Exploring the impact of teachers’ past migration experience on inclusive education for refugee children

ABSTRACT

Teachers play a key role in shaping students’ experiences in the learning environment. Studies on inclusive education in forced migration contexts, however, rarely examine what determines teachers’ positive behaviour and attitudes toward refugee students. This study examines how teachers’ past migration and occupational experiences impact their attitudes towards students who arrived through forced migration and whether they rely on teaching practices stemming from their past experiences to ensure a more inclusive school climate. Using both quantitative and qualitative methods, we collected 228 surveys and conducted 9 focus groups with secondary education teachers in 11 public schools in 5 different cities in Turkey where students of Syrian origin who arrived through forced migration are registered. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of ‘habitus’ and ‘social capital’, this study argues that teachers’ past migration experiences enable them to create a more inclusive classroom experience for Syrian refugee children.

KEYWORDS:

• Syrian refugee students
• habitus
• inclusive education
• Turkish education policy
• teacher education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Gavur is a Turkish word used for non-muslims in a derogatory and insulting way.

Additional information

Funding

The funding for this research has been provided by UK Aid Official Development Assistance, International Security Fund (formerly Conflict, Security and Stability Fund).

Notes on contributors

Saime Özçürümez

Saime Özçürümez is a faculty member at the Department of Political Science and Public Administration and Director of the Human Mobility Processes and Interactions Research (HMPI) Lab at Bilkent University. She is also the Vice-Chair of the Specialised Committee on Management of Social Transformation and Migration for the Turkish National Commission for UNESCO. Özçürümez has published books, book chapters and articles on irregular migration, gender and migration, citizenship, social trauma and forced migration, health and diversity, forced migration governance and social cohesion.

Özgün Tursun

Özgün Tursun holds a PhD degree in International Relations from the University of Nottingham.

Ahmet Tunç

Ahmet Tunç is an MS student at Middle Eastern Technical University Department of Sociology.