The difficulties that refugees encounter in social studies

Throughout the history we were confronted with migration and asylum issues very often in our territories. Considering the population of Republic of Turkey, the proportion of people, who settled in Turkey because of migration and asylum reasons in the last centuries, cannot be underestimated. Education, as being one of the fundamental civil rights, is the unique hope of the children for future, who were forced to abandon their domiciles due to insecurity and uncertain future. Receiving an education is a must for the refugee and migrant children in host countries, so that they can earn their lives and be recognized in the society as honorable people. Social studies aim to encourage individuals while fitting in the society and obtaining required values, skills and education to be an effective citizen. As a result of this, it is very crucial for social studies to identify the difficulties, that refugee children are faced with. The goal of this study is to determine the troubles, that refugee children cope with in social studies and to provide recommendations as a solution to these problems. This study is constructed based on phenomenology research method among qualitative research methodologies. In this regard, interviewing technique has been applied. In this research, the problems, which refugee children and their teachers are dealing with in social studies, have been revealed via an interview technique. In these interviews, a questionnaire with 9 questions has been used in order to learn about opinions of refugee children and social studies teachers. While analyzing the collected data, descriptive and content analysis methods have been applied. The views of teachers and students, who are constituting the research study group, have been revealed. The interviewees consist of 11 social studies teachers and 44 refugee students in total. Out of 44 refugee students, 11 of them are in 5th class, 11 of them are in 6th class, 11 of them are in 7th class and 11 of them are in 8th class. It was assumed that the refugee students in 8th class have learned social studies in former classes; thus, they were included in research study group. This study has been conducted in the city of Sivas. Having analyzed the responses of interviewees, the study concluded that the majority of the social studies teachers is aware of the troubles of refugee children, nevertheless, they feel unqualified in relation to responding their problems. Teachers noted that refugee children are not successful in social studies due to many reasons but mainly language barriers. The responses of refugee students demonstrated that lack of interest in social studies and participation in lessons are related with inadequate language skills. Ability of students in Turkish language plays the most significant role in their approach to social studies. It was observed that refugee children draw a special attention to cultural topics, however, historical and geographical subjects do not interest them. It was indicated that the active participation and interest of refugee children in social studies can be fostered by using different teaching methods and techniques and technological equipment. In this regard, in-service training for teachers while teaching refugee students social studies and providing teachers with necessary equipment and assessment tools by respective experts will most likely help both teachers and refugee students during the adaptation period. Key Words: Opinions of Social Studies Teachers, Opinions of Refugee Children, Social Studies, Troubles of Refugees