Neoliberal Zamanlarda Öğretmenlik: Türkiye'deki Temel Liselerde Öğretmen Seslerinin Çözümlemesi

Year 2024, , 83 - 108, 30.06.2024

Özlem Yıldırım Taştı Cennet Engin

https://doi.org/10.31704/ijocis.1466226

Abstract

Ethical Statement

The authors declare that the study adhered to ethical guidelines and received approval from the relevant institutional review board, ensuring compliance with ethical standards throughout the research process.

Thanks

The authors wish to extend their heartfelt gratitude to the participants for enabling the investigation of such a critical topic in the Turkish education system.

Teaching in Neoliberal Times: Unraveling Teacher Voices at Basic High Schools in Türkiye

Abstract

This paper seeks to contextualize the profound impact of neoliberal policies on the teaching profession. Employing an intrinsic case study design, our investigation delves into the intricate dynamics experienced by educators in five different Basic High Schools (BHS) located in Ankara, Türkiye. A comprehensive understanding emerges through in-depth semi-structured interviews conducted with 21 teachers and three school counselors working at BHS. The interviews were complemented with observations of various processes at the selected research sites. The study uncovers a predominant focus in these institutions, where the core of teacher responsibilities revolved around preparing students for university entrance examinations, predominantly emphasizing the cultivation of test-taking skills. Despite this primary objective, BHS teachers had to implement the national formal curricula, resulting in extended working hours and responsibility overload. Paradoxically, these educators find themselves in a predicament of being inadequately compensated and grappling with issues related to employment rights. Our analysis draws attention to the critical implications of these challenges, collectively constraining teacher autonomy and eroding their professional competence. Furthermore, these conditions divert educators from their inherent roles as critical educators. In essence, the convergence of extensive workload, insufficient remuneration, and problems regarding employee rights cause the deskilling of teachers and hinder BHS teachers’ ability to fulfill their vital roles as transformative and reflective educators.

Keywords

deskilling of teachers, education privatization, high-stakes testing, private schools, teachers, working conditions

References

• Ali, T. (2018). Raising teachers’ voices: an in-depth qualitative inquiry into teachers’ working conditions and professional development needs in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a province of Pakistan. Teacher Development, 22(1), 78-104. https://doi.org/10.1080/13664530.2017.1308432.
• Apple, M. W. (2017). What is present and absent in critical analyses of neoliberalism in education. Peabody Journal of Education, 92(1), 148-153. https://doi.org/10.1080/0161956X.2016.1265344.
• Apple, M. W. (1982). Curriculum and the labor process: the logic of technical control. Social Text, 5, 108–125. https://doi.org/10.2307/466338.
• Apple, M. W., Biesta, G., Bright, D., Giroux, H. A., McKay, A., McLaren, P., Riddle, S., & Yeatman, A. (2022). Reflections on contemporary challenges and possibilities for democracy and education. Journal of Educational Administration and History, 54(3), 245–262. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220620.2022.2052029.
• Apple, M.W., & Teitelbaum, K. (1986). Are teachers losing control of their skills and curriculum? Journal of Curriculum Studies, 18(2), 177-184. https://doi.org/10.1080/0022027860180207.
• Aronowitz, S., & Giroux, H. (1985). Radical education and transformative intellectuals. Canadian Journal of Political and Social Theory, IX(3), 48-63. https://journals.uvic.ca/index.php/ctheory/article/view/14055
• Aydoğan, E. (2008). Eğitim sisteminde yeniden yapilanma ve özelleştirme adimlari [Measures to reconstruct and privatize education system]. Memleket Siyaset Yönetim, 3(6), 166-187. https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/msydergi/issue/75918/1254075. Au, W. (2016). Meritocracy 2.0: High-stakes, standardized testing as a racial project of neoliberal multiculturalism. Educational Policy, 30(1), 39-62. https://doi.org/10.1177/0895904815614916.
• Au, W. (2013). Hiding behind high-stakes testing: Meritocracy, objectivity and inequality in US education. International Education Journal: Comparative Perspectives, 12(2) 7-19. https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/IEJ/article/view/7453.
• Au, W. (2011a). Teaching under the new Taylorism: High‐stakes testing and the standardization of the 21st century curriculum. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 43(1), 25-45. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220272.2010.521261.
• Au, W. (2011b). Neither fair nor accurate: research-based reasons why high-stakes tests should not be used to evaluate teachers. Rethinking Schools, 25(2), 34-38. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ932789.
• Ball, S. J. (2016). Neoliberal education? Confronting the slouching beast. Policy Futures in Education, 14(8), 1046-1059. https://doi.org/10.1177/1478210316664259.
• Ball, S. J. (2003). The teacher's soul and the terrors of performativity. Journal of Education Policy, 18(2), 215-228. https://doi.org/10.1080/0268093022000043065.
• Ball, S. J. (2000). Performativities and fabrications in the education economy: towards the performative society. Australian Educational Researcher, 17(3), 1–24. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/ielapa.200104937.
• Barksdale-Ladd, M. A., & Thomas, K. F. (2000). What’s at stake in high-stakes testing: Teachers and parents speak out. Journal of Teacher Education, 51(5), 384-397. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487100051005006.
• Bascia, N. (1998). Women teachers, union affiliation, and the future of North American teacher unionism. Teaching and Teacher Education, 14(5), 551-563. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0742-051X(98)00005-5.
• Bascia, N., & Rottmann, C. (2011). What’s so important about teachers’ working conditions? The fatal flaw in North American educational reform. Journal of Education Policy, 26(6), 787-802. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2010.543156.
• Bhattacharyya, S., Junot, M., & Clark, H. (2013). Can you hear us? Voices raised against standardized testing by novice teachers. Creative Education, 4(10), 633-639. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ce.2013.410091.
• Bogdan, R., & Biklen, S. K. (2007). Qualitative research for education: An introduction to theory and methods. Pearson Allyn & Bacon.
• Bogler, R., & Somech, A. (2004). Influence of teacher empowerment on teachers’ organizational commitment, professional commitment and organizational citizenship behavior in schools. Teaching and teacher education, 20(3), 277-289. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2004.02.003.
• Campbell, J. L., Quincy, C., Osserman, J., & Pedersen, O. K. (2013). Coding in-depth semi-structured interviews: Problems of unitization and intercoder reliability and agreement. Sociological Methods & Research, 42(3), 294-320. https://doi.org/doi:10.1177/0049124113500475.
• Creswell, J.W. (2007). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches (2nd ed.). Sage Publications.
• Darling-Hammond, L. (1991). The implications of testing policy for quality and equality. The Phi Delta Kappan, 73(3), 220-225. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20404599.
• Diamond, J. B., & Cooper, K. (2007). The uses of testing data in urban elementary schools: Some lessons from Chicago. Teachers College Record, 109(13), 241-263. https://doi.org/10.1177/016146810710901307.
• Freire, P. (2018). Teachers as cultural workers: Letters to those who dare teach. Routledge.
• Ertürk, E. (2012). Transformation of the teaching profession in Türkiye. In K. Inal & G. Akkaymak. (Eds.), Neoliberal transformation of education in Türkiye: Political and ideological analysis of educational reforms in the age of the AKP (pp. 233-244). Palgrave Macmillan.
• Gavin, M. (2019). Working industrially or professionally? What strategies should teacher unions use to improve teacher salaries in neoliberal times? Labour & Industry: A Journal of the Social and Economic Relations of Work, 29(1), 19-33. https://doi.org/10.1080/10301763.2018.1548068.
• Giroux, H. A. (2010). Rethinking education as the practice of freedom: Paulo Freire and the promise of critical pedagogy. Policy Futures in Education, 8(6), 715-721. http://dx.doi.org/10.2304/pfie.2010.8.6.715.
• Giroux, H. (2002). Neoliberalism, corporate culture, and the promise of higher education: The university as a democratic public sphere. Harvard Educational Review, 72(4), 425-464. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.72.4.0515nr62324n71p1.
• Giroux, H. (1997). Pedagogy and the politics of hope: Theory, culture, and schooling. Westview Press. Giroux, H. A. (1994). Teachers, public life, and curriculum reform. Peabody Journal of Education, 69(3), 35-47. https://doi.org/10.1080/01619569409538776.
• Giroux, H. A. (1988). Teachers as intellectuals: Toward a critical pedagogy of learning. Greenwood Publishing Group.
• Golafshani, N. (2003). Understanding reliability and validity in qualitative research. The Qualitative Report, 8(4), 597-606. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Evens-Emmanuel/post/With-respect-to-your-cognition-which-is-more-important-and-needful-qualitative-research-or-quantitative-research-And-why/attachment/5ea8a2394f9a520001e305df/AS%3A885411169710088%401588109881686/download/golafshani.pdf.
• Golden, N. A. (2017). Narrating neoliberalism: Alternative education teachers’ conceptions of their changing roles. Teaching Education, 29(1), 1-16. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10476210.2017.1331213.
• Govender, L. (2015). Teacher unions’ participation in policy making: a South African case study. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 45(2), 184-205. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2013.841467.
• Gutstein, E.R., & Lipman, P. (2013). The rebirth of the Chicago teachers union and possibilities for a counter-hegemonic education movement. Monthly Review, 65(2). https://doi.org/10.14452/MR-063-03-2011-07_13.
• Göktürk, D., Güvercin, G., & Seçkin, O. (2012). The new stream of trade unionism: The case of Egitim-Bir-Sen in Türkiye. In K. Inal & G. Akkaymak (Eds.) Neoliberal transformation of education in Türkiye: Political and ideological analysis of educational reforms in the age of the AKP (109-121). Palgrave Macmillan.
• Grant, S. G. (2001). An uncertain lever: Exploring the influence of state-level testing in New York State on teaching social studies. Teachers College Record, 103(3), 398-426. https://doi.org/10.1177/016146810110300305.
• Hargreaves, A. (1992). Time and teachers’ work: An analysis of the intensification thesis. Teachers College Record, 94(1), 87-108. https://doi.org/10.1177/016146819209400110.
• Harvey, D. (2005). The new imperialism. Oxford University Press Inc.
• Harma, J. (2011). Low cost private schooling in India: Is it pro poor and equitable? International Journal of Educational Development, 31(4), 350-356. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2011.01.003.
• Hoxby, C. M. (1996). How teachers' unions affect education production. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 111(3), 671-718. https://doi.org/10.2307/2946669.
• Hursh, D. (2017). The end of public schools? The corporate reform agenda to privatize education. Policy Futures in Education, 15(3), 389-399. https://doi.org/10.1177/1478210317715799.
• Ingersoll, R. (2003). Is there really a teacher shortage? https://repository.upenn.edu/gse_pubs/133.
• Ingersoll, R., Merrill, L., & Stuckey, D. (2018). The changing face of teaching. Educational Leadership, 75(8), 44-49. https://repository.upenn.edu/gse_pubs/552.
• James, E. (1991). Public policies toward private education: An international comparison. International Journal of Educational Research, 15(5), 359-376. https://doi.org/10.1016/0883-0355(91)90019-O.
• Jones, B. D., & Egley, R. J. (2004). Voices from the Frontlines: Teachers' Perceptions of High-Stakes Testing. Education policy analysis archives, 12(39). http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v12n39/.
• Kablay, S. (2012). Teacher employment under neoliberalism: the case of Türkiye. In M. Ginsburg (Ed.), Preparation, practice, and politics of teachers: Problems and prospects in comparative perspective (pp. 161-173). Sense Publishers.
• Karlıdağ-Dennis, E. (2017). Basic education and hegemony in Türkiye: Thinking on ideology, policymaking and civil society (Unpublished dissertation). University of Nottingham.
• Laitsch, D. (2013). Smacked by the invisible hand: The wrong debate at the wrong time with the wrong people. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 45(1), 16-27. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220272.2012.754948.
• LeCompte, M. D., & Goetz, J. P. (1982). Problems of reliability and validity in ethnographic research. Review of Educational Research, 52(1), 31-60. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543052001031.
• Lombard, M., Snyder-Duch, J., & Bracken, C. C. (2002). Content analysis in mass communication: Assessment and reporting of inter-coder reliability. Human Communication Research, 28(4), 587-604. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2958.2002.tb00826.x.
• Luke, A. (2004). Teaching after the market: From commodity to cosmopolitan. Teachers College Record, 106(7), 1422-1443. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9620.2004.00384.x.
• Marianno, B.D. (2015). Teachers’ unions on the defensive? How recent collective bargaining laws reformed the rights of teachers. Journal of School Choice, 9(4), 551-577. https://10.1080/15582159.2015.1079470.
• Meighan, R. (1981). A sociology of educating. Holt, Reinehart and Wiston.
• Mercille, J., &E. Murphy, E. (2015). The neoliberalization of Irish higher education under austerity. Critical Sociology, 43(3), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1177/0896920515607074.
• Merriam, S. B. (1998). Qualitative research and case study applications in education. Jossey-Bass.
• Miles, MB. & Huberman, AM. (1994). Qualitative data analysis (2nd edition). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
• Miles, M.B., Huberman, A.M., & Saldana, J. (2014). Qualitative data analysis: a methods sourcebook. Jossey-Bass.
• Ndoye, A., Imig, S. R., & Parker, M. A. (2010). Empowerment, leadership, and teachers' intentions to stay in or leave the profession or their schools in North Carolina charter schools. Journal of School Choice, 4(2), 174-190. https://doi.org/10.1080/15582159.2010.483920.
• Neumann, J. W. (2013). Teaching to and beyond the test: The influence of mandated accountability testing in one social studies teacher's classroom. Teachers College Record, 115(6), 1-32. https://doi.org/10.1177/016146811311500607.
• Ni, Y. (2017). Teacher working conditions, teacher commitment, and charter schools. Teachers College Record, 119(6), 1-38. https://doi.org/10.1177/016146811711900606.
• Patton, M. Q. (2002) Qualitative research and evaluation methods (3rd ed.). Sage Publications.
• Prodromou, L. (1995).The backwash effect: from testing to teaching. ELT Journal, 49(1), 13–25, https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/49.1.13.
• Ravitch, D. (2013). Reign of error: The hoax of the privatization movement and the danger to America’s public schools. Alfred Knopf.
• Rex, L. A., & Nelson, M. C. (2004). How teachers’ professional identities position high-stakes test preparation in their classrooms. Teachers College Record, 106(6), 1288-1331. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9620.2004.00380.x.
• Salcan, U. (2014). 1980 sonrası Türkiye’de özel dershanecilik ve öğretmenlik mesleğinin dönüşümü [Private tutoring centers and transformation of teaching profession after 1980 in Türkiye] (Unpublished master’s thesis). Marmara University, Institute of Social Sciences.
• Schirmer, E.B. (2017). When solidarity doesn’t quite strike: the 1974 Hortonville, Wisconsin teachers’ strike and the rise of neoliberalism. Gender and Education, 29(1), 8-27, https://10.1080/09540253.2016.1197381.
• Schneider, J. (2017). Beyond test scores: A better way to measure school quality. Harvard University Press.
• Shenton, A. K. (2004). Strategies for ensuring trustworthiness in qualitative research projects. Education for Information, 22(2), 63-75. https://10.3233/EFI-2004-22201.
• Shepard, L. A., & Dougherty, K. C. (1991-April 3-7). Effects of high-stakes testing on instruction [Conference presentation]. American Educational Research Association, Chicago, IL, United States. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=eD337468.
• Shih, C. M. (2009). How tests change teaching: a model for reference. English Teaching: Practice and Critique, 8(2), 188-206. http://education.waikato.ac.nz/research/files/etpc/files/2009v8n2dial1.pdf.
• Smith, M. L., & Rottenberg, C. (1991). Unintended consequences of external testing in elementary schools. Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice, 10(4), 7-11. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-3992.1991.tb00210.x.
• Taylor, L. A. (2023). “If I was better at managing all this”: The role of neoliberal logic in framing one teacher's narratives about accountability. Teaching and Teacher Education, 121, 103944. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2022.103944.
• Towers, E., Gewirtz, S., Maguire, M., & Neumann, E. (2022). A profession in crisis? Teachers' responses to England's high-stakes accountability reforms in secondary education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 117, 103778. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2022.103778.
• Ulutaş, B. (2014). Türkiye’de dershaneler ve öğretmen emeği [Private tutoring centers in Türkiye and teacher labor]. In K. İnal & N.S. Baykal (Eds.), Kamusal eğitime tehdit: Dershaneler [A threat to public education: Private Tutoring Centers] (pp. 179-217). Ayrıntı Publishing.
• Ünal, L. I. (2005). Öğretmen imgesinde neoliberal dönüşüm [Neoliberal transformation of teacher imagary]. Eğitim Bilim Toplum, 3(11), 4-15.
• VERBI Software. (2017). MAXQDA 2018 [computer software]. Berlin, Germany: VERBI Software. Available from https://www.maxqda.com.
• Yıldız, A. (Ed.) (2014). Türkiye’de öğretmen emeğinin dönüşümü: İdealist öğretmenden sınava hazırlayan tekniker öğretmene [From ideologist teachers to technicians for test preparation]. Kalkedon.
• Yin, R. (2009). Case study research: Design and methods. Sage Publications.
• Yücel Yel, Ş. (2014). Neoliberalizm ve küreselleşme ekseninde beyaz yakalı emeğin dönüşümü: Nazilli'de özel dershanelerde çalışan öğretmenler üzerine bir araştırma [The transformation of white-collar workers in the frame of globalization and neo-liberalism: A study on teachers that working in private university preparation courses in Nazilli] (Unpublished master's thesis). Adnan Menderes University, Institute of Social Sciences.
• Zwerling, H. L., & Thomason, T. (1995). Collective bargaining and the determinants of teachers’ salaries. Journal of Labor Research, 16(4), 467-484. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02685721.