Experiences of Preschool Teachers Working with Refugee Children: A Multicultural Perspective

Abstract

Working in a classroom with children who have grown up in different living conditions and have different cultural codes and experiences brings along various experiences (opportunities or difficulties) for teachers. It is known that the difficulties faced by teachers who have refugee children in their classrooms are relatively higher than their colleagues. Since the refugees who have been seeking refuge in Turkey usually prefer to settle in border provinces, it has become a necessity to understand the experiences of teachers working in this region. Therefore, this research aims to examine the experiences of preschool teachers who have refugee children in their classrooms in the context of multiculturalism. The study was prepared in a phenomenological research design, which is one of the qualitative research methods, and a semi-structured interview form prepared by the researcher was used as a data collection tool. The study group of the research is 17 preschool teachers who work in Gaziantep and have refugee children in their class. Content analysis was used in data analysis and the results were interpreted. Results revealed that experiences of the participant teachers were gathered under the headings of adaptation, communication, educational situation and needs-problem clusters. Overall, all the teachers who participated in the study had difficulties in the adaptation period of the refugee children, could not communicate with themselves and experienced inadequacy.