The Transformation of the Turkish Education System and the Culture of Neoliberalism

Download or read book The Transformation of the Turkish Education System and the Culture of Neoliberalism written by Ziya Toprak and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The educational system of Turkey has been undergoing an influentialneoliberal transformation for the last decade. It has been redefined, restructured and reorganized through four major reforms and acts; the 2005 Curriculum Reform, the FATIH Project and Intel Teach Program, reformation of disciplinary mechanisms, an intensive use of standardized tests, and the 4+4+4 Reform. In this qualitative inquiry, I examine the field of meanings and practices that constituted these reforms and acts to in order to draw a conceptual and theoretical framework to understand the nature of the transformation of the Turkish Education System. In this study, I depart from narrow classical economy- based understandings of neoliberalism and utilize cultural understandings of neoliberalism.I use a methodology that draws from insights from critical ethnography, narrative inquiry and Foucauldian discourse analysis. I collected data from the fieldwork over a 12-month period and consulted a wide range of documents in order to make sense of the cultural transformation of the Turkish Education System.I found that the Turkish Education System has been going through a cultural transformation, that emphasizes psychologization of pedagogy, the computerization of education, Islamization of the system and regular controlling of students and teachers. The logic that pursues this shift is a neoliberal agenda that advocates for marketization of education, defines education as a personal and private endeavor. This logic claims that the educational system is in a crisis of efficiency and productivity that can be saved by computers, promotes religious education, and aims to systematically control students and teachers through new mechanisms of disciplining and an intensive use of standardized tests." --