Achieving inclusion of students with disabilities in Turkey: current challenges and future prospects

Developing inclusion in schools has been an objective for many countries in recent decades, giving rise to a variety of definitions, policy -making activities and school practices. This paper focuses on the attempts made towards inclusion of students with disabilities in Turkey. We start by introducing inclusive education and its parameters, and continue with recent trends in education in Turkey. Next, we discuss current progress in including students with disabilities within mainstream schools, and continue with the legislative attempts made to improve this position. After that, we discuss recent developments and challenges in the education and inclusion of students with disabilities, and conclude by noting several recommendations for realising their inclusion in Turkey. While the purpose of this paper is to investigate the inclusion of students with disabilities in the Turkish context, there is much of relevance to other international contexts going through similar developmental processes in terms of inclusion.     

Exploring Students’ Ideas About Risks and Benefits of Nuclear Power Using Risk Perception Theories

Due to increased energy demand, Turkey is continuing to explore the possibilities of introducing nuclear power. Gaining acceptance from local populations, however, may be problematic because nuclear power has a negative image and risk perceptions are complicated by a range of psychological and cultural factors. In this study, we explore the views about nuclear power of school students from three locations in Turkey, two of which have been proposed as sites suitable for nuclear power plants. About half of the student cohort believed that nuclear power can supply continuous and sufficient electricity, but approximately three quarters thought that nuclear power stations could harm organisms, including humans, living nearby. Rather few students realized that adoption of nuclear power would help to reduce global warming and thereby limit climate change; indeed, three quarters thought that nuclear power would make global warming worse. There was a tendency for more students from the location most likely to have a nuclear power plant to believe negative characteristics of nuclear power, and for fewer students to believe positive characteristics. Exploration of the possible nuclear power programmes by Turkey offers an educational opportunity to understand the risk perceptions of students that affect their decision-making processes.     

E-government discourses: An inductive analysis

This article offers a new perspective on e-government by documenting the categories of e-government discourses, and evaluating them within a public value framework. Understanding e-government discourses is significant, since these discourses represent contested visions of e-government, and one can derive a feel for public sentiment about e-government from the discourses used in the media. The findings are accumulated through an inductive analysis of 85 newspaper articles, published during the year of 2010, in three top-selling, ideologically different, nationally circulating Turkish newspapers. In these 85 articles, 98 discourses presented by 90 policy actors are found. Five positive and four negative discourse categories and their relationships emerged from the analysis of the data. The results show that, government reform efforts shaped by the New Public Management movement and Turkey's harmonization efforts with the global political system in general, and with the European Union in particular, are influential in the presentation of e-government projects to the Turkish public through newspapers.     

New extremal binary self-dual codes of length 66 as extensions of self-dual codes over Rk

We obtain extremal binary self-dual codes of parameters [64,32,12] as binary images of self-dual codes over R₁, R₂ and R₃ by employing different methods. We then apply the extension theorem to these codes to obtain a number of extremal binary self-dual codes of length 66 with trivial automorphism groups. Fifteen of the codes we obtain have new β$\beta$ values in W_66,3, of which only three were known to exist before. We also find nine codes with new β$\beta$ values in W_66,1, thus updating the list of such known codes.     

Examining the structure of vocational interests in Turkey in the context of the personal globe model

The structural validity of the Personal Globe Inventory-Short (PGI-S: Tracey in J Vocat Behavi 76:1–15, 2010) was examined in a Turkish sample of high school and university students. The PGI-S measures eight basic interest scales, Holland’s (Making vocational choice, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, 1997) six types, Prediger’s (J Vocat Behav 21:259–287, 1981) people/things, data/ideas dimensions, and prestige. After adapting the original PGI-S items into Turkish (PGI-S-T), the inventory was administered to high school students (N = 605) and university students (N = 359). The fit of Holland’s RIASEC and the PGI eight type model were examined separately using the randomization test of hypothesized order relations. Results indicated a strong fit for both the eight type and the RIASEC model. Expected significant differences were found between PGI-S-T subscales across gender and age. The results support the structural validity of the adapted PGI-S-T in a Turkish sample.     

Challenging moments of novice teachers: survival strategies developed through experiences

The main objective of this qualitative research study is to demonstrate Norwegian and Turkish novice teachers’ reflections on bumpy moments and which strategies they use to cope with the challenges they have faced in practice. The participants of the present study are novice teachers (n = 17) with a maximum of five years’ teaching experience. The logbook and interview were the main data collection tools used to reflect novice teachers’ challenging moments. The data were recorded and transcribed separately in the two countries, and then the categories across the data were identified and the codes compared. The results mainly indicate that the novice teachers in both contexts are learning from their bumpy moments and using their problem-solving skills, based on either their repertoire gained during school practicum or their own strategies developed over time to find solutions to their challenging experiences.