Syrian children’s perceived integration into Turkish national education system

This study is conducted to analyze Syrian children’s educational life from the perspective of the teachers and explore their acculturation process, and adaptation into the Turkish culture with reference to the difficulties. Moreover, the study will take into account their academic attainment as well as the implemented bilingual education model. Grounded theory was utilized to analyze the data as it enables a scrupulous analysis when there is not much detailed information on the topic. Thematic analysis was conducted as the qualitative research design is required to explore and identify the academic achievement and social adaptation process of Syrian students in Turkey. The findings suggest that the teachers are aware of the Syrian students’ distinctive situation; however, they feel incompetent in supporting them. As for the Syrian students, teachers point at the language barrier they encounter while describing these children’s deficiency in both social adaptation and academic achievement. Therefore, they recommend supplying extra courses to enhance their language development and advise a common bilingual education model to be implemented. Besides, the teachers also highlight the significance of providing both psychological and social support for them in order to facilitate their acculturation