Educational Policy and Leadership for Syrians under Temporary Protection: A Summary of Turkish Experience

• In Event: Education, Immigration, and (Im)mobility in a Global Context: Policy, Leadership, and Institutional Responses

Abstract

Türkiye hosts the largest number of refugees worldwide, with 3.9 million refugees (Council on Foreign Relations 2020; UNHCR 2020). Half of the world’s currently registered refugees are under 18 (UNHCR 2020). Approximately 1.4 million refugees in Türkiye are under 15, and over 800,000 are between 15 and 24 years old (UNHCR, 2020). In addition, 500,000 Syrian children have been born in Türkiye since the mass immigration started in 2011. Many have already reached school age or are about to reach it. Inevitably, challenges related with school access, integration and society are still persistent. Our chapter in Vol 1 of this book series (Arar et al., 2019a) presented three facets of these challenges, relating to policy, leadership, and praxis between 2011 and 2018. In this volume, we will review the policies, and the current situation related with the challenges of school leadership and policy. Relying on our ongoing research, first, we will summarize the main policies and official implementations related with the education of Syrians under Temporary Protection. Then, we will discuss the challenges facing schools, school leaders, teachers, and students and provide policy and practice recommendations, given the new areas of challenges that have emerged. Related challenges such as language acquisition, cultural resistance and societal prejudice and unregistered newcomer populations are ongoing with additional ones such as transition to high school, vocational or further education. There are changes regarding the educational policies and school level implementations as they have matured in the recent years.

Authors

• Deniz Örücü, Baskent University

• Khalid Husny Arar, Texas State University