Social justice in education discourse in the development plans and analysis of possible neoliberal practices from a critical pedagogy perspective (A case in Turkiye)

This study aims to reveal social justice discourse in educational policy documents (in the Ninth, Tenth and Eleventh Development Plans ) drawn by the governments to ensure social justice in education and how these policies were enacted. The design of this study is qualitative, embracing an embedded case study where different dimensions such as social justice and neoliberal ideology were examined from a critical pedagogy perspective. As for the data collection: The Ninth (2007-2013), Tenth (2014-2018) and the Eleventh (2019-2023) Development Plans were scruntized and policy items/discourse(s) referring to the social justice and neoliberal ideology themes were content analyzed. Emprical studies were also surveyed to obtain data concerning the traces of the neoliberal policies observed in practice. The findings of the study revealed that the policies declared in the Development plans to ensure social justice in education, in most cases, seemed to have turn out by the neoliberal in practice. The educational policies implemented did not seem to have provided the intented benefits among the so called target groups, such as increasing the actual attendance rates of the students in disadvataged groups, closing the achievement gap between the public school districts. In conclusion the educational policies stemming from the Development Plans should take "the dialogical approach" into consideration as one of the premises of the critical pedagogy while consedering the praxis dimension of the policies as well.