Türkiye’de yetişkin eğitiminin yüz yıllık hikayesini konu alan bu yazı, ele aldığı dönemi anlayab... more Türkiye’de yetişkin eğitiminin yüz yıllık hikayesini konu alan bu yazı, ele aldığı dönemi anlayabilmek için yaklaşık son iki yüz yıllık dönemi incelemektedir. Bu tarihsel seyrin temel niteliklerinin anlaşılmasına yönelik olarak çizilen kavramsal çerçeve seçilmiş olay, kurum, uygulama, metin ve benzeri örnekler üzerinden tartışılmakta, ancak esas olarak bu dönem boyunca toplumdaki güç ilişkilerinin ürünü olan hakim yetişkin eğitimi yaklaşımlarının ne olduğuna, nasıl ortaya çıktığına ve hangi dinamiklerle değiştiğine odaklanılmaktadır.
Regimes of Belonging – Schools – Migrations Teaching in (Trans)National Constellations, 2021
There has been turmoil in the Turkish educational system due to the rapidly increasing number of ... more There has been turmoil in the Turkish educational system due to the rapidly increasing number of refugee children since the war broke out in Syria in 2011. This study is an action research on the collaborative in-service training course of the Turkish Ministry of National Education and UNICEF for the teachers of refugee students, which has been conducted for nearly three years throughout the country. Within the scope of this research, the in-service training course programme was criticised and depending on the critiques, an alternative programme was prepared, implemented and its results evaluated. The action research process is based on the idea that teacher agency is of primary importance at schools especially when there are incipient problems, such as enrolment of great numbers of refugee students in public schools. Therefore, the new programme was designed as an educational intervention into the ethnocentric meaning schemes of the teachers. The research process is expected to contribute to the theory-practice relationship under the notion of action research.
Internationales Jahrbuch der Erwachsenenbildung / International Yearbook of Adult Education 2023, 2023
In this article, it is asserted that researches in the field of adult education need a more compr... more In this article, it is asserted that researches in the field of adult education need a more comprehensive understanding of participation which goes beyond the dominant psychological theoretical framework in which the motives toward participation as internal/subjective factors on one side, and the deterrents toward nonparticipation as external/objective factors on the other, are examined. A more holistic approach to participation in adult education should consider that the decision and the act of participation do not happen arbitrarily, but as an outcome of the biographical experiences of the individual, which are accumulated through a lifelong path within a particular social field. Accordingly, it requires a better methodology which helps the researcher overcome the epistemological limits of the question-answer scheme, in both quantitative and qualitative terms. Documentary Method and biographical narrative interview as discussed in this article, provide the opportunity to understand participation in its contextual and relational dimensions.
Background Grounded in Bourdieu's theory of human practice, this study aims to examine how indivi... more Background Grounded in Bourdieu's theory of human practice, this study aims to examine how individuals as social agents made sense of and acted upon their COVID-19 experiences. A recent conceptualization of health capital is utilized to explain the practices of patients in the pandemic, in relation to their biographical background. Methods This is a qualitative research in which the data were collected by biographical narrative interviews through a theoretical sampling approach. Eighteen interviews with COVID-19 patients were conducted and 8 of them were analyzed by the Documentary Method. Results The informants made sense of their illness experiences through their health capital, which is manifested in their self-perception of health, their attitudes towards the healthcare system, their conception of terms such as luck, their work status, and the gendered division of labour at home in the COVID-19 pandemic. All the manifestations are mediated by the social, cultural, and economic capital of the informants, and their habitual practices are based on their symbolic capital. Conclusion The study depicts how social agents' health capital manifested in the pandemic, relying on their symbolic capital, and shaping their practices. Further research across diverse contexts is needed to fully understand extra dimensions of health capital as a descriptor of the social determinants of health.
Lifelong learning has been one of the main regulatory principles for the educational policies of ... more Lifelong learning has been one of the main regulatory principles for the educational policies of many countries, and also Turkey, since the last couple of decades. Popularization of lifelong learning is the result of the congruence between the learning perspective of the notion and the capital accumulation regime. International organisations such as EU (European Union), WB (World Bank), OECD (Organisation for Economic CoOperation and Development) and UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) have played an important role with the popularization of lifelong learning. This paper aims to evaluate the meaning of the notion in terms of the political economy of these organisations. Main policy papers on lifelong learning of the aforementioned organisations have been reviewed for this purpose. As a result, although there are some little differences, it seems obvious that the meanings attributed to lifelong learning by all of these organisations can be considered inside neoliberal framework.
Lifelong education is a concept which refers to training/learning activities both within and out ... more Lifelong education is a concept which refers to training/learning activities both within and out of school, in every moment and all faces of life, without bounding to the limits of age and location.
Just as education is accepted as a solution to the problems of rapid change in social life, lifelong education is a frequently seen concept in actual educational debates. Because school systems are so far away to meet the new needs of that rapid change. School education takes part only in the limited period of childhood and problems happening afterwards in adulthood are excluded naturally. Lifelong education suggests a permanent relation with educational solutions that could help the individual to cope with the problems of rapid change in social life.
However, neoliberal meanings attributed to the concept lifelong education causes a fantastic rhetoric and thus narrows the potentials of it. Because neoliberal approaches defines the concept upon the needs of the markets. Market needs are not able to explain all the aspects of life. Else in order to close the gap between the rhetoric and the reality, lifelong education is served as a solution to every problem of modern societies. As a result, real educational needs depending on the rapid change in social life that could be met by a realistic lifelong education approach are covered by the incantation of the neoliberal discourse.
Lifelong education, as a concept that states a system dealing with educational needs of all child... more Lifelong education, as a concept that states a system dealing with educational needs of all children, youth and adults, depends on an educational paradigm for to combine formal, informal and nonformal types of learning.
Discussions on lifelong education have become more important due to rapid global change. Else, the concept has another point for Turkey as a country aiming to be a member of the European Union. Because, as it could be observed in the political papers of the Union on education, lifelong education is at the centre of all educational debates for more than the last decade.
Educational opportunities in the European Union have been increasing in number. However, the traditional structure of the education systems is so far away to meet the new quality needs. Population of the European Union is growing older and technological progress is so fast. These two factors on the working population forces the European Union to form a new educational system in order to upgrade their skills permanently.
The study is an evaluation on Turkey’s lifelong education policy, as a country aiming to be a member of the European Union. Findings depend on the data from the policy papers on lifelong education of the European Union and Turkey. Comparison is conducted on schooling rates, rates of participation to adult education activities and data of population and unemployment as factors to effect lifelong education policies.
One can argue that lifelong education policy papers of Turkey are prepared based on the European Union ones. Discourse of the Turkish papers points out that the real and only factor effecting the Turkish policies is her aim to be a member of the Union.
Whereas Turkey has problems of her own and these cause educational needs of her own. Thus, lifelong education policies should depend on a kind of specific approach that takes this into account. As a concept becoming more and more popular among the international debates on education in the last two decades, lifelong education is considered to be an organizing principle for the change in educational systems. Naturally, just like all other educational approaches, lifelong education has been shaped among the wider economic, social and political power relations.
Rising importance of the concept is related with some other trends that heve become more important in the globalisation era, such as human resources approach, new vocationalism and marketization of education. Population of advanced capitalist societies are growimg older and there is a rapid and permanent change in labor markets. Thus, adult education seems to be more important than before. Because participation and success in adult education is closely related with formal education, lifelong education gains importance as an integrative approach. This liberal meaning attributed to the concept hides the humane potentials of lifelong education that could be found out by a critical view.
It is possible to form a humane approach to lifelong education against the current ones which reduce the person to an input in the production process and education only to a technological apparatus used to increase productivity. The integrative content of the concept is to be considered as an important contribution to educational systems. And if lifelong education is considered as an egalitarian and emancipatory approach helping the participants to become a respectful and transformative agent in his life, and if it is placed on not only economic relations but also democracy, it could contribute to a better life.
Needs stated by the European Union point out to a specific type of labor that has the ability to upgrade his skills at work and more that has the ability to gain totally new ones. This statement underlies every discussion on lifelong education in the European Union today. Validity of this statement needs to be discussed but it could be observed clearly that education systems in Europe are getting reorganized based on this view.
Considering the debates on lifelong education, one can argue that Turkey needs to decide what the meaning of lifelong education should be for the needs of education in fact. In order to form concrete educational policies within this scope, meanings attributed to the concept should be stated concretely. Otherwise the uncertainity of the liberal discourse on lifelong education might disable the potentials hidden in the concept.
There are so many economic, social and cultural problems in Turkey that forces the country to change the current politics of education. There is a widespread problem of adult illetracy; an increasing rate of class-gender-region inequalities; a deep social segregation feeding from education; a usual agenda of honor crimes and feud; an uprising problem of xenophobia and an ongoing problem of coservatization etc. in Turkey. In this circumstances, it would be a false political way to form policies of education on only the needs of labor markets. Education cannot solve all the problems in Turkey but there should be something to do with it. Lifelong education, with an egalitarian and emancipatory content, may serve Turkey as a new way of educational paradigm grounding on real and urgent problems of education.
Türkiye’de yetişkin eğitiminin yüz yıllık hikayesini konu alan bu yazı, ele aldığı dönemi anlayab... more Türkiye’de yetişkin eğitiminin yüz yıllık hikayesini konu alan bu yazı, ele aldığı dönemi anlayabilmek için yaklaşık son iki yüz yıllık dönemi incelemektedir. Bu tarihsel seyrin temel niteliklerinin anlaşılmasına yönelik olarak çizilen kavramsal çerçeve seçilmiş olay, kurum, uygulama, metin ve benzeri örnekler üzerinden tartışılmakta, ancak esas olarak bu dönem boyunca toplumdaki güç ilişkilerinin ürünü olan hakim yetişkin eğitimi yaklaşımlarının ne olduğuna, nasıl ortaya çıktığına ve hangi dinamiklerle değiştiğine odaklanılmaktadır.
Regimes of Belonging – Schools – Migrations Teaching in (Trans)National Constellations, 2021
There has been turmoil in the Turkish educational system due to the rapidly increasing number of ... more There has been turmoil in the Turkish educational system due to the rapidly increasing number of refugee children since the war broke out in Syria in 2011. This study is an action research on the collaborative in-service training course of the Turkish Ministry of National Education and UNICEF for the teachers of refugee students, which has been conducted for nearly three years throughout the country. Within the scope of this research, the in-service training course programme was criticised and depending on the critiques, an alternative programme was prepared, implemented and its results evaluated. The action research process is based on the idea that teacher agency is of primary importance at schools especially when there are incipient problems, such as enrolment of great numbers of refugee students in public schools. Therefore, the new programme was designed as an educational intervention into the ethnocentric meaning schemes of the teachers. The research process is expected to contribute to the theory-practice relationship under the notion of action research.
Internationales Jahrbuch der Erwachsenenbildung / International Yearbook of Adult Education 2023, 2023
In this article, it is asserted that researches in the field of adult education need a more compr... more In this article, it is asserted that researches in the field of adult education need a more comprehensive understanding of participation which goes beyond the dominant psychological theoretical framework in which the motives toward participation as internal/subjective factors on one side, and the deterrents toward nonparticipation as external/objective factors on the other, are examined. A more holistic approach to participation in adult education should consider that the decision and the act of participation do not happen arbitrarily, but as an outcome of the biographical experiences of the individual, which are accumulated through a lifelong path within a particular social field. Accordingly, it requires a better methodology which helps the researcher overcome the epistemological limits of the question-answer scheme, in both quantitative and qualitative terms. Documentary Method and biographical narrative interview as discussed in this article, provide the opportunity to understand participation in its contextual and relational dimensions.
Background Grounded in Bourdieu's theory of human practice, this study aims to examine how indivi... more Background Grounded in Bourdieu's theory of human practice, this study aims to examine how individuals as social agents made sense of and acted upon their COVID-19 experiences. A recent conceptualization of health capital is utilized to explain the practices of patients in the pandemic, in relation to their biographical background. Methods This is a qualitative research in which the data were collected by biographical narrative interviews through a theoretical sampling approach. Eighteen interviews with COVID-19 patients were conducted and 8 of them were analyzed by the Documentary Method. Results The informants made sense of their illness experiences through their health capital, which is manifested in their self-perception of health, their attitudes towards the healthcare system, their conception of terms such as luck, their work status, and the gendered division of labour at home in the COVID-19 pandemic. All the manifestations are mediated by the social, cultural, and economic capital of the informants, and their habitual practices are based on their symbolic capital. Conclusion The study depicts how social agents' health capital manifested in the pandemic, relying on their symbolic capital, and shaping their practices. Further research across diverse contexts is needed to fully understand extra dimensions of health capital as a descriptor of the social determinants of health.
Lifelong learning has been one of the main regulatory principles for the educational policies of ... more Lifelong learning has been one of the main regulatory principles for the educational policies of many countries, and also Turkey, since the last couple of decades. Popularization of lifelong learning is the result of the congruence between the learning perspective of the notion and the capital accumulation regime. International organisations such as EU (European Union), WB (World Bank), OECD (Organisation for Economic CoOperation and Development) and UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) have played an important role with the popularization of lifelong learning. This paper aims to evaluate the meaning of the notion in terms of the political economy of these organisations. Main policy papers on lifelong learning of the aforementioned organisations have been reviewed for this purpose. As a result, although there are some little differences, it seems obvious that the meanings attributed to lifelong learning by all of these organisations can be considered inside neoliberal framework.
Lifelong education is a concept which refers to training/learning activities both within and out ... more Lifelong education is a concept which refers to training/learning activities both within and out of school, in every moment and all faces of life, without bounding to the limits of age and location.
Just as education is accepted as a solution to the problems of rapid change in social life, lifelong education is a frequently seen concept in actual educational debates. Because school systems are so far away to meet the new needs of that rapid change. School education takes part only in the limited period of childhood and problems happening afterwards in adulthood are excluded naturally. Lifelong education suggests a permanent relation with educational solutions that could help the individual to cope with the problems of rapid change in social life.
However, neoliberal meanings attributed to the concept lifelong education causes a fantastic rhetoric and thus narrows the potentials of it. Because neoliberal approaches defines the concept upon the needs of the markets. Market needs are not able to explain all the aspects of life. Else in order to close the gap between the rhetoric and the reality, lifelong education is served as a solution to every problem of modern societies. As a result, real educational needs depending on the rapid change in social life that could be met by a realistic lifelong education approach are covered by the incantation of the neoliberal discourse.
Lifelong education, as a concept that states a system dealing with educational needs of all child... more Lifelong education, as a concept that states a system dealing with educational needs of all children, youth and adults, depends on an educational paradigm for to combine formal, informal and nonformal types of learning.
Discussions on lifelong education have become more important due to rapid global change. Else, the concept has another point for Turkey as a country aiming to be a member of the European Union. Because, as it could be observed in the political papers of the Union on education, lifelong education is at the centre of all educational debates for more than the last decade.
Educational opportunities in the European Union have been increasing in number. However, the traditional structure of the education systems is so far away to meet the new quality needs. Population of the European Union is growing older and technological progress is so fast. These two factors on the working population forces the European Union to form a new educational system in order to upgrade their skills permanently.
The study is an evaluation on Turkey’s lifelong education policy, as a country aiming to be a member of the European Union. Findings depend on the data from the policy papers on lifelong education of the European Union and Turkey. Comparison is conducted on schooling rates, rates of participation to adult education activities and data of population and unemployment as factors to effect lifelong education policies.
One can argue that lifelong education policy papers of Turkey are prepared based on the European Union ones. Discourse of the Turkish papers points out that the real and only factor effecting the Turkish policies is her aim to be a member of the Union.
Whereas Turkey has problems of her own and these cause educational needs of her own. Thus, lifelong education policies should depend on a kind of specific approach that takes this into account. As a concept becoming more and more popular among the international debates on education in the last two decades, lifelong education is considered to be an organizing principle for the change in educational systems. Naturally, just like all other educational approaches, lifelong education has been shaped among the wider economic, social and political power relations.
Rising importance of the concept is related with some other trends that heve become more important in the globalisation era, such as human resources approach, new vocationalism and marketization of education. Population of advanced capitalist societies are growimg older and there is a rapid and permanent change in labor markets. Thus, adult education seems to be more important than before. Because participation and success in adult education is closely related with formal education, lifelong education gains importance as an integrative approach. This liberal meaning attributed to the concept hides the humane potentials of lifelong education that could be found out by a critical view.
It is possible to form a humane approach to lifelong education against the current ones which reduce the person to an input in the production process and education only to a technological apparatus used to increase productivity. The integrative content of the concept is to be considered as an important contribution to educational systems. And if lifelong education is considered as an egalitarian and emancipatory approach helping the participants to become a respectful and transformative agent in his life, and if it is placed on not only economic relations but also democracy, it could contribute to a better life.
Needs stated by the European Union point out to a specific type of labor that has the ability to upgrade his skills at work and more that has the ability to gain totally new ones. This statement underlies every discussion on lifelong education in the European Union today. Validity of this statement needs to be discussed but it could be observed clearly that education systems in Europe are getting reorganized based on this view.
Considering the debates on lifelong education, one can argue that Turkey needs to decide what the meaning of lifelong education should be for the needs of education in fact. In order to form concrete educational policies within this scope, meanings attributed to the concept should be stated concretely. Otherwise the uncertainity of the liberal discourse on lifelong education might disable the potentials hidden in the concept.
There are so many economic, social and cultural problems in Turkey that forces the country to change the current politics of education. There is a widespread problem of adult illetracy; an increasing rate of class-gender-region inequalities; a deep social segregation feeding from education; a usual agenda of honor crimes and feud; an uprising problem of xenophobia and an ongoing problem of coservatization etc. in Turkey. In this circumstances, it would be a false political way to form policies of education on only the needs of labor markets. Education cannot solve all the problems in Turkey but there should be something to do with it. Lifelong education, with an egalitarian and emancipatory content, may serve Turkey as a new way of educational paradigm grounding on real and urgent problems of education.
Son yıllarda, öğrenme toplumu fikrinin gelişmesi ile birlikte öğrenme kavramı, eğitim ve politika... more Son yıllarda, öğrenme toplumu fikrinin gelişmesi ile birlikte öğrenme kavramı, eğitim ve politika tartışmalarında öne çıktı. Eğitim genel olarak öğretimle daha fazla ilgili iken, felsefe bilginin edinimi ve sosyoloji de toplumsallaşma ile ilgileniyor. Ancak bilginin edinimi de toplumsallaşma da aslen öğrenme biçimleridir. Geleneksel olarak psikoloji, öğrenmeye ilişkin kapsamlı bir kavrayış sağlamak için oldukça sınırlı özelliklere sahip olmasına rağmen, insani bir süreç olması nedeniyle tüm beşeri disiplinlerin ortak ilgisine ihtiyaç duyan öğrenme çalışmalarını, kendi özel alanı olarak görmektedir. Bu makalede, (öğrenmeye ilişkin – ç.n) belli bazı psikolojik perspektifleri varsayarken daha çok sosyolojik perspektifler üzerinde duracağız.
There has been turmoil in the Turkish educational system due to the rapidly increasing number of ... more There has been turmoil in the Turkish educational system due to the rapidly increasing number of refugee children since the war broke out in Syria in 2011. This study is an action research on the collaborative in-service training course of the Turkish Ministry of National Education and UNICEF for the teachers of refugee students, which has been conducted for nearly three years throughout the country. Within the scope of this research, the in-service training course programme was criticised and depending on the critiques, an alternative programme was prepared, implemented and its results evaluated. The action research process is based on the idea that teacher agency is of primary importance at schools especially when there are incipient problems, such as enrolment of great numbers of refugee students in public schools. Therefore, the new programme was designed as an educational intervention into the ethnocentric meaning schemes of the teachers. The research process is expected to contribute to the theory-practice relationship under the notion of action research.
The Matthew Effect has been one of the best known principles in adult education, implying that th... more The Matthew Effect has been one of the best known principles in adult education, implying that the ones who have more formal education at earlier phases of life participate more in education in adulthood. This qualitative research explores how the Matthew Effect works under migration, focusing on the experiences of the Turkish immigrants in Germany. The documentary analyses of the narrative interviews in the study reveal that the Matthew Effect among immigrants works depending on the formation of the immigrant habitus. The factors to mediate the making of the immigrant habitus are social and cultural capital, gender, the hysteresis effect, and affections such as expectations from the host society, biographical regrets, and the sense of belonging to the collective identity of the immigrants.
Uploads
The action research process is based on the idea that teacher agency is of primary importance at schools especially when there are incipient problems, such as enrolment of great numbers of refugee students in public schools. Therefore, the new programme was designed as an educational intervention into the ethnocentric meaning schemes of the teachers. The research process is expected to contribute to the theory-practice relationship under the notion of action research.
Just as education is accepted as a solution to the problems of rapid change in social life, lifelong education is a frequently seen concept in actual educational debates. Because school systems are so far away to meet the new needs of that rapid change. School education takes part only in the limited period of childhood and problems happening afterwards in adulthood are excluded naturally. Lifelong education suggests a permanent relation with educational solutions that could help the individual to cope with the problems of rapid change in social life.
However, neoliberal meanings attributed to the concept lifelong education causes a fantastic rhetoric and thus narrows the potentials of it. Because neoliberal approaches defines the concept upon the needs of the markets. Market needs are not able to explain all the aspects of life. Else in order to close the gap between the rhetoric and the reality, lifelong education is served as a solution to every problem of modern societies. As a result, real educational needs depending on the rapid change in social life that could be met by a realistic lifelong education approach are covered by the incantation of the neoliberal discourse.
Discussions on lifelong education have become more important due to rapid global change. Else, the concept has another point for Turkey as a country aiming to be a member of the European Union. Because, as it could be observed in the political papers of the Union on education, lifelong education is at the centre of all educational debates for more than the last decade.
Educational opportunities in the European Union have been increasing in number. However, the traditional structure of the education systems is so far away to meet the new quality needs. Population of the European Union is growing older and technological progress is so fast. These two factors on the working population forces the European Union to form a new educational system in order to upgrade their skills permanently.
The study is an evaluation on Turkey’s lifelong education policy, as a country aiming to be a member of the European Union. Findings depend on the data from the policy papers on lifelong education of the European Union and Turkey. Comparison is conducted on schooling rates, rates of participation to adult education activities and data of population and unemployment as factors to effect lifelong education policies.
One can argue that lifelong education policy papers of Turkey are prepared based on the European Union ones. Discourse of the Turkish papers points out that the real and only factor effecting the Turkish policies is her aim to be a member of the Union.
Whereas Turkey has problems of her own and these cause educational needs of her own. Thus, lifelong education policies should depend on a kind of specific approach that takes this into account. As a concept becoming more and more popular among the international debates on education in the last two decades, lifelong education is considered to be an organizing principle for the change in educational systems. Naturally, just like all other educational approaches, lifelong education has been shaped among the wider economic, social and political power relations.
Rising importance of the concept is related with some other trends that heve become more important in the globalisation era, such as human resources approach, new vocationalism and marketization of education. Population of advanced capitalist societies are growimg older and there is a rapid and permanent change in labor markets. Thus, adult education seems to be more important than before. Because participation and success in adult education is closely related with formal education, lifelong education gains importance as an integrative approach. This liberal meaning attributed to the concept hides the humane potentials of lifelong education that could be found out by a critical view.
It is possible to form a humane approach to lifelong education against the current ones which reduce the person to an input in the production process and education only to a technological apparatus used to increase productivity. The integrative content of the concept is to be considered as an important contribution to educational systems. And if lifelong education is considered as an egalitarian and emancipatory approach helping the participants to become a respectful and transformative agent in his life, and if it is placed on not only economic relations but also democracy, it could contribute to a better life.
Needs stated by the European Union point out to a specific type of labor that has the ability to upgrade his skills at work and more that has the ability to gain totally new ones. This statement underlies every discussion on lifelong education in the European Union today. Validity of this statement needs to be discussed but it could be observed clearly that education systems in Europe are getting reorganized based on this view.
Considering the debates on lifelong education, one can argue that Turkey needs to decide what the meaning of lifelong education should be for the needs of education in fact. In order to form concrete educational policies within this scope, meanings attributed to the concept should be stated concretely. Otherwise the uncertainity of the liberal discourse on lifelong education might disable the potentials hidden in the concept.
There are so many economic, social and cultural problems in Turkey that forces the country to change the current politics of education. There is a widespread problem of adult illetracy; an increasing rate of class-gender-region inequalities; a deep social segregation feeding from education; a usual agenda of honor crimes and feud; an uprising problem of xenophobia and an ongoing problem of coservatization etc. in Turkey. In this circumstances, it would be a false political way to form policies of education on only the needs of labor markets. Education cannot solve all the problems in Turkey but there should be something to do with it. Lifelong education, with an egalitarian and emancipatory content, may serve Turkey as a new way of educational paradigm grounding on real and urgent problems of education.
The action research process is based on the idea that teacher agency is of primary importance at schools especially when there are incipient problems, such as enrolment of great numbers of refugee students in public schools. Therefore, the new programme was designed as an educational intervention into the ethnocentric meaning schemes of the teachers. The research process is expected to contribute to the theory-practice relationship under the notion of action research.
Just as education is accepted as a solution to the problems of rapid change in social life, lifelong education is a frequently seen concept in actual educational debates. Because school systems are so far away to meet the new needs of that rapid change. School education takes part only in the limited period of childhood and problems happening afterwards in adulthood are excluded naturally. Lifelong education suggests a permanent relation with educational solutions that could help the individual to cope with the problems of rapid change in social life.
However, neoliberal meanings attributed to the concept lifelong education causes a fantastic rhetoric and thus narrows the potentials of it. Because neoliberal approaches defines the concept upon the needs of the markets. Market needs are not able to explain all the aspects of life. Else in order to close the gap between the rhetoric and the reality, lifelong education is served as a solution to every problem of modern societies. As a result, real educational needs depending on the rapid change in social life that could be met by a realistic lifelong education approach are covered by the incantation of the neoliberal discourse.
Discussions on lifelong education have become more important due to rapid global change. Else, the concept has another point for Turkey as a country aiming to be a member of the European Union. Because, as it could be observed in the political papers of the Union on education, lifelong education is at the centre of all educational debates for more than the last decade.
Educational opportunities in the European Union have been increasing in number. However, the traditional structure of the education systems is so far away to meet the new quality needs. Population of the European Union is growing older and technological progress is so fast. These two factors on the working population forces the European Union to form a new educational system in order to upgrade their skills permanently.
The study is an evaluation on Turkey’s lifelong education policy, as a country aiming to be a member of the European Union. Findings depend on the data from the policy papers on lifelong education of the European Union and Turkey. Comparison is conducted on schooling rates, rates of participation to adult education activities and data of population and unemployment as factors to effect lifelong education policies.
One can argue that lifelong education policy papers of Turkey are prepared based on the European Union ones. Discourse of the Turkish papers points out that the real and only factor effecting the Turkish policies is her aim to be a member of the Union.
Whereas Turkey has problems of her own and these cause educational needs of her own. Thus, lifelong education policies should depend on a kind of specific approach that takes this into account. As a concept becoming more and more popular among the international debates on education in the last two decades, lifelong education is considered to be an organizing principle for the change in educational systems. Naturally, just like all other educational approaches, lifelong education has been shaped among the wider economic, social and political power relations.
Rising importance of the concept is related with some other trends that heve become more important in the globalisation era, such as human resources approach, new vocationalism and marketization of education. Population of advanced capitalist societies are growimg older and there is a rapid and permanent change in labor markets. Thus, adult education seems to be more important than before. Because participation and success in adult education is closely related with formal education, lifelong education gains importance as an integrative approach. This liberal meaning attributed to the concept hides the humane potentials of lifelong education that could be found out by a critical view.
It is possible to form a humane approach to lifelong education against the current ones which reduce the person to an input in the production process and education only to a technological apparatus used to increase productivity. The integrative content of the concept is to be considered as an important contribution to educational systems. And if lifelong education is considered as an egalitarian and emancipatory approach helping the participants to become a respectful and transformative agent in his life, and if it is placed on not only economic relations but also democracy, it could contribute to a better life.
Needs stated by the European Union point out to a specific type of labor that has the ability to upgrade his skills at work and more that has the ability to gain totally new ones. This statement underlies every discussion on lifelong education in the European Union today. Validity of this statement needs to be discussed but it could be observed clearly that education systems in Europe are getting reorganized based on this view.
Considering the debates on lifelong education, one can argue that Turkey needs to decide what the meaning of lifelong education should be for the needs of education in fact. In order to form concrete educational policies within this scope, meanings attributed to the concept should be stated concretely. Otherwise the uncertainity of the liberal discourse on lifelong education might disable the potentials hidden in the concept.
There are so many economic, social and cultural problems in Turkey that forces the country to change the current politics of education. There is a widespread problem of adult illetracy; an increasing rate of class-gender-region inequalities; a deep social segregation feeding from education; a usual agenda of honor crimes and feud; an uprising problem of xenophobia and an ongoing problem of coservatization etc. in Turkey. In this circumstances, it would be a false political way to form policies of education on only the needs of labor markets. Education cannot solve all the problems in Turkey but there should be something to do with it. Lifelong education, with an egalitarian and emancipatory content, may serve Turkey as a new way of educational paradigm grounding on real and urgent problems of education.