Culturally Relevant/Sustaining Pedagogy in a Diverse Urban Classroom: Challenges for Syrian Refugee Newcomers and Teachers in Turkey

• In Event: Collaborating for Educational Equity and Excellence for Immigrant and Refugee Newcomers: Research Trajectories Across Stakeholders

Abstract

Turkey now hosts the largest refugee population in the world. As a result of the Syrian war, the number of Syrian refugees has grown dramatically since 2011, in Turkey. At the beginning of 2018, the number of Syrian refugees was officially about 3.8 million and unofficially about 5 million and approximately 1.5 million of them, who are between 5 and 18 years of age and are of school-age (Republic of Turkey Ministry of Interior Directorate General for Migration Management, 2018; The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), 2018). According to the Ministry of National Education (MoNE, 2018), more than 600,000 Syrian students attended school in the 2018-2019 academic year across Turkey, and the number of Syrian students studying in higher education institutions was more than 20,000. However, the limited capacity of teachers and the shortage of sufficiently trained teachers able to instruct refugees, inadequate resources and inappropriate curriculum planning impede the provision of high-quality education (Aydin & Kaya, 2017; 2019).
The purpose of this study was to discern the present status of the practices of culturally relevant and sustaining pedagogies by interviewing teachers and Syrian students in Turkey. The study focused on whether and how teachers implemented the principles of these pedagogies and on what challenges teachers faced while trying to implement these principles. This study was built on the four components of pedagogies: Academic Achievement, Cultural competency, Sociopolitical Consciousness, and the Sustainability of Culture. Qualitative data were obtained through semi-structured interviews and field-notes with four teachers who had Syrian students in their classes and four Syrian high school students. Content analysis was used to obtain the data. The findings revealed that both teachers and students had low expectations of academic achievement. Teachers conducted the teaching-learning process entirely according to the perspectives of students who were from the mainstream culture. Teachers tried to improve the cultural competency of the Syrian students by using different methods and tried to enhance their sociopolitical consciousness as well; however, the attempts were limited and inadequate. Teachers were aware of the importance of maintaining, fostering, and sustaining and embracing the Syrian culture. However, teachers did not know how to do so. The teachers did not have sufficient competencies or experiences to make revisions or to carry out an effective instructional process for Syrian students because of an absence of skills and knowledge of multicultural education. Thus, this study recommends that teachers must be informed and trained in culturally relevant and sustaining pedagogy in Turkey.

Author

• Hasan Aydin, Florida Gulf Coast University