods was used:
 Theoretical: study and analysis of psychological and pedagogical literature, pedagogical
modeling, generalization, comparison.
 Empirical: observation, experiment, analysis of processes and products of activity, assessment
of work performed, questionnaires.
 Mathematical: registration of the obtained data, qualitative analysis of quantitative parameters,
methods of mathematical and statistical processing of experimental results, etc.
Our empirical study consisted of three stages: ascertaining, formative and control. At the
ascertaining stage, using three quantitative diagnostic techniques, there was determined the initial level of
social adjustment of experimental group members.
The initial level of social adjustment of experimental group members was determined using the
method of diagnosing social and psychological adjustment by K. Rogers and R. Diamond. The purpose of
this methodology is to identify the characteristics of the adjustment period of an individual through the
following integral indicators: adjustment, acceptance of others, self-acceptance, internality, emotional
comfort, and desire to dominate. This method makes it possible to identify the level of social and
psychological adjustment according to the presented scales (low, zone of uncertainty (standard), and high
level).
The second diagnostic method was the following: multilevel personality factor questionnaire
Adaptability by A.G. Maklakov and S.V. Chermyanin. The purpose of this method was to diagnose the
adjustment ability of the subject according to the following parameters: adaptive abilities, mental and
moral stability.

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The third diagnostic method implied the study of adaptive behavior strategies Adaptive strategies
of behavior (ASB) (Melnikova N.N.). The purpose of this method was to study individual preferences in
the choice of behavior strategies in problem situations related to social interaction. The combination of
strategies in individual behavior characterizes the individual adjustment style. The ASB questionnaire
was based on the classification of strategies developed on three foundations that are essential for the
interaction of the individual and social environment in the process of adjustment: direction of ongoing
changes (the environment changes – the individual changes), contact – avoidance, activity – passivity of
the individual (Portnova, 2018).
The methods of processing the study results: the processing of the data obtained by all methods
was carried out in two stages. The primary processing of the answer sheets was done manually. Then the
scores for each of the parameters were entered into tables compiled, respectively, for the experimental
and control groups of eighth-year students (freshmen). The data in the tables formed six samples.
Subsequent statistical processing of the data was carried out using the STATISTICA V.6.0 and the
Spearman and Kolmogorov-Smirnov correlation analysis. After that, a comparative analysis of the groups
was carried out. The assessment of reliability of differences between samples was identified using the
Mann-Whitney U test.
6. Findings
Based on the analysis of the data obtained, the adjustment level of migrant children in the general
educational organization was identified. The data obtained are presented in Table 01.
Table 1. Diagnostic results of the adjustment levels of migrant children at general academic school at
the initial stage of the study
Grooup / level
High
Average
Low
Number of
people
%
Number of
people
%
Number of
people
%
EG (30 people)
4
13.4 %
13
43.3 %
13
43.3 %
CG (32 people)
6
18.75 %
14
43.75 %
12
37.5 %
(χ2=0,445, р=0,606; no difference)
At the initial stage of the study, the level of adjustment among students of the experimental and
control groups is approximately equal and is defined by the majority as average and low (insufficient).
The results obtained in the course of the diagnostics indicate the need to create pedagogical
conditions to support the adjustment of migrant children at school.
As a results of accompanying migrant children and their involvement into the reflective methods
of interaction, the dynamics of adaptation of migrant children at school was defined and presented in
Table 02.

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Table 2. Comparative data on the adjustment level of migrant children at school of the EG and CG at
the beginning and the end of the study
Level / experiment stage
EG – CG
The beginning of experiment
χ2=1.464
р<0.512
The end of experiment
χ2=78.511
р<0.000
There were no differences between the groups at the beginning of the study, but at the end of the
study, the changes were very pronounced (0.1 % significance level, in italics).
In the EG, there were no students with a low (insufficient) level of adjustment, indicators of high
and average levels have improved by 14 and 73 %, respectively. In the CG, the growth of indicators was
much lower: the indicator at a high level has changed by 3.2 %, the indicators at an average and low level
have improved by 10.8 and 4.5 %, respectively (Table 03).
In the process of identifying the adjustment level of migrant children at schoool, the following was
established.
Table 3. Comparative results of the experimental (E1) and control (C1) groups
Level of adjustment
among migrant children at
school
E1 (%)
C1 (%)
Beginning of
experiment
End of
experiment
Beginning of
experiment
Beginning of
experiment
Low
43.3
0
37.5
33
Average
43.3
73
43.75
45
High
13.3
27
18.75
22
Children of migrants with a high level of social and psychological adjustment are characterized by
high social competence, adequate behavior, contact, and the presence of a sufficient circle of people for
communication. However, it should also be taken into account that the presence of certain maladjustment
is typical for most adolescents. A low level of social and psychological adjustment of children of migrants
is characterized by isolation, limited social circle or lack of it, anxiety, conflict, a state of experiencing
discomfort.
Migrant children with a high level of adjustment abilities are able to adjust to new environmental
conditions, adequately and easily adapt to a situation, and quickly become a member of a new team. They
have high emotional stability, not conflict.
Migrant children with a satisfactory level of adaptive abilities, as a rule, have various signs of
accentuations, which often appear only when changing activities, and are compensated in normal
conditions. Often, they do not have high emotional stability. The manifestations of conflict and
aggression are possible.
Migrant children who choose the strategy of behavior called “Avoiding contact with the
environment and immersion into the inner world” are characterized by avoiding a frustrating situation by
shrinking into oneself when it becomes possible to search for an alternative in philosophical and religious
systems and their own fantasies. For those who chose the strategy of behavior called “Passive self-

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representation” it is typical to see the following: stubborn demonstration of their position, no activity
aimed at changing the situation or their personality, and refusal to analyze their own position.
It should be noted that migrant children who choose “Passive submission to environmental
conditions” are characterized by the absence of deep personal restructuring, changes occur through the
outside influence. Such strategy is manifested as a form of passive agreement with the requirements,
submission to authority. Migrant children who choose the strategy of behavior “Passive waiting for
external changes” are characterized by the desire to wait for favorable external conditions, postponing the
solution of a problem situation. Such a child tries to be invisible until the environment changes for the
better.
Reflexive forms and methods provided by the program of social and psychological support
allowed us to improve the personality status of migrant children in the team, improve the psychological
health of members of the experimental group by changing their environment, and raise the level of moral
status (Zhdanko et al., 2019).
Differences in the levels of social and psychological adjustment of migrant children in the
experiment showed that the pedagogical conditions specially created in the course of experimental work
contribute to an increase in the level of adjustment.
7. Conclusion
Thus, it can be stated that the results of the diagnostic methods carried at the control stage indicate
the presence of positive dynamics. A comparative analysis of data at the ascertaining and control stages
made it possible to establish that the social and psychological support of migrant children at school has a
beneficial effect on the social adjustment of migrant children.
The implementation of academic conditions of the reflective approach allows one to avoid the
processes of maladjustment of migrant children and contributes to the creation of dialogue-based
interaction between the participants in the educational process, the subjective attitude to the activities and
introspection of migrant children.
Migrant children are students with special educational needs, so only the comprehensive work of
teachers, school service specialists and parents will lead to their successful adjustment.
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