Do teachers' subjective beliefs affect Syrian students' educational outcomes in Turkey

Due to the Syrian War, up to 12 million people have been forced to leave their homes and more than 450,000 people have lost their lives since 2011. The crisis has resulted in immense social and economic effects on Syrian people and the hosting countries. Around 1.5 million refugee children have been deprived of basic education for several years. Turkey hosts almost one million school-age Syrian children. The Ministry of Education in Turkey has been working on the integration of these children into the national education system. In this study, we aim at understanding the factors affecting Syrian students' academic success in Turkish primary schools. We conducted exams with both Syrian and Turkish students to evaluate their Math, Reading and Social Studies comprehension and also we interviewed teachers to collect their subjective beliefs on the students in their classrooms. We especially focus on teachers' attitudes towards Syrian students. To identify how teachers' subjective beliefs change depending on students' ethnicity, we compare students born in Turkey and born in Syria. Moreover, we aim at measuring how much a teacher has an impact on students' academic performance. We conducted our research in 13 primary schools in poorer districts of Ankara where there is a higher percentage of students with an immigrant background. We restrict our sample to the second and third-grade students. The result of this research indicates that, teachers' subjective beliefs do not have a significant effect on immigrant students' classroom performance. Keywords: Teacher's subjective beliefs, academic performance, Syrian students, Turkey