Preserving Youth Mental Wellbeing in Wartime Migration Crisis: Educators' Reflection

Abstract

The research presents how Russia’s caused war in Ukraine challenged Lithuanian general education system and provided opportunities to build more culturally, linguistically, and psychologically sensitive and supportive schools. The study underscored to need embed multiculturalism and multilingualism as well as trauma-informed courses into teacher training and professional development. The research reveals broader challenges schools in many European countries accepting migrants faced, with particular focus on Lithuania, historically homogenous country that suddenly faced big scale of war affected Ukrainian children and adolescence. It pointed to the need to include intercultural intelligence, inclusive curriculum development and trauma informed teaching into national teacher preparation system to build a resilient and socially coherent society.