Intergroup Attitudes: School Counselors' Experiences Regarding the Attitudes of Turkish and Syrian Primary School Classmates towards each other

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to analyze the attitudes of Turkish and Syrian elementary school classmates towards each other within the framework of school psychological counselors' experiences. The study was carried out utilizing a phenomenological approach which is one of the qualitative research approaches. Semi-structured interview technique was used to collect data. The data were collected by interviewing a total of 40 school psychological counselors (8 males, 32 females). Qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis technique. As a result of the research, the prevalent themes that are effective in the development of Turkish and Syrian elementary school classmates' attitudes towards each other were found to be their sharing the same classroom, the common language and communication capabilities, intergroup contact and friendship, feelings of acceptance / belonging, exclusion and being excluded, perceived superiority, in-group solidarity, self-esteem, academic performance, teacher behaviors, and students’ families’ reactions against the out-group. Within this context, it can be concluded that planning and implementing mixed activities in and out of the classroom that would engage Turkish and Syrian students and allow them to have contact is likely to help develop positive intergroup attitudes.

Keywords

• Intergroup attitude,intergroup contact

Gruplararası Tutum: Aynı Sınıflarda Eğitim Gören, Türkiyeli ve Suriyeli İlkokul Öğrencilerinin Birbirlerine Yönelik Tutumlarına ilişkin Okul Psikolojik Danışmanlarının Deneyimleri

Öz

Bu çalışmanın amacı, aynı sınıflarda birlikte eğitim gören Türkiyeli ve Suriyeli ilkokul öğrencilerinin birbirlerine ilişkin tutumlarını, okul psikolojik danışmanlarının deneyimleri çerçevesinde incelemektedir. Çalışma, nitel araştırma yaklaşımlarından fenomenolojik yaklaşım kullanılarak gerçekleştirilmiştir. Araştırmada veri toplamak için yarı-yapılandırılmış görüşme tekniği kullanılmıştır. Araştırmada veriler, 8 erkek, 32 kadın olmak üzere toplam 40 psikolojik danışman ile görüşme yapılarak toplanmıştır. Nitel veriler tematik analiz tekniği kullanılarak analiz edilmiştir. Araştırmanın sonucunda, Türkiyeli ve Suriyeli ilkokul öğrencilerinin birbirlerine ilişkin tutumlarının oluşmasında etkili olan temaların başında, aynı sınıfta birlikte eğitim görmelerinin, ortak dilin ve iletişim kapasitesinin, gruplararası temasın ve arkadaşlığın, kabul edilme/ait olma duygularının, dışla(n)ma ve kendini üstün görme algısının, iç-grup dayanışmasının, özgüvenin, akademik başarının, öğretmen davranışlarının ve öğrencilerin ailelerinin dış-gruba ilişkin tepkilerinin geldiği saptanmıştır. Bu bağlamda, aynı sınıflarda birlikte eğitim gören Türkiyeli ve Suriyeli öğrencilerin, sınıf içinde ve dışında doğrudan temas edecekleri ve birlikte görev alacakları karma etkinliklerin planlanıp, yapılandırılarak sıkça uygulanmasının, gruplararası olumlu tutumları geliştireceği söylenebilir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Gruplararası tutum,gruplararası temas

Kaynakça

1. Allport, G. W. (1954). The nature of prejudice. Cambridge, MA: Addison-Wesley.
2. Aboud, F. E., Mendelson, M. J., & Purdy, K. T. (2003). Cross-race peer relations and friendship quality. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 27(2), 165–173. https://doi.org/10.1080/01650250244000164
3. Bagci, S. C., & Çelebi, E. (2017). Cross-group friendships and outgroup attitudes among Turkish–Kurdish ethnic groups: does perceived interethnic conflict moderate the friendship-attitude link? Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 47(2), 59–73. https://doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12413
4. Bagci, S. C., Kumashiro, M., Smith, P. K., Blumberg, H., & Rutland, A. (2014). Cross-ethnic friendships: Are they really rare? Evidence from secondary schools around London. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 41, 125–137. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2014.04.001
5. Brown, R., & Hewstone, M. (2005). An integrative theory of intergroup contact. In Advances in experimental social psychology, Vol. 37. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0065- 2601(05)37005-5
6. Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77-101.
7. Cameron, L., Rutland, A., Brown, R., & Douch, R. (2006). Changing children’s intergroup attitudes toward refugees: Testing different models of extended contact. Child Development, 77 (5), 1208-1219. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2006.00929.x
8. Chen, X., & Graham, S. (2015). Cross-ethnic friendships and intergroup attitudes among Asian American adolescents. Child Development, 86(3), 749–764. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12339

9. Creswell, J. W. (2013). Nitel araştırma yöntemleri: Beş yaklaşıma göre nitel araştırma deseni. (M. Bütün ve S. B. Demir, Çeviri Editörü). Ankara: Siyasal Kitabevi. (Orijinal çalışma basım tarihi 2013).
10. Davies, K., & Aron, A. (2016). Friendship development and intergroup attitudes: The role of interpersonal and intergroup friendship processes. Journal of Social Issues, 72(3), 489–510. https://doi.org/10.1111/josi.12178
11. Davies, K., Tropp, L. R., Aron, A., Pettigrew, T. F., & Wright, S. C. (2011). Cross-group friendships and intergroup attitudes: A meta-analytic review. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 15(4), 332–351. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868311411103
12. Deegan, M. P., Hehman, E., Gaertner, S. L., & Dovidio, J. F. (2015). Positive expectations encourage generalization from a positive intergroup interaction to outgroup attitudes. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 41(1), 52–65. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167214556240
13. Feddes, A. R., Noack, P., & Rutland, A. (2009). Direct and extended friendship effects on minority and majority children’s interethnic attitudes : A longitudinal study. Child Development, 80(2), 377–390.
14. Jetten, J., Branscombe, N. R., Schmitt, M. T., & Spears, R., (2001). Rebels with a cause: Group identification as a response to perceived discrimination from the mainstream. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27(9), 1204-1213. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167201279012
15. Johnson, R. B., & Christensen (2014). Educational research: quantitative, qualitative and mixed approaches (5th edit.). Los Angeles: Sage.
16. Joyce, N., & Harwood, J. (2014). Improving intergroup attitudes through televised vicarious intergroup contact: Social cognitive processing of ingroup and outgroup information. Communication Research, 41(5), 627–643. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650212447944
17. Joyce, N., Vincze, L., & Marton, E. J. (2016). Crossing the communication divide: Intergroup contact and the desire to learn the outgroup’s language. Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, 9(4), 295–311. https://doi.org/10.1080/17513057.2016.1225440
18. Liebkind, K., Mäkinen, V., Jasinskaja-Lahti, I., Renvik, T. A., & Solheim, E. F. (2019). Improving outgroup attitudes in schools: First steps toward a teacher-led vicarious contact intervention. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 60(1), 77–86. https://doi.org/10.1111/sjop.12505
19. Matera, C., Stefanile, C., & Brown, R. (2011). The role of immigrant acculturation preferences and generational status in determining majority intergroup attitudes. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47(4), 776–785. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2011.03.007
20. Meeusen, C. (2014). The parent-child similarity in cross-group friendship and anti-immigrant prejudice: A study among 15-year old adolescents and both their parents in Belgium. Journal of Research in Personality, 50(1), 46–55. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2014.03.001
21. Merriam, S. B. (2013). Nitel araştırma: Desen ve uygulama için bir rehber. (S. Turan, Çeviri editörü). Ankara: Nobel. (Orijinal çalışma basım tarihi 2009).
22. Miles, E., & Crisp, R. J. (2014). A meta-analytic test of the imagined contact hypothesis. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 17(1), 3-26. https://doi.org/10.1177/1368430213510573
23. Motti-stefanidi, F., Pavlopoulos, V., & Asendorpf, J. B. (2018). Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology immigrant youth acculturation and perceived discrimination : Longitudinal mediation by immigrant peers ’ acceptance / rejection. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 59(March), 36–45. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2018.03.001
24. Munniksma, A., Stark, T. H., Verkuyten, M., Flache, A., & Veenstra, R. (2013). Extended intergroup friendships within social settings: The moderating role of initial outgroup attitudes. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 16(6), 752–770. https://doi.org/10.1177/1368430213486207
25. Paolini, S., Hewstone, M., Cairns, E., & Voci, A. (2004). Effects of direct and indirect cross-group friendships on judgments of catholics and protestants in northern ireland: The mediating role of an anxiety-reduction mechanism. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30(6), 770–786. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167203262848
26. Patton, M. Q. (2014). Qualitative research & Evaluation methods: Integrating theory and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.. https://doi.org/10.1890/10-0394.1
27. Pettigrew, T. F. (1997). Generalized intergroup contact effects on prejudice. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23(2), 173-185. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167297232006
28. Pettigrew, T. F., & Tropp, L. R. (2006). A meta-analytic test of intergroup contact theory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90(5), 751–783. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.90.5.751
29. Prati, F., Menegatti, M., & Rubini, M. (2015). The beneficial role of multiple categorization and intergroup contact in reducing linguistic out-group derogation. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 34(5), 475–500. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X14567777
30. Ramiah, A. Al, Schmid, K., Hewstone, M., & Floe, C. (2015). Why are all the White (Asian) kids sitting together in the cafeteria? Resegregation and the role of intergroup attributions and norms. British Journal of Social Psychology, 54(1), 100–124. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12064
31. Ramos, M. R., Cassidy, C., Reicher, S., & Haslam, S. A. (2012). A longitudinal investigation of the rejection – identification hypothesis, British Journal of Social Psychology, 51(4), 642-660. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8309.2011.02029.x
32. Riek, B. M., Mania, E. W., & Gaertner, S. L. (2006). Intergroup threat and outgroup attitudes : A meta-analytic review. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 10(4), 336–353.
33. Sinclair, S., Dunn, E., & Lowery, B. (2005). The relationship between parental racial attitudes and children’s implicit prejudice. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 41(3), 283–289. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2004.06.003
34. Stark, T. H., Flache, A., & Veenstra, R. (2013). Generalization of positive and negative attitudes toward individuals to outgroup attitudes. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 39(5), 608–622. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167213480890
35. Techakesari, P., Barlow, F. K., Hornsey, M. J., Sung, B., Thai, M., & Chak, J. L. Y. (2015). An investigation of positive and negative contact as predictors of intergroup attitudes in the United States, Hong Kong, and Thailand. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 46(3), 454-468. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022115570313
36. Tropp, L. R., Boatswain, C., Stout, A. M., Wright, S. C., & Pettigrew, T. F. (2006). Trust and acceptance in response to references to group membership: Minority and majority perspectives on cross-group interactions. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 36(3), 769–794. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0021-9029.2006.00031.x
37. Turner, R. N., & Cameron, L. (2016). Confidence in contact: A new perspective on promoting cross-group friendship among children and adolescents. Social Issues and Policy Review, 10(1), 212–246. https://doi.org/10.1111/sipr.12023
38. Turner, R. N., & Feddes, A. R. (2011). How intergroup friendship works : A longitudinal study of friendship effects on outgroup attitudes, European Journal of Social Psychology, 41(7), 914-923.
39. Ülger, Z., Dette-Hagenmeyer, D. E., Reichle, B., & Gaertner, S. L. (2018). Improving outgroup attitudes in schools: A meta-analytic review. Journal of School Psychology, 67, 88–103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsp.2017.10.002
40. Vezzali, L., Giovannini, D., & Capozza, D. (2012). Social antecedents of children’s implicit prejudice : Direct contact, extended contact, explicit and implicit teachers’ prejudice, 9(5), 569–581.
41. Wiley, S. (2013). International Journal of Intercultural Relations Rejection-identification among Latino immigrants in the United States. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 37(3), 375–384. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2012.08.018
42. Wölfer, R., Schmid, K., Hewstone, M., & van Zalk, M. (2016). Developmental dynamics of intergroup contact and intergroup attitudes: Long-term effects in adolescence and early adulthood. Child Development, 87(5), 1466–1478. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12598
43. Wright, S. C., & Tropp, L. R. (2005). Language and intergroup contact : Investigating the impact of bilingual instruction on children’s intergroup attitudes, 8(3), 309–328. https://doi.org/10.1177/1368430205053945