Comparison of the music education post-graduate programs in the higer education systems of Turkey, Canada, Norway, USA, Australia and Austuria

Along with the elementary education curricula, which completed the firstphase as a result of the eight-year application between 1997 and 2005 in Turkey, theteacher education graduate programs are also restructured. Although the horizontalchange at any level in the education programs seem to be completed with therestructuring and development of the program at that level, it causes vertical changesin other education levels, following each other like dominoes. In this manner thechange gains certain continuity. The debates this vertical effect creates in scientificmeetings and academic activities regarding the post-graduate programs of the field,gives the impression that restructuring may take place in the post-graduate programs.It can be suggested that having a sound program development process basedon scientific principles and proven facts depends on carrying out researches oneducation and education program faster than the program development studies.?Program research and development studies? have a central importance in the post-graduate programs in the music education field as it is in all of the educational fields.We believe that this study could produce a new database within the framework ofpost-graduate music education program researches and therefore would contributeto the prerequisites of a sound program development process.The studies which cover the lecture dimensions of the post-graduateprograms in the field of music education, which discuss solely this issue or incomparison with peer programs, or which, besides focusing on the educationalprograms, provide a research that narrows from the general to the specific in thesubject universe, are very limited. This limitation constitutes one of the facts of thisdoctorate thesis which covers ?the comparison of the lecture programs of post-graduate music education in Turkey and Abroad.? The main purpose of theresearch within the framework of such facts is to contribute to the development ofthe post-graduate lecture programs currently applied in music education in terms ofquality and quantity, through studying these programs with the programs of thecountries advanced in music education and determining the similarities, differencesand shared issues between them.The post-graduate education provided in the higher education institutions inTurkey, pursuant to Article 65 of Law Number 2547 (1981), is regulated by the Post-Graduate Education and Instruction Regulation prepared by the Inter-UniversityCommittee, which is an academic component under YÖK (Higher EducationInstitution) and is established in 1975. The post-graduate studies which cover themaster?s degree, doctorate, and master in arts, are carried out by the institutes whichare the academic units under universities.The universe of the research consists of the post-graduate lecture programsof music education in Turkey and in the world, therefore covers the entire highereducation institutions which have such programs in their structures. The samplesconsist of the ?entire? higher education institution which give master and doctorateprograms in music education in Turkey, and ?one? higher education institutionselected from ?each of? five countries developed in higher education, which have apost-graduate educational system peer to Turkey. The common characteristic of theuniversities selected from the countries in the research sample is that they provideboth master and doctorate program in post-graduate music education, that they havea well-known past in music education, and that they have been the pioneers for otherhigher education institutions in the same field in their countries. These universitiesare Gazi, Abant İzzet Baysal, Dokuz Eylül, Selçuk, and Marmara Universities inTurkey and South Carolina University (USA), University of New South Wales(Australia), University of Music and Dramatic Arts (Austuria), The University ofWestern Ontario (Canada), Norwegian State Academy of Music (Norway).The relational scanning model, which bears a general scanning featurebased on determining relation by comparison, is used in this research. This research,which is ?descriptive? in terms of framework, is a comparative music educationscience research in terms of its specific frame and the medium it is performed. Theresearch is not an assessment of the strengths or weaknesses of the institutions or theprograms, nor does it measure the success of the institution or the program inachieving the purposes.In order to pursue a systematic method in the comparisons, an examinationplan is formed. This schematic plan consists of five basic steps. In the first step, thehigher education systems, institutional administration styles and university autonomyunderstanding, international equality and student exchange approaches, credit andstudent evaluation systems, and the post-graduate education levels of the countries inthe sample are discussed. The second step covers the effort to train music instructorsin the sample throughout the history. This step also covers the subject areas of thepost-graduate music education programs and their performing. In the third step, theentire levels related with the post-graduate programs in music education and theconditions for being accepted to and for graduation from these programs. In thefourth and fifth steps, the lessons in the post-graduate programs of the musiceducation are classified. And than the lecture contents and thesis studies arecompared. The findings in each step are followed by the comparative tables whichhelp to determine the similarities, shared applications and differences between thecountries.Key Words: Comparative Education, Higher Education, Postgraduate Programs inMusic Education, Turkey, Canada, Norway, USA, Australia, AustriaThesis Administrator : Prof. Dr. Salih AKKAŞ