Views of secondary school students on the adaptation of Syrian immigrant students in their educational environment

One of the most important problems of many states in the world today, especially Turkey, is the integration of Syrian immigrants into society and the healthy completion of the process of adaptation to society with the awareness of citizenship. The most important stage of this process is undoubtedly the educational institutions and the students studying in these institutions. The opinions expressed by Turkish students about the Syrian immigrant children they are studying together are very important in terms of revealing the positive and negative effects of the process on children in relation to education. Accordingly, the aim of the study is to examine the views of Secondary School students on the adaptation of Syrian immigrant students in their educational environment. The research is based on the Phenemenology pattern of qualitative research method. For this purpose, 4 different schools in Altindag District of Ankara province, where the classes are dense with Syrian immigrant students at 5., 6., 7., and 8. grades. A total of 30 students from different branches in the classes were selected by a targeted sample method. The data collected by independent word and sentence association test and composition evaluated in the writing dimension of drawing-writing technique from the students participating in the study were analyzed by content analysis and turned into tables. The data obtained by the independent word association and sentence test is considered in three categories including emotions, personality traits, and attitudes; the data obtained by composition writing is considered in two categories including empathy and solution suggestion. When the results of the study were interpreted, it was determined that the views of Secondary School students about their Syrian immigrant peers were generally positive, that their Syrian peers approached their problems mostly with empathy and offered solutions.