Educating the “Other”: Narrative Analysis of the Role of the Social Studies Teacher in the Education of Asylum-seeker Students

This study aims to reveal the social studies teacher's contacts with asylum-seeking students, the teacher’s perceptions of competence, and experiences of being a teacher in a culturally diversified migration society with a holistic story in the context of her own identity, cultural and social realities, and Turkish national educational ideology. Narrative research was preferred as the research design. A semi-structured interview form was used to collect the data and interviews lasting nine sessions were conducted with the teacher. Narrative analysis was used in the analysis of the data. As a result of the research, it was determined that the undergraduate education of social studies teaching, and vocational in-service training processes did not have sufficient content and practices for cultural diversity in the classroom; it was aimed that asylum-seeker students would integrate into the monocultural society structure and that the social studies teacher's life experiences shaped her approach and teaching competence regarding the asylum-seeker students. As a result, despite the fact that the cultural structure in Turkey diversified with migrations, it is seen that the understanding and practices in social studies course are far from incorporating a multicultural basis.