Pre-service Teachers’ Perceptions of Their Future Refugee Students

Abstract

Present study aimed at investigating the perceptions of pre-service teachers regarding the refugee students who are possibly the participants’ future students when they start their career. In order to examine the issue in depth, a mixed methods design was adopted. Numerical data were gathered through “Refugee Student Attitude Scale” from 168 pre-service teachers, and the written responses of the same participants for the open ended questions constitute the qualitative data. During the analysis procedure, mean scores and standard deviation for the variables were estimated, and the content analysis was performed. Results of the study showed that most of the participants do not approve the idea of involving refugee students in classes for the fear of possible problems. The participants also stated not being ready to teach refugee students in their future careers. In light of these findings, implications for different groups such as teacher education programs, policy makers, and ministry of education were also suggested in the end of the paper.