Abstract
BEING A TURKISH LANGUAGE TEACHER OF SYRIAN REFUGEE STUDENTS: CHALLENGES AND ISSUES
The purpose of this research article was to identify the challenges encountered in teaching Turkish language to refugee students in public primary schools. To investigate the research problem in more detail, it was designed within the framework of qualitative case study methodology. Participants of the study were composed of 14 classroom teachers working at public primary schools in various cities (Ankara, Bursa and Muğla) in Turkey and having Syrian refugee students in their classes. An open-ended questionnaire with 20 questions was developed by the researchers and used as data collection tool. Individual, face-to-face and semi-structured interviews were conducted with classroom teachers at their schools. After analyzing the obtained data, findings were collected under 3 topics: ‘Basic Challenges, Challenges related to Turkish Language Course and Their Solutions’ and 5 categories ‘Challenges in the Teaching-Learning Process, Challenges of Communication, Challenges of Compliance, Challenges related to the Curriculum, Solutions of Teachers to Overcome the Challenges’. Results reveal that refugee students, particularly in the Turkish language courses, are involved in the same curriculum process with Turkish students without any additional support for their integration. Teachers signify the fact that they do not know how to solve the language problems of the refugee students. Moreover, teachers emphasize that they face major challenges mostly because they have not confronted with any in-service training opportunity on teaching Turkish language to foreigners so far.
Keywords
Turkish language education, Syrian refugee students.