Author :
Year-Number: 2022-Volume 14, Issue 3
Yayımlanma Tarihi: 2022-08-08 13:05:49.0
Language : English
Konu : Turkish Education
Abstract
Keywords
Abstract
Due to the war in Syria, Turkey has become the country that hosts the largest number of refugees in the world. With the refugees came problems that required solutions. The education of Syrian children is one of those problems. Turkey initially implemented short-term policies, expecting the war to end soon. When that possibility faded, long-term educational policies were devised, but a major communication problem emerged in classrooms as neither the Turkish teachers nor the Syrian students knew the language of each other. This study was conducted to obtain not only the opinions of the teachers who found themselves in that situation but also their recommendations to solve this problem. The teachers’ recommendations were twofold: preparatory language education for students who do not know Turkish and additional courses for those who are able to follow the curriculum with their Turkish peers to help them improve their proficiency in Turkish.
Keywords
- The number of studies in pre-school contexts is limited. In a rare study, Aydın & Kurtulmuş (2018) investigated pre-school teachers’ opinions regarding the problems teachers experienced with refugee children in their classes. In their study, language appeared as a barrier between not only teachers and students but between teachers and students’ families as well. Teachers also reported cultural differences to be a major cause of problems that arose in classroom environments.
- The majority of the studies on language-related problems were conducted in elementary school environments. These studies inform the reader of the types of problems that lack of knowledge of the medium of instruction could cause. In one study, Erdem (2017) stated that the main problem source for refugee students was language (p. 35) as lack of its competence led to comprehension problems in reading the coursebooks and listening to teachers in classes. In their study, İmamoğlu & Çalışkan (2017, p. 539) identified lack of language competence as the major problem which was coupled by the Syrian students’ receiving education in Turkish with their Turkish peers in the same classroom. Güngör & Şenel (2018) identified 6 problems experienced by the Syrian students. Language and culture differences top the list. The other five are comprehension, academic failure, lack of competence in basic language skills, expressing self, and lower academic performance than specified in the curriculum. Ciğerci & Güngör (2016) identified language as the main barrier from the perspective of teachers who were teaching refugee students, the majority of whom were Syrian and Iraqi nationals. Taşkın & Erdemli (2018) also noted that the language barrier was the most important problem reported by the teachers educating Syrian students. Koçoğlu & Yanpar Yelken (2018) approached the issue from a different angle by obtaining the opinions of teachers regarding the efficiency of the Turkish curricula for different grades. The teachers in their study expressed that “learning outcomes needed to be revised because the Syrian students in their classes did not know Turkish” (p. 140).
- Yurdakul & Tok (2018) conducted their study with elementary and secondary school teachers and found language as the major problem which was followed by problems emanating from cultural differences. In another study conducted with elementary and secondary school teachers, Şimşir & Dilmaç (2018) identified language as the factor causing obstacles in the refugee students’ academic performance and their interaction with their peers. Zayimoğlu Öztürk (2018) also reported the language barrier as the most important obstacle in civic education classes which resulted in lack of comprehension which led to boredom. Language was also reported by the teachers to be a hindrance in the students’ acceptance by their Turkish peers. Akay, Hamamcı & Kurt (2018) in their study with counselors who worked with Syrian refugee students in secondary and high schools stated that 29 counselors out of a population of 32 reported lack of language competence as the main barrier that hindered the communication and societal adaptation.
- School administrators’ views were parallel to those of the teachers. Levent & Çayak (2017) found that 27 (90%) of the 30 school administrators who participated in their study reported language as the major problem. Demircan (2019) also found that the school administrators in her study considered language as the major problem. Eren (2019, p. 221) found that the participating school administrators in her study unanimously reported language as the major problem.
- Methodology Research design This study is qualitative by design. It employs phenomenology, which as English and English (1958) noted, takes direct experience at face value and studies and argues that behavior is determined by the phenomena of experience rather than by externally described reality. Phenomenology functions as a valuable tool to study conscious experience by providing an in-depth understanding of an issue from the perspective of those who experience it. Phenomenology not only contributes to our understanding of a phenomenon from the first person point of view but it provides us with explanations that will help interested parties understand a phenomenon better as well (Best & Kahn, 2017; Creswell, 2013). Analyses based on the data collected through phenomenology (Creswell, 2018, p. 277) provide “a detailed description of people’s experiences”. The obtained experiences and examples contribute to knowing and understanding a phenomenon better. The phenomenology design also identifies common points in individual experiences related to a phenomenon and as such makes significant contributions to both scientific literature and practice (Creswell, 2013). Participants One hundred and seventy-six elementary school, Turkish language, and Turkish literature teachers voluntarily participated in the study. All teachers had Syrian students and Turkish students in their classes. Female teachers formed the majority of the teacher population by 65.3%. The ages of more than half of the teachers were between 21-30. Slightly more than half of the teachers had 1-5 years of professional experience. The distribution of the number of the participants by subject area is elementary school teachers (f=94, 53.4%), Turkish language teachers (f=68, 38.6%), and Turkish literature teachers (f=14, 7.9%). As seen, elementary school teachers formed the majority. Almost 85% of the participating teachers were graduates of faculties of education. As for the places of employment, elementary school teachers reported that they were teaching in elementary schools and temporary protection centers. Other subject teachers noted that they were teaching in secondary or high schools. Detailed demographic information about the participating teachers is given in Table 1. Table 1. Demographic information on the participating teachers
- This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Bolu Abant İzzet Baysal University Protocol No. 2022/194. Participation was voluntary. Participants filled out the questionnaire and were asked not to disclose any information that would reveal their identities. The anonymity of the participants was thus achieved. There was no ethical violation of any kind.
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