Teacher' perceptions on the fulfilment of democratic education environment in schools

In this study, level of fulfilling the criteria of democratic education environment in classrooms, factors affecting this level, and reasons behind the problems that hinder the fulfilment of these criteria are investigated. Throughout the research, singular and comparative relational screening models are used. The study is carried out in accordance with the mixed method design. The sample of the research consists of 1091 teachers who work in primary, secondary, and high schools in Istanbul. Data are collected via the Democratic Education Environment Scale, developed within the research, a survey, and an open-ended question. At the end of the research, it is found that teachers perceive that they usually fulfil the criteria of democratic education environment, in general, considering the scale as a whole and in point of decision making and curriculum-instruction sub-dimensions, and always fulfil them in point of teacher-relations sub-dimension. Other results show that education level, high school type, and branch variables cause significant differentiations in levels of fulfilling the democratic education environment criteria, in general and for all sub-dimensions. Besides, it is revealed that; avarage class size of the school, in general and in respect to curriculum-instruction sub-dimension; graduated institution type and pre-service or in-service training status on democratic education, democracy education, and human rights education, in general and in respect to decision making and curriculum-instruction sub-dimensions; pre-service or in-service training status on interpersonal relations, in general and in respect to curriculum-instruction sub-dimension cause significant differentiations in levels of fulfilling the democratic education environment criteria. In addition, problem sources which prevent fulfilling the criteria are determined according to the order of importance as; "physical infrastructure and educational technologies", "family", "educational politics", "student", "curriculum", and "teacher", respectively. It is found that these problem sources do not differentiate according to educational level, except their order of priority for each level. Keywords: Democratic education, democratic education environment, democratic education environment scale, curriculum, instruction, decision making, teacher, relationships in classroom