Research Information System
Thesis Type: Doctorate
Institution Of The Thesis: Gazi University, Eğitim Bilimleri Enstitüsü, Eğitim Bilimleri Bölümü, Turkey
Approval Date: 2022
Thesis Language: Turkish
Student: Aysun ÖZTÜRK
Supervisor: Mehmet Taşpınar
Abstract:
The purpose of this research is to understand how the neoliberal ideology emerged in the hidden curriculum of higher education in two different countries. In this research, ethnographic research, one of the qualitative research methods, which is one of the best methods of revealing the hidden curriculum, was used. In determining the participants of the study, first of all, the cultural environment, in other words, the research fields were chosen. The university in Turkey, where the field research was conducted, was chosen among the universities in the city where the researcher lived in order to allow her to spend a long time in the field, and the university in the UK, where the field research was conducted, was selected through the acceptance letter received by the researcher. In the second stage, four different departments (philosophy, sociology, business management, and economics) were selected from these universities with the purposeful sampling technique. After the departments were determined, the courses that could best answer the research question were selected with purposive sampling among the 3rd grade courses, which are thought to be exposed to the hidden curriculum of the departments for the longest time. By choosing the courses to be observed, the academics of the courses and the students who took the courses, who were the participants of the research’s observation process, were directly determined. While determining the participants for the focus group interviews among these students, only volunteer students were selected to reflect the typical situation by using typical situation sampling. Since ethnographic research is used to describe an existing culture in depth and within the scope of this research, to reveal what is "hidden" in higher education culture, four data collection processes were used: participant observation, individual interview, focus group interview, and documents. For this purpose, participant observation guides in Turkish and English, academic interview guides in Turkish and English, and focus group interview guides in Turkish and English were developed by the researcher. Expert evaluations were used in the development of Turkish guides, and pilot studies were also carried out. In the development of the English guides, the guides were translated into English by the researcher, the opinions of bilingual experts were taken in two countries, and pilot studies were carried out in England. As a result of the field research carried out for six months in two countries, a total of 8 lessons were observed for 160 hours, individual interviews with a total of 8 academics, 16 focus group interviews consisting of two sessions with a total of 41 participants were conducted, and finally, a total of 109 documents were collected in two fields, in which students interacted during the lessons. As a result of organizing the data, a total of 5,065 pages of data were obtained to be analyzed. All the data obtained were subjected to inductive and deductive thematic analysis, and eclectic coding was used to perform coding specific to the nature of each data type during the coding process. The hermeneutic paradigm was adopted in the research process, and it was tried to understand the perspectives, views, beliefs, values, attitudes, and experiences of the participants in the research. It has been meticulously worked out that the research has all the features that should be in quality research. For that purpose, data collection technique diversity, data source diversity, inconsistent situation analysis, participant confirmation, long-term participation in the field, thick and rich description, peer evaluation, external audit, and specifying the limitations techniques have been used. In addition, all ethical rules have been complied with from the planning to the ending of the research. As a result of the completion of the whole process, the arrangement of the data, and the iterative thematic analysis, the neoliberal ideological factors transferred through the hidden curriculum were grouped under 13 sub-categories, and these sub-categories were grouped under five categories based on the data and with the support of the literature. These five categories were combined under two themes. It has been determined that the philosophy, sociology, business management, and economics departments of the two universities basically adopt views for and against neoliberal ideology on how the state and the individual should be, and transfers are made through the hidden curriculum. Factors for and against neoliberal ideology regarding the structure of the state and how the state's three institutions; economy, politics, and higher education, should be, and factors for and against neoliberal ideology regarding the individual, the nature of the agent, and how the individual rights should be. The findings obtained by including the quotation of the factors related to each sub-category were discussed by comparing them with the related literature. As a result, it has been focused on how the neoliberal ideological factors that emerged in the hidden curriculum show similarities and differences in universities of two different countries, between four different departments or in terms of participants, and these differences were tried to be discussed with the support of the literature.
| Keywords : Hidden curriculum in higher education, neoliberal ideology, cross-cultural ethnography, department culture, philosophy, sociology, business management, economics |