Teacher Education Reimagined: A Letter to Teacher Educators on Preparing Teachers to Educate Refugee Students

Abstract

Turkey is currently home to the world's largest refugee population with more than 3.7 million Syrians and around 322,000 refugees and asylum-seekers of other nationalities under international protection. Situated in a theory of teacher education for social justice, the present study aims to illustrate the lessons and insights that teacher educators, who are critically engaged in preparing teachers to teach immigrant and refugee students, offer on reimagining preservice teacher education for preparing prospective teachers to teach all students including refugee children. The study employed phenomenological research to investigate the perspectives and the lived experiences of 18 teacher educators who were purposefully selected through criterion, maximum variation, and snowball sampling strategies. The data were collected through semi-structured in-depth interviews with the participants. The findings revealed three key issues for a socially just teacher education system: “who should teach: teacher educator identities”, “teacher education curriculum and pedagogy”, and “contexts, structures, and collaborators in teacher education”. As a letter to educational stakeholders in general and to teacher educators specifically, the present study issues a call to action to revisit our roles and rethink the education of massive numbers of refugee students in Turkey and around the globe to advocate for and enact social justice in and through teacher education.

Keywords

• Refugees
• Social justice education
• Teacher education
• Teacher educators
• Preservice teacher education

Supporting Institution

This study was conducted as part of, but it extends to, a larger research project that was granted Global Education Award (Project No: 2021_C_3) by the European Educational Research Association (EERA), with the financial support of the European Union and the Ministries and Agencies associated with Global Education Network Europe (GENE).

Project Number

2021_C_3

Thanks

The author thanks all those who agreed to participate in this study.

References

1. Atalay, N., Kilic, Z., Anilan, B., Anilan, H., & Anagun, S. S. (2022). Syrian refugee children’s education in Turkish public schools: Primary school teachers’ experiences. Journal of Qualitative Research in Education, 29, 265-281.
2. Author et al. (2021). [Details removed for peer-review].
3. Author et al. (Forthcoming, 2023). [Details removed for peer-review].
4. Baak, M. (2019). Racism and othering for South Sudanese heritage students in Australian schools: Is inclusion possible?. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 23(2), 125-141.
5. Bogdan, R. C., & Biklen, S. K. (2007). Qualitative research for education: An introduction to theory and methods. The USA: Pearson Education.
6. Chang, W. C. C., Ludlow, L. H., Grudnoff, L., Ell, F., Haigh, M., Hill, M., & Cochran-Smith, M. (2019). Measuring the complexity of teaching practice for equity: Development of a scenario-format scale. Teaching and Teacher Education, 82, 69-85.
7. Chubbuck, S. M., & Zembylas, M. (2016). Social justice and teacher education: Context, theory, and practice. In J. Loughran, & M. L. Hamilton (Eds.), International handbook of teacher education Volume II (pp. 463-501). Springer, Singapore.
8. Cochran-Smith, M. (1995). Color blindness and basket making are not the answers: Confronting the dilemmas of race, culture, and language diversity in teacher education. American Educational Research Journal, 32(3), 493-522.

9. Cochran-Smith, M. (1999). Learning to teach for social justice. In G. Griffin (Ed.), The education of teachers: Ninety-eighth yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education (pp. 114-144). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
10. Cochran-Smith, M. (2004). Walking the road: Race, diversity, and social justice in teacher education. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
11. Cochran-Smith, M. (2010). Toward a theory of teacher education for social justice. In A. Hargreaves, A. Lieberman, M. Fullan, & D. Hopkins (Eds.), Second international handbook of educational change (pp. 445–467). New York: Springer.
12. Cochran-Smith, M. (2020). Teacher education for justice and equity: 40 years of advocacy. Action in Teacher Education, 42(1), 49-59.
13. Cochran-Smith, M, Gleeson, A. M., & Mitchell, K. (2010). Teacher education for social justice: What’s pupil learning got to do with it? Berkeley Review of Education, 1(1), 35-61.
14. Cochran-Smith, M., Shakman, K., Jong, C., Terrell, D. G., Barnatt, J., & McQuillan, P. (2009). Good and just teaching: The case for social justice in teacher education. American Journal of Education, 115(3), 347-377.
15. Creswell, J. W. (2013). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
16. Çelik, Ç., & İçduygu, A. (2019). Schools and refugee children: The case of Syrians in Turkey. International Migration, 57(2), 253-267.
17. Demir-Başaran, S. (2021). Being the teacher of Syrian refugee students: Teachers’ school experiences. Education and Science, 46(206), 331-354.
18. Dinkelman, T., Margolis, J., & Sikkenga, K. (2006). From teacher to teacher educator: Experiences, expectations, and expatriation. Studying Teacher Education, 2(1), 5-23.
19. Directorate General of Migration Management [DGMM]. (2014). 6458 Law on Foreigners and International Protection. Retrieved from http://www.lawsturkey.com/law/law-on-foreigners-and-international-protection-6458
20. Enterline, S., Cochran-Smith, M., Ludlow, L. H., & Mitescu, E. (2008). Learning to teach for social justice: Measuring change in the beliefs of teacher candidates. The New Educator, 4(4), 267-290.
21. Eres, F. (2016). Problems of the immigrant students’ teachers: Are they ready to teach? International Education Studies, 9(7), 64-71. European Council. (2016). EU-Turkey statement, 18 March 2016. Retrieved from https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2016/03/18/eu-turkey-statement/
22. Gümüş, E., Kurnaz, Z., Eşici, H., & Gümüş, S. (2020). Current conditions and issues at Temporary Education Centres (TECs) for Syrian child refugees in Turkey. Multicultural Education Review, 12(2), 53-78.
23. Hummelstedt, I., Holm, G., Sahlström, F., & Zilliacus, H. (2021). ‘Refugees here and Finns there’–categorisations of race, nationality, and gender in a Finnish classroom. Intercultural Education, 32(2), 145-159.
24. Izadinia, M. (2014). Teacher educators’ identity: A review of literature. European Journal of Teacher Education, 37(4), 426-441.
25. Karsli-Calamak, E., & Kilinc, S. (2021). Becoming the teacher of a refugee child: Teachers’ evolving experiences in Turkey. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 25(2), 259-282.
26. Korthagen, F. A. (2016). Pedagogy of teacher education. In J. Loughran, & M. L. Hamilton (Eds.), International handbook of teacher education Volume I (pp. 311-346). Springer, Singapore.
27. Kotluk, N., & Aydin, H. (2021). Culturally relevant/sustaining pedagogy in a diverse urban classroom: Challenges of pedagogy for Syrian refugee youths and teachers in Turkey. British Educational Research Journal, 47(4), 900-921.
28. Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. G. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
29. Loughran, J. (2006). Developing a pedagogy of teacher education: Understanding teaching and learning about teaching. London: Taylor & Francis.
30. Marshall, C., & Rossman, G. B. (2011). Designing qualitative research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
31. Maxwell, J. A. (2013). Qualitative research design: An interactive approach. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
32. McDonald, M., & Zeichner, K. (2009). Social justice teacher education. In W. Ayers, T. Quinn, & D. Stovall (Eds.), Handbook of social justice in education (pp. 595-610). New York, NY: Routledge.
33. Miles, M. B., & Huberman, A. M. (1994). Qualitative data analysis: An expanded sourcebook. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
34. Patton, M. Q. (1990). Qualitative evaluation and research methods. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
35. Presidency of Migration Management. (2022). Irregular migration. Retrieved from https://en.goc.gov.tr/irregular-migration
36. Soylu, A., Kaysılı, A., & Sever, M. (2020). Refugee children and adaptation to school: An analysis through cultural responsivities of the teachers. Education and Science, 45(201), 313-334.
37. United Nations Children’s Fund [UNICEF]. (2022). UNICEF Turkey humanitarian situation report No. 44: 1 January to 31 December 2021. Retrieved from https://reliefweb.int/report/turkey/unicef-turkey-humanitarian-situation-report-no-44-1-january-31-december-2021
38. UN Refugee Agency [UNHCR]. (2020). Global trends: Forced displacement in 2020. Retrieved from https://www.unhcr.org/flagship-reports/globaltrends/
39. UN Refugee Agency [UNHCR]. (2021a). Staying the course: The challenges facing refugee education. Retrieved from https://www.unhcr.org/612f85d64/unhcr-education-report-2021-staying-course-challenges-facing-refugee-education
40. UN Refugee Agency [UNHCR]. (2021b). Syria emergency. Retrieved from https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/syria-emergency.html
41. UN Refugee Agency [UNHCR]. (2022a). Turkey fact sheet. Retrieved from https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/UNHCR-Turkey-Factsheet-February-2022.pdf
42. UN Refugee Agency [UNHCR]. (2022b). Ukraine refugee situation. Retrieved from https://data2.unhcr.org/en/situations/ukraine