Refugee education in Turkey: barriers and suggested solutions

ABSTRACT Education is among the areas most affected by immigration. Addressing refugee children’s schooling is an important contribution to the refugee crises, which span the world with far-reaching socio-economic effect. This study unpacks the challenges that refugee children, mainly from Syria, face in integrating into primary and secondary public schools in Turkey. It also proposes some tentative resolutions, drawing from the experiences of refugee parents, teachers, and headteachers. Within the current study, data were collected by means of fishbone analysis and semi-structured interviews with the participation of teachers, school headteachers, and refugee parents. The study draws from the theories of refugee education and confirms students’ barriers in schooling with regard to psychosocial factors, cultural adaptation, language learning, systemic barriers, and family relations. Some further implications were elicited from the data and are discussed in line with the existing research.