Education in a country hosting many refugees has its own unique dynamics and challenges. A long settlement process for multinational refugees has continued in Türkiye for many years and several concerns related to their education have emerged. With the study reported on here we aimed to highlight the perspectives of academics and teachers regarding the general and educational challenges faced by refugees, the policies in Türkiye related to refugees’ education and their own suggestions for addressing these issues. The study was designed as phenomenological research with the study group consisting of 4 academics (from a faculty of education) and 4 primary teachers who work with refugee students. A semi structured interview form was used to collect the data and the participants were interviewed for approximately 15 to 25 minutes. The interviews were transcribed and analysed using content analysis. The results show that adaptation, uncertainty, and unplanned settlement are the most crucial problems stated by the participants. Another important point emphasised was that strong policies concerning the education of refugees in Türkiye should be well structured. Furthermore, we found that these students should be supported and treated with care, empathy and understanding. Discrimination or isolation should be eliminated. In addition, the teachers should be supported in many ways (e.g. language support, psychological support, et cetera.)

https://doi.org/10.15700/saje.v45ns2a2513

ORCiD iDs of authors:
Ece Yolcu – https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4266-7957
Mediha Sarı - https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1663-648X