Fakülteler / Faculties

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    Navigating the Covid-19 Turbulence in Higher Education: Evidence from Turkish Faculty Members
    (2022) Orucu, Deniz; Kutlugun, H. Elif
    Covid 19 was the first pandemic of the modern era to strike with such virulence. We sought to understand this recent phenomenon and contribute to the empirical findings on the expectations from HEI leadership and management in Turkey. Drawing on the Turbulence Theory, we explored how the academic staff experienced the initial phase of the pandemic in Turkey and how they perceived the HE leaders' navigation of the crisis at the selected universities. Within qualitative phenomonology, data from semi-structured interviews with a convenient sample of 10 academic staff in five public and five private universities in Turkey, was analysed through content analysis. Findings highlighted the opportunities and challenges of the pandemic for the faculty at personal and organizational level in an intersectional pattern. Moreover, the ways HEI leaders navigated the crisis created binaries in the form of experience vs. inexperience and trust vs. distrust. The challenges derived from the rapid but ineffective decision-making processes and the heightened surveillance mechanisms over the academic staff; which in some cases resulted in lack of trust. Hence, the turbulence level was shaped by how the universities and their leaders addressed it. In such cases, practices of building trustworthy connections, more distributive forms of leadership and robust communication; which would help the leaders to navigate the turbulence at times of crises are significant. Further recommendations are provided for research, policy and practice.
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    Large-Scale Change and Survival of School Principals in Turkey
    (2019) Kondakci, Yasar; Orucu, Deniz; Oguz, Ebru; Beycioglu, Kadir; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5605-9453
    Turkey possess one of the most vibrant educational systems in the World. This study specifically aims at revealing Turkish school principals' perceptions about the large-scale changes imposed by the Ministry of Education and the strategies they follow for coping with these changes. The study was designed as a generic qualitative study. Twenty principals from different schools at different levels were identified through snowball sampling and semi-structured interviews were conducted with each of them. The decoupling between change interventions and the needed change, inappropriate change implementation process, the passive role of the school principals in the design phase of change interventions are some of the major challenges that school principals encounter. The passivity of the principals during design phase put them into a state of reluctant activeness to find out resources, create readiness and adopt a mediating role between top authority and the teachers in order to implement the imposed changes.
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    Post-migration ecology in educational leadership and policy for social justice: Welcoming refugee students in two distinct national contexts
    (2022) Arar, Khalid; Orucu, Deniz
    Utilizing the post-migration ecological lens and the synthesized model of culturally relevant leadership formed by the authors, we aim to compare and analyze the policy outlines and school leadership responses to refugee education in Turkey and Germany; as the two main hosts of the largest number of refugees. Through comparative phenomenology, we draw on the semi-structured interviews, observations, and document analysis of policy papers in each context. Although both states employ an open-door policy, their educational policies show stark contrasts. The German schools benefit from the systematic guidance whilst in Turkey they find their ways through rule of thumb with colleagual collaboration within and across schools. We reckon this study would provide a space for collaboration and benchmarking between different contexts as well as illuminate on the policy-making processes, school-level practices, and research in this area.
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    There is Always Light at the End of the Tunnel: Emotions of a Turkish School Leader in a Temporary Education Center for Syrian Children
    (2019) Orucu, Deniz
    This chapter depicts the case of a leading school principal in a large suburban Temporary Education Center for Syrian students in Turkey through exploring his emotions and the ways in which he de/regulates them, while performing his professional duties. A single-case study technique was employed within the qualitative realm. Data were attained by interviews, narratives and observations at the school. Drawing on the cultural view on emotions, this authentic school leader's emotions and emotional regulation (ER) style were analysed as he poses a critical case in refugee education, an unfamiliar phenomenon for Turkish schools. The findings revealed the impact of the cumbersome reality of culture on the emotions, which is a blend of religion, faith, traditions and consequent values in this case and the strategies selected for emotion regulation. His ER techniques are an outcome of his patriotic values, deep belief in justice and humanity, formed by his faith and Anatolian culture he adopted. The data show that the Western perspectives of emotion literature may not necessarily be valid in a case where locally embedded needs and dynamics are interwoven. His paternalistic care and relevant display of emotions create a form of trust and confidence in the other members of the fragile school community and parents, which is significant in demonstrating the impact of local needs.
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    Culturally relevant school leadership for Syrian refugee students in challenging circumstances
    (2019) Arar, Khalid; Orucu, Deniz; Kucukcayir, Gulnur Ak
    This article presents two rich case studies of schools catering for Syrian refugee students in the Turkish city of Ankara. The article attempts to identify the challenges facing the two schools in this complex reality and the strategies developed by the two principals and their teaching staff to cope with academic, pedagogic and administrative functioning difficulties. Qualitative data collection and analysis were chosen for this investigation. Interpretation followed the four dimensions suggested by Horsford, Grosland and Gunn (2011) in their Framework for Culturally Relevant Leadership: political contexts, pedagogical approaches, personal journeys and professional duties. Findings indicate that although the schools cope with difficult circumstances in the field, the government's policies are naive and unclear. The principals are motivated by a pedagogy of compassion, containment and humanistic-universal commitment. Conflicting discourses are found among the staff who feel 'trapped' in this difficult reality. The principals employ a style that encourages synergistic collective commitment and social cohesion. Conclusions and recommendations are discussed.