Navigating Overlapping Marginalization: Teachers’ Challenges and Agency With Multilingual Students in Türkiye

Türkiye’s growing role as a host nation for refugees and international students has transformed its higher education landscape, producing increasingly multilingual and multicultural classrooms. This qualitative study explores university instructors’ experiences teaching multilingual learners, focusing on their preparedness, challenges, and agency in addressing overlapping marginalization. Drawing on Positioning Theory and Teacher Agency Theory, semi-structured interviews with instructors from English preparatory programs and faculties reveal significant gaps in teacher education, limited institutional support, and insufficient intercultural competence. Despite systemic constraints, instructors display agency through adaptive pedagogies and advocacy for inclusion. The findings highlight the need for culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP) and intercultural competence in teacher education, positioning universities as critical spaces for linguistic justice and educational equity.