Opinions of public schools administrators and teachers on alternative education approaches

Alternative education approaches and practices are one of the issues that are frequently emphasized in the education community today. Alternative education, which expresses a different pedagogical approach from the education given in traditional education institutions, whether public or private, in the education-teaching process attracts more and more attention today. The general purpose of this research is to analyze and evaluate the Turkish Education System, based on the views of teachers and school administrators, within the framework of different alternative education approaches and models. The research is a qualitative research in the phenomenological design. In the research, semi-structured interview technique was used as a qualitative data collection technique. The study group of the research was determined by using the sampling technique aimed at providing maximum diversity from purposive sampling techniques and consisted of 4 principals, 5 deputy principals and 11 teachers working in schools of different types and levels in the National Education System in these figures. The research data were first evaluated descriptively and then interpreted as content, taking into account the context in which they gained meaning within the prominent themes. In the scope of the research; It has been observed that teachers and administrators have limited knowledge about alternative education approaches and Montessori is the approach that comes to mind the most. Based on the opinions obtained, it has been concluded that traditional teaching methods and techniques are applied in institutions, traditional management approach is dominant, physical conditions in schools should be improved, the curriculum should be simplified, individual differences should be taken into account during the education-teaching process, and the professional development of teachers and administrators should be given importance. The knowledge and experiences of teachers/academics working at pre-school and university levels on alternative education approaches can also be consulted in the studies to be carried out afterwards; With the cooperation of all institutions responsible for shaping the National Education policy, alternative education approaches have been examined and suggestions have been developed for efforts to develop an education approach that is suitable or applicable to the National Education System.