Evaluation of the educational problems of school-age childerenof parentsworking as seasonal agricultural workers (SAW) according to the teachers', parents' and students' opinions

The significant portion of the workforce of the agricultural sector in Turkeyhas been working as temporary seasonal agricultural workers. These workers usually migrate to the agricultural regions where they work, with their families. This seasonal migration reveals many problems and especially have negativeeffects on the education of the workers' children.The aim of this research was to determine educational problems of Seasonal Agricultural Workers' (SAW) school-age children according to teachers', parents'and students' opinions. The research was designed as qualitative status study. The participants of the research were 18 teachers, 10 parents and 15 children in Akçakale District of Şanlıurfa. As data collection tool, the researcher prepared a separate interview form for each participant group (teacher, parent and student). The data collected were analyzed with Nvivo Software. After the data was coded with free coding, codes were collected under categories and themes. The raw coding was reviewed and re-coded after one month. Similarities and differences in both coding were determined and coding reliability was calculated. While the number of different codes is 15, similar code number has been found to be 149. The similarity rate was calculated as 90%.The research findings showed that: i) Children of SAW did not receive adequate support from their families and that most of them were girls; ii) The children's attitudes towards school were negative due to school absenteeism and permanent displacement; iii) The childrensuffered from not only academic but also social and psychological problems and iv) The childrenwere not provided sufficient compensation of education service. In the study it was seen that parents and teachers brought economic and employment oriented suggestions to solve the problems.