Retired Teachers' Views on the Turkish Education System: A phenomenological Study

Abstract The retirement period, which is one of the developmental stages of the individual and is included in the advanced adulthood stage, is considered as a process of adapting to decreasing income as well as decreasing strength and health. Retired teachers, who are among the retired professionals, go through the same socio-economic processes and face the same problems as a member of society. Retired teachers have continued their education and training services in many different regions and provinces under very difficult conditions, experienced the challenging processes of the education system and ended their professional lives with many different experiences during their service. The aim of this study is to examine the views of retired teachers on the Turkish national education system, with the idea that they have experienced some of the problems of the education system closely and will objectively evaluate these experiences after their service. In this study, which was designed with a phenomenological design from qualitative research methods, the data obtained by face-to-face interviews with 9 retired teachers residing in Gürsu district of Bursa province were included. It is thought that the results obtained will shed light on some points related to education by taking the opinions of retired teachers about the education system, will be useful in terms of providing a comparison about the change of the Turkish education system and teaching profession from past to future, will provide a basic data for policy makers and will set an example for today's teachers. In this context, according to the results obtained from the research, retired teachers see the young population, the number of teachers and the rapid adaptation of developing technological opportunities to schools as the strengths of the Turkish education system. As the weaknesses of the Turkish education system, the view that education has not become a state policy, class passing, absenteeism and discipline problems, textbooks and curriculum, dissatisfaction among teachers towards the profession, insufficiency and qualification problems of teachers and inadequate physical infrastructure of schools come to the forefront. Although the views of retired teachers on the changes in the teaching profession from past to present are generally negative, teachers have made evaluations about the quality of teacher training institutions, the quality of teacher training institutions, and the fact that the freedom of teachers' dress code has damaged the image and reputation of teachers. Finally, while the idea that education will become a state policy in the Turkish education system in the future came to the forefront, some of the participants also expressed pessimistic thoughts about the future of the Turkish education system. In line with the results obtained from the research, various suggestions were made. Keywords: Retired teachers, Turkish education system, change in teaching profession.