Recontextualisation of higher education in Turkey : a discourse analysis of higher education strategy report for Turkey

Abstract

This study analyzes higher education strategies recommended to shape the future of higher education in Turkey. The report “Higher Education Strategy of Turkey” drafted by a committee within the Council of Higher Education and published in 2007 constitutes the locus of the study. Using Critical Discourse Analysis, the study aims to gain insights into the representation of higher education in policy discourses, assumptions about the meaning and functions of higher education and representations of problem areas on which recontextualisation discourses are based. Shedding a light on these points, this research aims to find out what type of higher education space is imagined, what this space offers to its participants, and what types of subjects it promotes. By doing these, this thesis uncovers what is underrepresented or unsaid. Findings of the analysis show that higher education in Turkey is to be structured around global paradigms and the European Union higher education policies. Higher education is particularly represented as a space carrying instrumental utility for national economic survival. Within this representation, there is focus on globalization and knowledge economy, but these phenomena are portrayed as agentless and abstract realities. Related to the rhetoric of globalization and knowledge economy, new governance strategies, cooperation between the industry and the university, active participation of students to the financing of higher education, and the need for academic staff to adapt to the changing global conditions are emphasized. All these, coupled with intense focus on change, innovation, flexibility, and production of knowledge that can constantly be adapted according to the conditions of the day, signify attempts to adapt higher education to flexible accumulation. A large scale restructuring process of higher education institutions, cultures, and identities can be observed in policy discourses. Performativity is the language that draws the borders, and it is the main determinant of what is to be included in and excluded from higher education area. There is a different relationship structured between knowledge, learners, and the process of learning itself than the traditional notion of higher education implies. That learners and academicians in higher education are supposed to constantly renew their knowledge according to the task in question signifies a radical break with the enlightenment notions of eternal and immutable truth. This study aims to bring a critical approach for rethinking higher education in Turkey and open up an alternative dimension for higher education discussions.