The Problems Encountered by the Foreign Primary School Students from the Perspectives of Classroom Teachers (Bilecik Sampling)

Abstract

Millions of people all over the world today leave or have to leave their countries and move to other countries as immigrants, refugees, asylums, etc. due to various reasons. According to a report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), about 60 million people were forced to leave their homes and worldwide displacement due to wars, conflicts and persecutions is at the highest level. Turkey is one of the most important countries which has been following a policy of opening its doors to those who have had to leave their countries due to such problems as war, economic problems, political problems, etc. in their own countries. Today, there are millions of people from other countries in the country, which also means that there are thousands of foreign students in many primary schools in the country. However, this situation has brought many problems for the foreign students, Turkish students, teachers and school administrators. The aim of this study is to identify the general and educational problems encountered by the foreign primary school students from the perspectives of the classroom teachers in Bilecik. As the study aims at examining the problems in detail depending on the views of the teachers and to bring about recommendations within the scope of those views, phenomenological research design in quantitative approaches was adopted. The data of the study were gathered from 33 classroom teachers in four primary schools in the province with semi-structured interviews. For the analysis of the data, content analysis was conducted. As a result of the interview with the classroom teachers, the findings were categorized under seven themes and sub-themes related to the main ones. According to the findings of the study, the foreign students encounter language, cultural, economic, politic, social, physiological problems and the problems in teaching-learning process.