The Challenges of Refugee Students Encountered in Science Courses: A Phenomenological Study

In recent years, because of some factors such as, wars and unemployment, refugee and migrant people population have been increasing in Turkey. The aim of this study is to investigate the factors effect refugee students’ learning process within the scope of science course. It was focused on to gain the data deeply, which were taken from the refugee students within science course to understand the reason of failure in science. This study was conducted in a middle school, which is located in Ankara, and was carried out with middle school students, whose ages are from 11 to 14 years old. The study was conducted with seven refugee students in 2016-2017 education fall term, for six months. In this study, qualitative method was used, within this scope this study is a phenomenological study. To collect data of the study, interviews, observations and document analyse techniques were used. A triangulation was provided to vary the data of the study. Content analysis and descriptive analysis techniques were used to obtain of the results of the study. It has been understood from the observations that students could not understand science teachers’ statements while they were in science lesson. Science teachers stated the reasons of students’ failure in science that students do not know Turkish well (20%), they do not belong themselves to Turkey (20%), economic conditions (13,33%) and negative school climate (13,33%). Students pointed out some factors of their failure in science that they are language problems (11,66%), their family can not help to them within science course (11,66%) and so on. It can be recommended taking additional science courses after school will be more useful for refugee students in terms of effective learning science.

Keywords:

phenomenological, refugee students science course,

PDF

___

Areepattamannıl, S. & Kaur, B. (2013). Factors predıctıng scıence achıevement of ımmıgrant and non-immigrant students: a multılevel analysıs. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 11, 1183-1207.
Arnot, M. and Pinson, H. (2005). The education of asylum-seeker and refugee children: A study of LEA and school values, policies and practices. Cambridge: Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge.
Ary, D., Jacobs, L., Razavieh, A., & Sorensen, C. (2006). Introduction to research in education (7th ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth.
Barton, A. C. & Yang, K. (2000). The Culture of power and science education: Learning from Miguel. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 37(8), 871-889.
Cassity, E., & Gow, G. (2005). Shifting space and cultural place: The transition experiences of African young people in west Sydney schools. Paper presented at the Australian Association of Educational Research, Annual Conference, November 27–December 1, in Sydney.
Christie, P., & Sidhu, R. (2002). Responding to refugees: Globalisation and the challenges facing Australian schools. Mots Pluriel 21 (May).
Creswell, J. W. (2007). Qualitative inquary and research design: Choosing among five approaches (2nd ed.). California: Sage Publications, Inc.
Ferfolja, T. (2008). Building teacher capital in pre-service teachers: Reflections on a new teachereducation initiative. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 33(2), 68–84.
Ferfolja, T., & Vickers, M. (2010). Supporting refugee students in school education in Greater Western Sydney. Critical Studies in Education, 51(2), 149-162.
Hannah, J. (1999). Refugee students at college and university: Improving access and support. International Review of Education, 45(2), 153-166.
Hutchison, C. B. (2006). Cross-cultural issues arising for four science teachers during their international migration to teach in U.S. high schools. School Science and Math International Migration, 106(82), 74-83.
Hürriyet, (2016). Türkiye'de öğrenim gören Suriyeli öğrenci sayısı 450 bini geçti. Retrieved from: http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/turkiyede-ogrenim-goren-suriyeli-ogrenci-sayisi-450-bini-gecti-40259079
Koch, T. (1995). Interpretative approaches in nursing research: the influence of Husserl and Heidegger. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 21 (5), 827–836.
Magnuson, K. Lahaie, C., & Waldfogel, J. (2006). Preschool and school readiness of children of immigrants. Social Scıence Quarterly, 87(5), 1241-1262.
Matthews, J. (2008). Schooling and settlement: refugee education in Australia. International Studies in Sociology of Education, 18(1), 31-45.
McBrien, J. L. (2005). Educational Needs and barriers for refugee students in the United States: A review of the literature. Review of Educational Research, 75(3), 329-364.
McCall, A. L. & Vang, B. (2012). Preparing Preservice teachers to meet the needs of Hmong refugee students. Multicultural Perspectives, 14(1), 32–37.
Miles, M. B., & Huberman, A. M. (1994). Qualitative data analysis: An expanded sourcebook (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications. Miller.
Miller, J. (2009). Teaching refugee learners with interrupted education in science: Vocabulary, literacy and pedagogy. International Journal of Science Education, 31(4), 571-592.
Moro, L. B. (2002). Refugee education in a changing global climate: The case of Sudanese in Egypt. Annual Meeting of the Comparative and International Education Society (46th, Orlando, FL, March 6-9).
NASP, (2016). Supporting Refugee Children & Youth: Tips for Educators. Retrieved from: https://www.nasponline.org/resources-and publications/resources/school-safety-and-crisis/war-and-terrorism/supporting-refugee-students
Ngo, B. (2006). Learning from the margins: the education of Southeast and South Asian Americans in context. Race Ethnicity and Education, 9(1), 51-65.
OECD (2014a), PISA 2012 Results: What students know and can do – Student performance in mathematics, reading and science (Volume I, Revised edition), OECD Publishing. Retrieved from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264208780-en
OECD (2014b). PISA 2012 Results in Focus. What 15-year-olds know and what they can do with what they know. Retrieved from: https://www.oecd.org>pisa>keyfindings.
OECD, (2015). Helping immigrant students to succeed. Retrieved from: https://www.oecd.org/education/Helping-immigrant-students-to-succeed-at-school and-beyond.pdf at school – and beyond
Perrier, F. (2004). Practising active science with child refugees: A clinical perspective. The Science Education Review, 3(2), 67-87.
PISA (2015). Immigrant Students. Retrieved from: http://www.compareyourcountry.org/pisa/country/tur
Sakız, H. (2016). Göçmen çocuklar ve okul kültürleri: Bir bütünleştirme önerisi. Göç Dergisi, 3(1), 65-81.
Spernes, K. (2016). Immigrant student teachers as co-researchers. International Journal of Learning. Teaching and Educational Research, 15(11), 1-15.
Şeker, B. D., & Aslan, Z. (2015). Refugee children in the educational process: An social psychological assessment. Journal of Theoretical Educational Science, 8(1), 86-105.
Taylor, S. & Sidhu, R. K. (2012) Supporting refugee students in schools: what constitutes inclusive education? International Journal of Inclusive Education, 16(1), 39-56.
UNHCR-The UN Refugee Agency (2016). Refugees. Retrieved from: http://www.unhcr.org/refugees.html Unicef, (2016). Türkiye’deki Suriyeli çocuklar. Retrieved from: http://www.unicef.org.tr/files/bilgimerkezi/doc/T%C3%BCrkiye'deki%20Suriyeli%20%C3%87ocuklar%20Bilgi%20Notu_Temmuz_2016.pdf
USA for UNHCR, (2016). Who is a refugee? Retrieved from: http://www.unrefugees.org/what-is-a-refugee/
Varma, R. (2002). High-Tech Coolies: Asian Immigrants in the US Science and Engineering Workforce. Science as Culture, 11(3), 337-361.
Yıldırım, A., & Şimşek, H. (2008). Sosyal bilimlerde nitel araştırma yöntemleri (7th Ed.). Ankara: Seçkin.
Warren, B., Ballenger, C., Ogonowski, M., Rosebery, A. S., & Barnes-Hudicourt, J. (2001). Rethinking diversity in learning science: The logic of everyday sense-making. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 38(5), 529-552.
Waters, J. L. (2006). Geographies of cultural capital: education, international migration and family strategies between Hong Kong and Canada, 31(2), 179-192.
Weeks, T., Phelan, L., Macfarlane, S., Pinson, J., & Francis, V. (2011). Supporting successful learning for refugee students: The Classroom Connect project Issues in Educational Research, 21(3), 310-329.
Windle, J., & Miller, J. (2012). Approaches to teaching low literacy refugee-background students. Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 35(3), 317–333.
Wink, D. J. (2015). Immigrant students in the U.S. chemistry classroom: An educational opportunity and challenge. Journal of Chemical Education, 92, 1771-1772.

ISSN: 2146-8249
Yayın Aralığı: Yılda 2 Sayı
Başlangıç: 2012
Yayıncı: Nesibe Aydın Eğitim Kurumları

Arşiv