Opening Pandora’s box: a culturally relevant perspective on elementary teachers’ approaches to educating immigrant and refugee students in Turkey

ABSTRACT

Given the influx of immigrants and refugees in Turkey and across the globe, our study aims to examine how elementary teachers in Turkey are responding to the growing needs of immigrant and refugee students. Drawing on culturally relevant pedagogical frameworks, we interviewed 21 teachers to highlight if and how they build on cultural and individual strengths to reimagine educational contexts. In our phenomenological study, we found that teachers had trouble enacting all three tenets but discussed two out of three tenets the most: a) academic achievement/student learning and b) cultural competence. This study shows how national and international policies need to support the holistic needs of immigrant and refugee students in Turkey and beyond. Our study demonstrates glimpses of hope despite the multitude of issues we uncovered. We find light, beyond a Pandora’s box, where teachers desire and want to learn more about immigrant and refugee students’ holistic needs.

KEYWORDS:

• Immigrants
• refugees
• culturally relevant pedagogy
• teacher education
• phenomenology

Disclosure statement

We declare that we do not have any conflict of interest involved with this research.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sibel Akin-Sabuncu

Sibel Akin-Sabuncu, Ph.D. , is an Associate Professor of Curriculum and Instruction at the Faculty of Education at TED University. She obtained her Ph.D. degree in Curriculum and Instruction Program at Middle East Technical University. Dr. Akin-Sabuncu was a visiting scholar at Teachers College, Columbia University during her doctoral studies, and is currently a post-doctoral researcher and a visiting associate professor at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her research focuses on elementary teacher education; teaching and teacher education for social justice/immigrant and refugee students/disadvantaged students; culturally relevant pedagogy; educational equity; and critical pedagogy. Dr. Akin-Sabuncu’s recent research project, which aims to investigate teacher educators’ perspectives across Turkey, the United States, and Hong Kong for preparing teachers for immigrant students, has been granted Global Education Research Award in 2021. Her recent work can be found in Urban Education, Teachers College Record, and Journal of Education for Teaching.

Crystal Chen Lee

Crystal Chen Lee, Ed.D., is an assistant professor of English Education in the College of Education at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC. Her research lies at the nexus of literacy, teacher education, community engagement, and culturally and linguistically diverse youth. She is also the founder and director of The Literacy and Community Initiative, a university-community partnership that amplifies youth voices. Her recent work can be found in Teachers College Record, Urban Education, and Reading Research Quarterly.

Michelle Knight-Manuel

Michelle Knight-Manuel, Ph.D., is Dean and Professor of the Curriculum and Instruction at Morgridge College of Education, University of Denver. Her scholarly work includes three distinct yet complementary strands of inquiry: college readiness and access, immigrant youth’s civic strengths, and culturally relevant teacher preparation. She has published in such journals as the American Educational Research Journal, Teachers College Record, Race, Ethnicity and Education, Review of Research in Education, and the Journal of Educational Policy. Her two books, co-authored with Joanne Marciano, are Classroom Cultures: Equitable Schooling for Racially Diverse Youth and College Ready: Preparing Black and Latino Youth for Higher Education through a Culturally Relevant Lens.