Classroom practices of social studies teachers for refugee students in the context of multicultural education: A study based on teachers' views

Economic, social, scientific, political etc. in the world and in Turkey. Multiculturalism has started to become widespread due to developments. Multiculturalism is defined as religion, language, ethnicity, sect, gender, age, sexual orientation and even very simple life styles outside of these elements, in which diversity is handled in a very broad framework. Accepting the value of each society as a value on its own, without comparing it with another, is the greatest philosophical basis of multiculturalism. Multiculturalism, which is an important phenomenon of the 21st century world, affects every aspect of life. In this context, education-teaching environments and educational activities with the dimension of teacher-student-manager-parent also take their share from multicultural life. The most important event that makes multicultural education popular in the world and in Turkey is the waves of refugees-asylum-seekers-immigrants. Turkey is a country open to refugee-asylum-seeker-immigrant influx due to its geographical location, and today it is both a transit, source and destination country. With this feature, multicultural education comes to the fore in terms of the realization of healthy education and training activities. However, it should be noted that multicultural education has both advantages and disadvantages. In this respect, multicultural education is frequently discussed in national and international literature. The aim of this study is to reveal the classroom practices of social studies teachers for refugee students within the scope of multicultural education practices based on teacher opinions. The preferred method in the study is the qualitative type of phenomenological design. In this context, interviews were held with 10 social studies teachers who actively work in public schools in the city center of Malatya in the 2021-2022 academic year. In accordance with the nature of qualitative research, the study group was determined by purposive sampling method. In the study where one-on-one interviews were conducted, a semi-structured interview form created by the researcher was used. The most basic conclusion reached by the study is that the process followed to get to know the refugee students progresses very shallow and haphazardly. The point that makes this result important is that not being able to know the student prevents multicultural education. In parallel with the literature, the most important problem faced by refugee students and Turkish teachers is the language problem. However, it is also noteworthy that teachers do not make a special effort to get to know the refugee student, and that they describe the recognition process with introductory conversations. In fact, this is also related to the fact that teachers are caught unprepared for the process. It is essential to use different methods, techniques and materials for a healthy multicultural education. However, the conclusion of the study is that the method most preferred by the participants is lecture and the smart board as the material. Considering that there is a language problem, the use of the narrative method has been identified as an important problem. However, it was determined that cultural characteristics were taken into consideration in the selection of materials. In the study, two different teacher approaches towards refugee students were identified. The first of these is the teacher who teaches according to Turkish students, not the refugee students, and the second is the teacher who teaches the whole class without discrimination of ethnic origin. It has been determined that the practices for multicultural education are not sufficiently realized, the scope of multicultural education is not known exactly, and there are positive and negative perspectives towards multicultural education. Negative views on multicultural education were also considered as a problem that hinders the healthy continuation of the process. Keywords: Multiculturalism, Multicultural Education, Refugee Student