Abstract
The study aimed to determine how lecturers have adopted organizational democracy and academic freedom in Turkish state universities, as well as to find out their views on its appropriation for Turkey. A correlative descriptive survey model is used in this study. The study sample was included 418 academics working at state universities in Ankara. For this research, an ‘Organizational Democracy Scale’ and an ‘Academic Freedom Scale’ were developed and employed by the researcher, and the obtained data were analyzed using SPSS statistical software. The arithmetic mean and the standard deviation were calculated for the answers provided by the academics. Regression analysis was conducted to find out the effect of organizational democracy on academic freedom. In the qualitative phase of the study, face-to-face interviews were conducted with 20 academics. NVivo 10 software was used to analyze the content of the interviews. At the end of the study, it was found that university administrations should avoid discriminative attitudes; should account for their decisions and implementations; deans and faculty boards should be elected democratically; all stakeholders (apart from academics), including students, should take part in both elections and be involved in management processes; and finally, the election system should be more democratic.
Highlights
From the time when the first university was founded, the issue of „how to design democratic and academic freedom at universities‟ has been debated
Akerlind and Kayrooz (2003), who consider that academic freedom is a negative right, describe it as „the right of academics to research, examine, explain, and debate scientific problems according to professional, ethical principles without interference from political and/or religious authorities.‟ This definition emphasizes that academic freedom is far removed from any intervention
They found the whole category of academic freedom appropriation in Turkey to a moderate level (Xinstruction=3.20; Xresearch=2.91; Xpublication=2.95)
Summary
From the time when the first university was founded, the issue of „how to design democratic and academic freedom at universities‟ has been debated. Universities are affected by social, economic, cultural, and administrative structures; the concepts of democratic and academic freedom at universities are described according to the perception of that era. Organizational democracy is described in the universities, as „giving the university academics equal rights in decision making‟ (Olsen, 2007). Academic freedom is considered as a „negative right,‟ which means the government or overseeing authority does not interfere with individual rights (Kepenekçi, 2000). Akerlind and Kayrooz (2003), who consider that academic freedom is a negative right, describe it as „the right of academics to research, examine, explain, and debate scientific problems according to professional, ethical principles without interference from political and/or religious authorities.‟ This definition emphasizes that academic freedom is far removed from any intervention Academic freedom is considered as a „negative right,‟ which means the government or overseeing authority does not interfere with individual rights (Kepenekçi, 2000). Akerlind and Kayrooz (2003), who consider that academic freedom is a negative right, describe it as „the right of academics to research, examine, explain, and debate scientific problems according to professional, ethical principles without interference from political and/or religious authorities.‟ This definition emphasizes that academic freedom is far removed from any intervention
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