Intervention programs promoting the integration of refugee students into elementary school: handbook for the implementation of cooperative learning and imagined contact workshops

A professor of social psychology at the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb. She is the PI of the Croatian team of the IRCiS project (Integrating refugee children in schools: a mixed-method study on the efficacy of contact-in-school interventions for building positive intergroup relations among refugee and host-society children), which focuses on the integration of refugee children in primary schools. She has also collaborated on several scientific and professional projects focused on minority and majority integration processes in multi-ethnic communities, an adaptation of the individual and the community in times of social transition, social recovery after the coronavirus pandemic, social identities in multi-ethnic communities and education in divided societies. She teaches courses in the field of social psychology, self-concept and identity, interpersonal and group processes, intimate relationships, and group work. She published over 60 scientific and professional articles and co-authored several monographs. Since 2001, she has been involved in the work of the Counseling Center of the Faculty of Philosophy. She is a member of the Latino-European Social Psychological Research Network (LaEUMiDI) focused on migration, displacement, and inclusion, as well as a co-author of the manual for strengthening school professionals and teachers for better integration of refugee students through social action in the community.

A professor of social psychology and a head of the social psychology unit at the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb. Her research interests include intergroup relations in war and peace, specifically processes of social reconstruction in post-war communities. A special area of interest is minority education and its role in the social integration and development of multiple identities of minority children. She recently developed a research program on studying processes of social recovery after the coronavirus pandemic. Her teaching is in the area of social psychology, prejudice and discrimination and ethics in research and professional conduct. She received PhD in psychology from the University of Zagreb in 1997, was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and a visiting research fellow at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame. She was the principal investigator and collaborator in numerous national and international research projects. She has published over 80 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters and (co)authored or (co)edited 13 books and research monographs. She serves as a reviewer for a number of international professional journals and sits on editorial boards of Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology and Journal of Social and Political Psychology. She is a national representative in the Scientific Committee of COST. She has served as a reviewer of research projects funded by major agencies including the Croatian Science Foundation, the European Science Foundation – The Research Foundation Flanders and the Israel Science Foundation. She was awarded a few major national awards, including National Scientific Award (2005); the Ramiro Bujas Award of the Croatian Psychological Association (2009) and the Fiat Psychologia Award of the Croatian Psychological Association for Contribution to Applied Psychology (2012).

Nikolina was born in 1991 in Solothurn (Switzerland). She graduated in 2017 from the Department of Psychology at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb on the subject of mental health assessment of refugees in Croatia. After her studies, she was employed as s psychologist in the Migrant Protection Service of the Croatian Red Cross, where she gained experience in providing psychosocial support to asylum seekers and persons under international protection in Croatia. She participated in several national and international projects related to psychosocial support after crises and refugee mental health, intergroup relations in post-conflict communities and attitudes towards asylum seekers. She is actively involved in volunteer activities with the Croatian Red Cross and association border: none and attends education in cognitive-behavioural therapy. She is a member of the Croatian Psychological Chamber and the Croatian Association of Behavioral-Cognitive Therapists. Since September 2019, she has been employed on the IRCiS project at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb, where she also enrolled in a postgraduate doctoral program in psychology.

Antonija was born in 1994 in Osijek. In 2018, she graduated in psychology from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Zagreb. Since 2019, she has been working as a research assistant on the IRCiS project (Integrating Refugee Children in Schools: A Mixed-Method Study on the Efficacy of Contact-in-School Interventions for Building Positive Intergroup Relations between Refugee Children and Children from the Host Society). In the same year, she enrolled in doctoral studies in psychology at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. She is also pursuing the second level of education in cognitive-behavioural therapy and volunteers at the Counselling Centre for Students of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. She is a member of the Croatian Psychological Chamber and the Croatian Association of Behavioural-Cognitive Therapists.