Capabilities-based gender equality analysis of educational policy-making and reform in Turkey

This research aims to scrutinise the latest education reform and education policies in Turkey from a capabilities-based gender equality perspective. The data draws on interviews with stakeholders and practitioners to understand how gender equality is conceptualised in policy-making and to what extent reforms have fostered gender equality in girls’ education. From a policy-making perspective, the data shows that reform has been successful in terms of a tangible, measurable outcome of an increase in enrolment rates. This can be attributed to a boost in the number of religious schools and the introduction of single-sex education featuring a limited conceptual understanding of gender equality, with a focus on closing the gender gap. However, from the practitioners’ perspective, little concern has been given to gender equality and constrained girls’ capabilities. The paper fleshes out the tensions between policy-makers and practitioners by highlighting the need for a comprehensive and inclusive understanding of gender equality in educational policy-making and developing a capabilities-based gender equality policy that is able to dismantle conservative and gendered structures and accommodate boys

Dynamics of Post-crisis Reform in Public Policy: The Case of Education Policy in Turkey

This chapter aims to investigate how crises translate into major changes in public policy, in the case of education policy in Turkey. It is indicated that the post-crisis interventions of governments tend to redistribute the fiscal burden on public purse by employing a three-level preference set: economic policy priorities vs social policy priorities; among the sectors belonging to the same policy family; and among different levels/institutions of the same policy field. The chapter, thus, attempts to develop a categorisation of post-crisis reform strategies departing from the findings of the empirical analysis