School principals' and teachers' views on the structural problems in the Turkish education system: The case of Şahi̇nbey district

The purpose of this study was to investigate public school principals' and teachers' views on the structural problems of the Turkish education system. The study was designed as a descriptive research that utilized general screening model. The research population comprised of school principals and teachers working in Şahinbey district of Gaziantep province during the academic year 2016-2017. "Personal Information Form" and "The Survey for Determining the Structural Problems in the Turkish Education System" were utilized to gather data for the study. Personal Information Form developed by the researcher to collect demographic information on the participants consisted of seven questions regarding gender, age, marital status, major (field of specialization), type of employment organization, professional seniority and types of duties. The other data collection tool of the study was "The Survey for Determining the Structural Problems in the Turkish Education System." In the process of survey development, the relevant literature was thoroughly reviewed. Two academics in the area of educational sciences were requested to deliver their opinions about the preliminary 42-item survey form that was developed for these purposes. The form was also examined by a language specialist. Responses to 500 data collection instruments about subproblems, which were gathered to fulfill the study purpose, were translated into the data encoding form. Following this, necessary statistical analyses were conducted on the computerized data via SPSS 22 software package. 36 items that were identified as a result of the literature review on the structural problems in the Turkish education system were all marked as significant or highly significant by the participant teachers and school principals. Accordingly, each of these items was considered as an area of public concern. In the light of the findings, a range of recommendations were made for executors, researchers and policy makers in the area. Key words: School principal, teacher, Turkish education system, structural problem.