The Need for Contextualized STEM Learning Environments for Refugee Students in Turkey

Abstract

The research-practice gap and the increase of new technologies drive many countries to make updates in their educational settings. As a country that follows international trends, the Turkish science curriculum has made major shifts in the last decade by emphasizing more on scientific practices and now discussing how to add STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) with an emphasis on engineering into this picture. Despite following international trends, Turkish science curriculum rarely focuses on contextualizing the science curriculum for individual student needs. The national curriculum helped all science teachers to implement similar activities throughout the country. However, international humanitarian crises are changing the nature of classroom dynamics. The crisis in Syria has led three million people to migrate to Turkey, and from east to west, many schools started accepting refugee children. In order to understand how Turkish teachers contextualize their curriculum in this inevitable time of change, we first asked 187 K-12 teachers from different disciplines to fill an online survey. Contextualization in this study refers to making changes in classroom settings to respond to the needs of refugee students. There were 38 STEM teachers (15 mathematics, 7 technology, 13 science, and 3 engineering). Teachers stated that language education is the priority for refugee students. Unfortunately, only 3% (6 teachers) noted the importance of contextualization. When looking at the contextualization from STEM teachers’ perspective, none of the teachers said they have tried to find ways to contextualize. To investigate this gap further from several angles, we conducted a focus group interview with two middle school science teachers. Following the interview, we then worked closely with these science teachers to present several a case study and discussed how teachers created activities for contextualizing their science instruction specifically for refugee students.