Interactions Between Refugee and Local Preschool Children and Prejudice or Discriminatory Behaviors: Teachers’ Observations

Abstract

This study is designed to identify the prejudice or discriminatory behaviors towards refugee children that can be observed in children in early childhood and to determine the extent of the interaction of refugee children with other children. It is a case study which is one of the qualitative research methods. In this study, face-to-face interviews were conducted with 15 pre-school teachers, who had refugee children in their class, through the semi-structured interview form developed by the researchers. Descriptive analysis was used to analyze the data. As a result of the study, it was concluded that although there is no complete integration in the classes with refugee children, children do not have any prejudice or discriminatory behaviors towards refugee children, and even Turkish children cooperate with refugee children. In the education and adaptation of refugee children, it was concluded that the failure in speaking the Turkish language is an important obstacle, and the way in which children are raised in the family and cultural differences cause disciplinary problems in refugee children in some cases. It suggests that provision in the classroom of language and adaptation training for the integration of refugee children will help to integrate the cultural differences of children into the classroom environment. © 2021, Duzce University, Faculty of Education. All rights reserved.