Acquisition of Middle School Student’s Respect to Differences and Adaptation Skills with Foreign Students

Turkey is a country with a multicultural society under the influence of geographical location and globalization. Especially, cities such as Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Antalya, Mardin and Hatay are among the important centers of internal and external migration. Alanya is one of these centers and has a multicultural structure in its schools as well as its social structure. The socio-cultural diversity of the students in schools and classes is high. Different nation, language, religion and culture students with special characteristics are trained together. There are some difficulties in such an educational environment. The aim of this study is to determine the level of respect for the differences of the students in the secondary schools in Alanya. The population of the study is composed of 7th grade students in Alanya. Criterion sampling method was used as sampling method. The research sample was selected from two secondary schools in Alanya in the spring term of 2017-2018 academic year. All of the 146 students in this sample are 7th grade students. The reason for choosing these schools as a sample is the number of students from different countries and cities is high in these schools. In this study, a qualitative research method was used. And the data were collected and tabulated quantitatively. In data collection, “the scale of respect for differences” was used as a tool. The scale consisted of 44 items and 8 dimensions and was prepared in five-point likert-type. The structural equation and model analyzes of the scale were made by the LISREL program. Validity and reliability of each dimension were verified. At the end of the study, student’s level of respect for differences was found to be high as “always” and “usually” in many subcategories. Although students are educated in multicultural school environments, they generally respect the differences. Especially in Social Studies lesson and other lessons, values such as respect for differences, empathy and cooperation should be gained in practice