Introduction

A large number of people in the world leave their home countries because of coercive reasons including conflict, persecution, and disaster (IOM, 2021). The World Migration Report 2022 exhibits that the number of refugees globally was 26.4 million (IOM, 2021). Specific to European Union, 417,000 people from 150 countries applied for asylum in 2020 and of those people, 102,500 requested asylum from Germany having the largest number of applicants in the European Union (Eurostatt, 2021). In particular, many Turkish citizens have attempted to leave their country in recent years and started to request asylum from safer countries. Turkish citizens were among the largest refugee groups (7,6% in 2019, 5,6% in 2020) in Germany (BAMF, 2019, 2020). Among those people there are lots of diplomats and senior-ranked Turkish civil servants who lost their positions after the coup attempt 2016 and the number of these people keeps increasing (Deutscher Welle, 2017, 2019).

With this massive migration, the number of Turkish refugees in Germany has increased and it has become an crucial issue how Turkish refugee parents can support their children's education by integrating into the country. Parental involvement/engagement has been acknowledged as a key determinant to reach satisfactory outcomes in students’ learning and achievement (Epstein, 1984, 2011). In the case of refugees, parental engagement is of particular importance to the success of refugee students (McBrien, 2005). Refugee parents’ engagement in their children’s education is crucial in elementary grades on the grounds that children’s educational experiences in early years may lead to better outcomes of social and academic development in the future (Alexander et al., 2002; Hamre & Pianta, 2005). Some research studies reveal that parental engagement in elementary grades not only affects student achievement but also it helps to hinder children’s behavioural problems (Domina, 2005; Englund et al., 2004). In the context of immigrant parents’ engagement, studies mostly focused on the parental engagement with secondary level; however, little known about parental engagement with elementary education (Turney & Kao, 2009). According to the best of our knowledge the parental engagement of recently arrived Turkish refugees in Germany have not been investigated in the context of elementary education. To fill this research gap, the current study aims to explore Turkish refugee parents’ experiences and perspectives of parental engagement with their children’s education and the challenges they encounter in this process. This research study endeavours to answer the following research questions:

1-    What are the experiences of Turkish refugee parents in parental engagement with their children’s elementary education in Germany?

2-    What challenges do Turkish refugee parents encounter in the process of parental engagement in Germany?

Theoretical Framework

In this study, a model proposed by Goodall and Montgomery (2014) represents the continuum from parental involvement with school to parental engagement with children’s learning, which frames this study and motivates the data analysis. Goodall and Montgomery (2014) attribute to the fact that the parents especially those coming from a minority background or being confronted with some economic problems may have difficulties in involving with school, even so, they are enthusiastic about engaging in their children’s learning (Cooper, 2009). This continuum indicates the move from prioritising what schools need and desire to parents’ and schools’ shared decisions. The continuum contains three main components; (1) parental involvement with school, (2) parental involvement with schooling, and (3) parental engagement with children’s learning. The first one refers to the school controlled relationship with parents, the second one refers to information exchange between the school personnel and parents, and the third one refers to parents’ engagement with their children’s learning mostly away from school (Goodall & Montgomery, 2014).

Method The present study is designed as a case study which describes and analyses a bounded system in-depth (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). This study concentrates on a specific group of people who are newly arrived (2016-2022) Turkish refugees in Germany that can be considered as a bounded system/case of the study. Ten newly arrived Turkish refugee parents are interviewed through semi-structured interviews and they are selected through purposive sampling, in that the parents whose children are at elementary grade in Germany. The semi-structured interview protocol was prepared by the researchers by receiving expert views. The data collected are analysed based on thematic analysis by using the model of continuum by Goodall and Montgomery (2014). The data analysis is still in progress; thus, expected outcomes will be presented in the results part.

Expected Results In the light of the initial analysis conducted so far, it has been determined that newly arrived Turkish refugee parents in Germany were diligent in engaging in their children’s learning and educational process. In particular, it has been determined that most of these parents were well-educated and they intended to provide their children with additional learning materials (books, explanatory videos, notes, etc.) at home. They also reported that they used online learning resources from the Internet and tried to support their children in their homework. The analysis revealed that refugee parents considered parental engagement an important issue that could affect their children’s achievement at school. Despite their willingness to support their children’s learning, it was determined that refugee families encountered some difficulties in parental engagement process. The language barrier and low income in Germany turned out to be among the challenges of active parental engagement. It was noted that refugee parents attend German courses, but they could not actively engage in their children's learning processes at home as much as they would like due to language barrier. In addition, most of the parents reported that they had difficulty in communicating with school administrators and teachers as they were not good at German, which negatively affected their involvement with school and schooling. Moreover, it has been determined that refugee parents seek support from others (neighbours, children's classmates or parents of classmates, Turkish children studying at the upper classes) in order to be involved in the learning process of their children outside of school. Overall, it reveals that although newly arrived Turkish refugee parents encountered some difficulties, mostly language barrier, they desired to involve in their children’s education at elementary level. After the analyses are completed, the final results will be reported in detail.

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