Teachers as visitors in the lives of migrant and refugee students: reimagining inclusion through visual and participatory practices in Icelandic and Norwegian upper-secondary schools

Norway and Iceland, historically perceived as culturally homogeneous societies, are experiencing increasing diversity in upper-secondary schools due to global migration. Although both countries promote inclusive and democratic education policies, migrant and refugee students are often positioned through national, linguistic, and normative frameworks of inclusion. This paper examines how teachers can move beyond such frameworks by reimagining inclusion as a relational and ethical pedagogical process. Drawing on Hannah Arendt's concept of visiting and critical global citizenship education (GCE), the study explores the experiences of seven upper-secondary teachers in Iceland and Norway who participated in the research and development project Irregular Processes of Inclusion and Citizenship (I-PIC). In the project teachers cocreated visual and participatory pedagogical practices inspired by photovoice methods. Based on reflective interviews, the analysis shows how teachers navigated tensions between standardised educational demands and their commitments to inclusion. Students' photographs functioned as reflexive pedagogical tools that enabled teachers to position themselves as visitors in students' worlds, fostering trust and subjectification resulting in more relational and ethical approach to inclusion for migrant and refugee students.