Investigating multicultural education in minority and public high schools in Turkey: A multiple case study

Problem situation: Upon inspection of Turkish national programs, it is seen that today they incorporate more universal values. In this framework, issues such as multiculturalism, pluralism, and diversity may play a significant part in attempts to render educational institutions and their programs more democratic. Dissertations and articles on multicultural education have been profusely issued throughout the World so far. Similarly, it is seen that, over the last decade, there has been an increase in Turkey in the number of studies that look at teachers', academicians', and students' views on and attitudes towards multicultural education. In order to design systems and curricula for multicultural societies, it is of great importance to deeply understand multicultural education phenomena in minority and public high schools in Turkey, where the number of qualitative studies conducted in Turkey on this topic remains inadequate. Purpose of Study: The aim of this study was to investigate different participants' (principals, vice-principals, teachers, students) perceptions and implementations of multicultural education in a minority high school and two public high schools in Istanbul, Turkey. Method: The methodology of this study was grounded in the field of qualitative study. Multiple case study approach was chosen to examine the schools. The "cases" inspected in this study were multicultural education perceptions of different participants from different types of schools which had rich diversity in multicultural and minority education. Maximum variation sampling method of purposive sampling methods was used. The data for the study was collected by "methodological triangulation" (semi-structured, face-to-face, in-depth interviews, participant observations, document analysis, etc.), "data source triangulation" and "investigator triangulation" during the 2014-2015 academic years. Particularly interview study method was employed. The researcher developed a semi-structured interview form and 44 high school participants were interviewed. After the interviews were fully transcribed, the gathered data obtained from the interviews, observations and examination of the documents was content analyzed. The setting and procedures were discussed in a detailed way. A codebook was created by three interpreters. Findings: After the interviews were fully transcribed, the gathered data obtained from the interviews, observations and examination of the documents was content analyzed. Then it was organized under main themes and sub-themes. These were Equal Opportunity in Education and Education for All, Metaphors related to the notion of multicultural education, Diversity Consciousness (Sub-themes: Acculturation, Self-Development, Global Citizenship), Equality (Sub-themes: Coexistence, Pluralism, Tolerance), Lack of Multicultural Education / Curriculum, Teaching of Mother Tongue and Unification of Education, Disadvantages of Multicultural Education, The Contributions Approach and The Additive Approach, Communication Problems Faced with People from Diverse Backgrounds, Lack of Multicultural Education and Textbooks. Participants indicated that multicultural education could contribute to more opportunities and equal education rights for all. Participants also expressed that multicultural education was in a way a requirement for different people from various cultures to live with equal rights and for society to be a fairer and more democratic ground for people from all walks of life. Results and Recommendations: The research demonstrates that teachers need to receive a comprehensive training on multicultural education. As participants reported, teachers should use examples and content from a variety of cultures and groups to show key concepts, principles, generalizations, and theories in their subject area or discipline. Teachers should help students to comprehend, investigate, and determine how the implicit cultural assumptions, biases, etc. within a discipline influence the ways in which knowledge is constructed within it. In addition, students' attitudes should be modified by teaching materials and methods. Teachers should change their teaching in ways which will facilitate the academic achievement of students from diverse cultural, racial and social-class groups by using a variety of teaching styles. School culture should be created so that all the students will experience educational equality and empowerment. Keywords: Multicultural Education, Qualitative Research, Qualitative Multiple Case Study, Curriculum and Instruction.