Abstract:

This study aims to determine the attitudes and thoughts of Turkish teachers about the refugee students. The study was conducted with 51 Turkish teachers working in the province of Muş in the 2021/2022 academic year. The mixed method including both the quantitative and qualitative methods was applied in this study. Quantitative data were collected using the "Refugee Student Attitude Scale" developed by Sağlam and Kanbur (2017), and qualitative data were collected using the "Interview Form" developed by the researcher. SPSS 21 package program was used in the analysis of quantitative data and content analysis was used in the analysis of qualitative data. It was observed that Turkish teachers have positive attitudes towards the refugee students and that the attitudes of Turkish teachers towards these refugee students do not differ according to these students’ gender, their status of being a refugee student, and the socioeconomic level of their school environment. Additionally, it was determined that the word ‘refugee’ mostly meant ‘a person away from his/her homeland/a person who had to leave his/her homeland’, “asylum seeker”, “a foreigner/an outsider” and “a guest” for the Turkish teachers and according to Turkish teachers, refugee students have various problems in their education and that the Turkish teachers offered several suggestions for the education of the refugee students.

Keywords: