Academy Schools of England and Project Schools of Turkey: Freedom for Schools, Innovation and Accountability

Abstract

This thesis examines England’s 'Academisation' policy and the Project Schools (PSs)' policy of Turkey. The school reforms that are claiming to enhance the freedom of schools are witnessed in various countries resulting in in-depth discussions and/or offers of solutions to the chronic problems associated with education systems. ‘Academisation’ and ‘PSs’ policies can be seen as an attempt at reform. It is worth noting here that Turkey and England have their own unique education systems, structures and customs, which are not only different but also affected the fundamentals of the policies and the policies that are studied in this research. Thus, it was expected that substantial differences would be encountered while conducting cross-national comparisons in this research. However, they also show certain similarities, which might be based on global trends, such as the decentralisation of public education and/or the pressures that many of the governments similarly face. Therefore, this research studies both policies' as well as the backgrounds, impacts and critical points based on the perspectives of the school leaders. The research focused on: the policy goals, reasons for school conversions, the effects of the policies and the overall perspectives and issues regarding the policies. The ultimate purpose of this research is to analyse 'Academisation' and project schools' policies based on the school leaders' perspectives and to provide policy learning outcomes based on each other's experiences. It is based on a qualitative-weighted methodology that uses multiple methods either for data acquisition or analyses in order to make a coherent and comprehensive analysis of school leaders' perspectives from two different countries. Surveys, interviews and documentary analysis were used as data collection methods. The data was primarily qualitatively analysed in this research. However, some correlation analyses regarding PS types were attached as appendixes as they showed some relevant results. As a short conclusion, this research determines that the leaders of academies appear grateful for their conversion and appreciate the developments that came accordingly, even though they acknowledge several complications, such as increasing teaching staff and financial problems, greater pressures, restrictions on freedom, being politicised and the horror stories connected to them. Conversely, like many other stakeholders, even PS leaders seem confused about the policy and argue that they have not been adequately informed regarding the policy and their conversion, adding that they have some fundamental problems related to staff, finance and authority. However, PS leaders also express their conditional support of the policy and willingness to remain as PSs because of the enhanced reputation and the ability to attract students who are academically better to their schools. Lastly, based on the cross-national comparisons and discussions, various policy-learning outcomes are suggested as research outcomes. Despite the fact these are not shortcuts to chronic problems, it is believed that these can be very helpful suggestions for future policies and/or amendments to these policies.