The effect of local discourses adapted by teachers on Syrian child refugees’ schooling experiences in Turkey

ABSTRACT

This critical ethnography explains how and why refugee children experience schooling in specific ways by examining teachers’ use and interpretation of local refugee accommodation policies. It argues that locals’ understanding of refugee protection framework to host refugees generates discourses such as brotherhood/sisterhood and guest and these discourses have an impact on the schooling practices and teachers’ approaches to educating refugee children. The findings show that teachers pedagogic decisions rely on these discourses, and refugee children are affected by their teachers’ adaptation of these local discourses to their classroom activities. Although teachers claim that they use child-centred and politics-free instructional methods as mandated in refugee education policies, their practices often challenge their claims. As a result, refugee children experience isolation, assimilation and a form of restriction of their critical thinking.

KEYWORDS:

• Refugee education
• curriculum and instruction
• education policy
• Syrian refugees
• schooling experience
• inclusive education

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

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Ozlem Erden

Dr. Ozlem Erden completed her Ph. D. in Curriculum Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington, the USA, with the sponsorship of the Fulbright Foreign Student Program. Her research concentrates on refugee and immigrant education, multicultural education, curriculum theories, sexuality politics, and inquiry methodology. Her scholarship examines youth’s identity development, schooling experiences ofrefugee and immigrant children, livelihood approaches, citizenship education and civic participation, alternative educational programs and educational inequalities.