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German Teacher Candidates' Perceptions of Their Roles in the Lives of Syrian Refugee Students in Dresden

Heineken, Sarah Elina
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1563406288112669

Abstract Details

2019, Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, Cross-Cultural, International Education.
Beginning in 2011, the Syrian Conflict caused the widespread displacement of over five million people and caused a steep rise in the number of asylum seekers entering the European Union. Chancellor Angela Merkel adopted a controversial open-door policy in the summer 2015 that lifted previous quotas on the number of refugees that could enter Germany (Liebe, Meyerhoff, Kroesen, Chorus, and Glenk, 2018). This policy decision has led to an increase in the presence of Syrian refugee students in Germany public schools, particularly in regions that are less accepting of refugees and foreigners. This study examines the research question: how do German teacher candidates understand their role in the lives of the secondary school-aged Syrian refugees now present in German classrooms? Bourdieu’s (1973) social and cultural capital theory and Bronfenbrenner’s (1977) ecological systems theory provide a framework for my study and allow me to examine the ways in which German teacher candidates assess this phenomenon and identify critical forms of support that Syrian refugee students need. I collected data from eleven individual interviews with teacher candidates from a university in Dresden and coded the data to assess overarching themes that helped to answer the research question. The data suggest that German teacher candidates see themselves primarily as language instructors and cultural guidance counselors for Syrian refugee students, regardless of their content area or educational background. Major impediments exist in fulfilling these roles, namely in the forms of wide-spread racism and anti-refugee sentiment throughout Germany, difficulty in identifying the specific needs of Syrian refugee students, and a lack of training targeting work with refugee students in general.
Bruce Collet, Dr. (Advisor)
Christy Galletta-Horner, Dr. (Committee Member)
Christina Guenther, Dr. (Committee Member)
141 p.
Education; Education Policy; European Studies
Teacher Candidates; Refugees; Syria; Education; Germany; Dresden

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Heineken, S. E. (2019). German Teacher Candidates' Perceptions of Their Roles in the Lives of Syrian Refugee Students in Dresden [Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1563406288112669

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Heineken, Sarah. German Teacher Candidates' Perceptions of Their Roles in the Lives of Syrian Refugee Students in Dresden. 2019. Bowling Green State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1563406288112669.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Heineken, Sarah. "German Teacher Candidates' Perceptions of Their Roles in the Lives of Syrian Refugee Students in Dresden." Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1563406288112669

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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© 2019, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.