Teachers’ Views on Parent Involvement for Refugee Children’s Education

Abstract

Wars, with their exhaustively long effects, cause people leave their countries and become refugees. Children are those who are affected most due to this situation. Undoubtedly, education is one of the basic rights of refugee children. Active and efficient family involvement is crucial to achieve the sufficient level in education. In this context, the aim of this study is to determine the level of parent involvement of refugee children. The study is designed as a phenomenological research. To this end, semi-structured interviews have been conducted with classroom teachers selected from those who have at least one refugee student in her/his classroom in Mersin, a metropolitan area and a city center in the southern region of Turkey. With its multi-cultural context, Mersin hosts around 200.000 refugees according to the statistics provided by Mersin governorate. Maximum variation sampling method has been used to determine the participants. According to the findings parent involvement is at low level for refugee students. Besides, it is determined that the parents of refugee students do not attend the parent-teacher meetings, they do not contact with teachers, and they do not support their children at home about their academic development. Parents’ inability to speak Turkish (the native language of the teachers), their perception of their status in Turkey as temporary, the fact that they care physiological needs more than the education are found as major reasons of low parent involvement for refugee students.Wars, with their exhaustively long effects, cause people leave their countries and become refugees. Children are those who are affected most due to this situation. Undoubtedly, education is one of the basic rights of refugee children. Active and efficient family involvement is crucial to achieve the sufficient level in education. In this context, the aim of this study is to determine the level of parent involvement of refugee children. The study is designed as a phenomenological research. To this end, semi-structured interviews have been conducted with classroom teachers selected from those who have at least one refugee student in her/his classroom in Mersin, a metropolitan area and a city center in the southern region of Turkey. With its multi-cultural context, Mersin hosts around 200.000 refugees according to the statistics provided by Mersin governorate. Maximum variation sampling method has been used to determine the participants. According to the findings parent involvement is at low level for refugee students. Besides, it is determined that the parents of refugee students do not attend the parent-teacher meetings, they do not contact with teachers, and they do not support their children at home about their academic development. Parents’ inability to speak Turkish (the native language of the teachers), their perception of their status in Turkey as temporary, the fact that they care physiological needs more than the education are found as major reasons of low parent involvement for refugee students.