Search

In her research R. Nazlı Somel focuses on the topic of educational inequality, both from a theoretical perspective and through an empirical analysis. After a review of prominent approaches to educational inequality and their criticism, she offers a novel strategy to study the issue based on Relational Sociology and using the relational approaches of Charles Tilly and Pierre Bourdieu. Three relational characteristics of educational inequality are identified that are its relativity, cumulativeness, and being an organized practice. The author then applies this relational perspective to an in-depth study on an Istanbul primary school, analyses students, teachers and school organization in relation to each other and to Turkish education system and society.

Education and Social Dynamics offers a new approach to analyzing curriculum change by investigating the entanglement of education and society in markedly heterogeneous Turkey, which has recently witnessed nation-wide curriculum reforms. While the new curriculum has attempted to homogenize all Turkish primary schools since 2005, Nohl and Somel, drawing on a theoretical differentiation of social entities, reveal how subsequent curricular practices have had to account for the diversity of milieus and organizations in the nation's educational sector, and how inequality and competition run rampant in the standardization efforts. Using expert interviews, group discussions, and other empirical data that compare instructional practices within five distinct schools, the book represents a breakthrough in our understanding of developments in Turkey and their significance for extant theories of curriculum development and reform worldwide. By linking specific case study material from Turkey to intensifying international concerns, it provides an important and relevant global commentary.