Abstract
Bilingual education is globally an important aspect within the educational community in recent years. The purpose of the study is to explore perceptions towards a bilingual education program and investigate factors that may affect the development of a bilingual education program in Turkey. This study also identifies the benefits of bilingualism in Turkey. The study employed an explanatory sequential mixed method design, which consisted of a quantitative phase followed by a qualitative phase. Data were collected from 40 participants who were graduate students, faculty members, and K-12 teachers. Descriptive analysis was used in the first phase of data analysis; thematic analysis was used in the second phase. A bilingual education program in Turkey might solve the conflict between different ethnic groups. Findings from both phases of data analysis indicated that people in the research group have affirmative perspectives towards a bilingual education program in Turkey.
Highlights
Developing second language may be comparatively hindered if the mother tongue is not developed well enough (Baker, 2011)
This study investigates the perception of population towards a possible bilingual education program in Turkey
Half of the participants were Turks and the other half were from different ethnic groups in Turkey
Summary
Developing second language may be comparatively hindered if the mother tongue is not developed well enough (Baker, 2011). Education in mother tongue is an important concern for minority children in several aspects. Individuals who have multilingual or bilingual schooling background and live in diverse cultures develop differently from other individuals whose schooling background based solely on a nation-state understanding. They show more tendencies to use their own mother tongue and their academic achievement is better than others (Baker, 2006; Aydin & Ozfidan, 2014). Despite having numerous sub-cultures and being culturally shaped lie a mosaic, Turkey has been ruled under a nation-state mindset for years and did not make a significant progress in the way of education within a multicultural perspective
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