Inclusive Educational Practices in Turkey During the Period of COVID-19

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

The COVID-19 pandemic caused fundamental changes in most educational institutions globally regardless of the educational level from pre-school to university. The main shift was the transition from onsite face to face education to online teaching in distance. Majority students in Turkey, especially in rural areas, had huge challenges. The study aimed to investigate how inclusive education was provided for students in Turkey during the COVID-19 pandemic period. In other sense, it was aimed to find out how students were included in the educational implementations offered by the Ministry of Education in Turkey regardless of their location and their economical conditions. In the study, phenomenological research design, a qualitative method, was adopted. The participants of the study comprised randomly selected 50 volunteer teachers (40 females, 10 males), and 70 volunteer students and their parents. The data were collected via a structured 5 point Likert type teacher questionnaire, a semi-structured student & parent interview both of which were developed by the researcher; and using governmental documents related to the “Emergency Distance Education” practices in schools. The data from the participant teachers, students and parents and were analyzed using qualitative data analysis methods, such as descriptive statistics of percentage and frequency, and coding based on the common themes of the respondents; as well as through document analysis. The results revealed that the participant students were not satisfied with the distance education program offered in terms of neither materials and implementation nor testing and assessment. Likewise, their parents and the participating teachers were of the opinion that the Emergency Distance Education in Turkey was not truly inclusive or effective at all.KeywordsCOVID-19Emergency distance educationInclusive educationEffectiveness in education