The Effect of Migration-Themed Children's Books on Primary School Students' Attitudes and Views Toward Refugee Students

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the impact of migration-themed children's books on the attitudes of fourth-grade primary school students towards migrant students. Employing a mixed design, the study adopts a quasi-experimental approach with a pre-test-post-test control group and an explanatory case study. Recruiting 56 students living in a neighborhood with a dense migrant population in Istanbul, the first author administered the attitude towards refugee students scale (ATRSS) and conducted semi-structured interviews during the 2021-2022 academic year. As an experimental practice, the first author held reading sessions for 8 weeks with activities using migration-themed children's books. Control group students continued their regular classes. The experimental and control groups were interviewed and asked to fill in the ATRSS both before and after the reading sessions. The quantitative data was analyzed with SPSS 22.0 and qualitative data using descriptive analysis. The analysis revealed that migration-themed children's books do not effect attitudes towards migrants. Other social/educational variables such as gender, socioeconomic status, and parental education level also has no effect on attitudes towards refugee students. The qualitative data revealed that migration- themed children's books promote sensitivity to migrants' problems, empathic thinking, and a positive attitude about diversity. As a result, this study significantly contributes to further studies for researchers and teachers