Open AccessReady to Learn Online? Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic in Turkey
Author(s) -
Helin Alagöz Gessler
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
central and eastern european edem and egov days
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2663-9394
pISSN - 2520-3401
DOI - 10.24989/ocg.v341.27
Subject(s) - government (linguistics) , empowerment , interview , perspective (graphical) , digital divide , covid-19 , political science , public relations , pandemic , distance education , face (sociological concept) , information and communications technology , sociology , pedagogy , computer science , social science , medicine , philosophy , linguistics , disease , pathology , artificial intelligence , infectious disease (medical specialty) , law
This paper deals with the impact of Turkey’s shift to remote learning after being hit by the Covid-19 crisis. It focuses on Turkey’s official digital education platform, namely the Education Information Network (EBA), which is used to continue primary, secondary and high school education uninterruptedly during the lockdowns.
The paper investigates the impact of online learning by looking at the issue from the perspective of the government as well as the perspective of the stakeholders, which are directly or indirectly affected by the change from face-to-face to online learning. It asks to what extent the government could pursue an inclusive education policy during the crisis.
As for the methodology, the paper employs document analysis and qualitative interviewing. The data are gathered from official state documents and a series of semi-structured interviews which were conducted with K-12 school teachers, students and parents in Turkey in January 2021.
The paper argues that Turkey could achieve the goal of maintaining the educational services during the crisis with its existing digital infrastructure. However, it is significant to overcome the digital divide for the empowerment of the ICT-based distance learning and the achievement of an egalitarian and inclusive education.