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This article investigates the school choice practices of middle-class parents. It aims to find out what kind of strategies and practices parents have in the school choice process. For this aim, data were obtained through interviews with parents of students attending a primary school in an affluent area in Ankara. The results of the study show that parents with adequate economic, social and cultural capital are influential in their children's educational processes and develop various strategies for school choice. They strive to choose the best school they think will contribute to their children in gaining a better position in the labour market in the future. It is noteworthy that the most important factor in primary school choice is teacher quality. This is followed by features such as the location of the school, teacher-student relationship, security and the physical facilities in the school. The social capital of parents has an important part in the school choice process and the social networks in which they are involved determine the school choice processes considerably. Since the enrolment of students in primary schools in Turkey is address-based, parents wishing to enrol their children in other schools develop various strategies during the enrolment process, notably "address change".

Teachers' work together with the education systems has experienced many changes in most of the western countries since 1980s. England has played a leading role in the application of educational reforms which has been accelerated in recent years. This article aims to analyse the changes in teachers' work and professionalism in England based on teachers' professional experiences. For this aim, firstly, it focuses on the main debates on teacher professionalism followed by an analysis of the educational reforms of English education system that have impacts on teachers' work directly. Then, it presents findings from a qualitative research based on the narratives of sixteen teachers to explore their roles in decision-making process and professional experiences by focusing on the inside of the school. Despite the discourse that there is an increasing professional autonomy of teachers with the local management of schools, the increasing control mechanisms based on standardized testing, national curriculum and inspections are eliminating their voices in decision-making processes. However, they sometimes experience these processes in different ways in different schools and this is important to understand the agencies of teachers in particular contexts.

The place religion should occupy in social life and how religious education should be conducted has so far been one of the controversial issues in Turkey. Considering the history of the Republican era, it may be said that religious education actively exists in the configuration of official education except for some periods. Religious education was not included in the earlier years of the Republic in the hegemony construction process of the state; yet, increasing internal contradictions as well as developments occurring in the international arena caused religious education to enter into the agenda through time. Religion and religious education fulfilled important functions in activating the grassroots in the struggle between dominant classes for hegemony. Religious education schools (imam hatip schools [IHSs]), which are the basic institutions offering religious education, have taken shape in parallel to the struggle for power, and they have developed in accordance with the attitudes of political powers. IHSs, which have been continuously growing except for short-term periods, are assigned the mission of raising a new generation today and special efforts are made to qualify those schools. This study evaluates the IHSs in terms of the roles they play in hegemony construction and considers the historical development and transformation of IHSs on this basis. First, the relationships between hegemony, state, and education are considered and then their historical development is evaluated and their roles in hegemony construction are analysed.

This study examines the role of critical professional learning in leading socially just schools. The study investigated the experiences of teachers who are the members of Egitim-Sen, an active teacher union in Turkey. The article first focuses on the relationship between professional development and teacher unions followed by the definition of the roles of teachers as social justice leaders in constructing socially just schools. Then, it presents findings from a qualitative study of 12 Egitim-Sen member teachers with different experiences. The data were analysed using the phenomenological research design and presented under the themes of 'critical professional learning experiences', 'injustice in schools', and 'union member teachers as social justice leaders'. The findings indicate that the union member teachers take part in union training in various forms and that these experiences contribute to raising teachers' awareness of injustices in their schools with their critical professional learning experiences. Union member teachers play active roles in constructing socially just schools both individually and as organised union members.

Education "reforms"' have been accelerated in the last decade in Turkey. Teachers, as the main actors of the education system, have developed a variety of responses to the reforms implemented in the field of education, both individually and collectively. They give directions to the change process in education by means of their trade unions. The unions have played important roles in the generation and implementation of educational policies with the strategies that they have developed. This article aims to analyse current developments in school education in Turkey and teacher trade union responses against the "reforms". For this aim, firstly, the general structure of the education system in Turkey will be identified followed by an analysis of the neoliberal policies that are a feature of the Turkish system. Finally, teacher trade unions' attitudes, compliance and resistance towards the "education reforms" will be addressed in the context of the local dynamics of Turkey.