Development of a refugee education competency framework: Turkish context with Syrian refugee students

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study was based on the current Turkish education system, which attempts to integrate nearly one million school-age refugee children into regular schools. Although the activities carried out in Turkey point to positive developments regarding the integration of refugee students, some of the problems observed in refugee education still exist. The current research, which aims to develop a ‘framework of teacher competencies in refugee education', was designed as a mixed method in explanatory design, which includes both qualitative and quantitative aspects. Firstly, the expert interviews and literature reviews were conducted to determine the themes ‘instructions', ‘motivation', ‘culture', ‘language', ‘being a refugee', ‘communication', and ‘social adaptation'. Then, by using the measurement tool including these themes, the opinions of primary and secondary teachers (N = 1219) who teach refugee children about teacher competence were collected. The findings obtained from the opinions of the participant groups were presented in the form of research questions in line with the themes. Teachers’ perspectives, on how and why the relevant competence framework is important, have been revealed.