TY - JOUR

T1 - Processing uncertainty: Exclusionary institutional timescapes of German schools in the context of refugee migration from Ukraine

AU - Kollender, Ellen

AU - Schwendowius, Dorothee

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2025. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).

PY - 2025/11

Y1 - 2025/11

N2 - This article examines institutional exclusions of refugee pupils in German state schools within the context of changing European migration and education policies following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Drawing on concepts of critical time studies and guided interviews with teachers, principals and social workers, we explore how ‘uncertain futures’ of refugee pupils are constructed and addressed within institutional ‘timescapes’ and how these practices might (re)produce (differentiated) forms of exclusion. Despite changes at EU level towards recognising biographical uncertainty, our findings reveal that schools continue to pressure pupils to transform uncertain futures into certain futures. By requiring pupils to adapt rapidly to the institutional timescape, schools impose on them a logic of ‘acceleration’ interwoven with a unilinear notion of ‘rapid integration’ that denies the individual pace of arrival processes. These institutionalised temporal expectations (re)produce distinctions between different groups of newcomers, which serve to justify (partial) exclusions in the German school system. While some school professionals challenge the dominant timescape, ‘practices of resistance’ remain fragile as they can easily be discredited.

AB - This article examines institutional exclusions of refugee pupils in German state schools within the context of changing European migration and education policies following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Drawing on concepts of critical time studies and guided interviews with teachers, principals and social workers, we explore how ‘uncertain futures’ of refugee pupils are constructed and addressed within institutional ‘timescapes’ and how these practices might (re)produce (differentiated) forms of exclusion. Despite changes at EU level towards recognising biographical uncertainty, our findings reveal that schools continue to pressure pupils to transform uncertain futures into certain futures. By requiring pupils to adapt rapidly to the institutional timescape, schools impose on them a logic of ‘acceleration’ interwoven with a unilinear notion of ‘rapid integration’ that denies the individual pace of arrival processes. These institutionalised temporal expectations (re)produce distinctions between different groups of newcomers, which serve to justify (partial) exclusions in the German school system. While some school professionals challenge the dominant timescape, ‘practices of resistance’ remain fragile as they can easily be discredited.

KW - Empirical education research

KW - Educational science

KW - Sociology

KW - Social Work and Social Pedagogics

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=105023158786&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1177/14749041251395555

DO - 10.1177/14749041251395555

M3 - Journal articles

JO - European Educational Research Journal

JF - European Educational Research Journal

SN - 1474-9041

ER -