Inclinations in studies into multicultural education in Turkey: A content analysis study

Abstract

This study involves a content analysis of studies conducted in thefield of multicultural education by researchers in Turkey. For thispurpose, 32 research studies obtained in full-text from the ERICdatabase and the National Thesis Center of Turkey betwee n 2005and 2014 in addition to 7 published books are examined herein. Inorder to evaluate the related publications in terms of severalvariables, a content analysis coding method is used and all dataregarding these publications are registered /recorded o n adatabase. The data obtained from this database are analyzedusing the SPSS 20.0 program. The results are presenteddescriptively in the form of graphics, frequencies andpercentages. As a result of the study, it is seen that studiesconducted on multic ultural education in Turkey date back tonearly ten years ago, that the studies have increased in numberstarting from the year 2009, and that quantitative studies arepreferred more frequently, that attitude scales are used as a datacollection tool, that the population of the studies are mostlyincluded by students and academicians and that the averagepopulation range is between 101 and 300, that research fieldsgenerally involved attitude studies as opposed to multiculturalapproaches, that three differ ent types of data collection tools areused in these studies that ANOVA is employed as a data analysismethod and that the use of central tendency scales, percentagesand frequency tables is given utmost importance. As the firstcontent analysis study in its field, this study advises the use ofdifferent analysis methods in line with current analyses, anincrease in sample size, an increase and enrichment in methodand application samples and the forming of constructivehypotheses to ensure appropriate quality studies that are in linewith goals.