Policy on Teacher Employment Model in Turkey: Contracted Teachers*

The aim this qualitative study is to determine current situation of policy on teacher employment model in Turkey from the perspectives of contracted teachers. The sample of the study consisted of 24 forms and branch teachers who were determined with the method of convenience sampling. The inclusion criterion for the sample was being contracted teachers who were employed in the provinces of Erzurum and Sanliurfa in Turkey in the academic year of 2017-2018. The data of the study was collected by using a semi-structured interview form consisting of open-ended questions. The data was analyzed by using the qualitative research method of content analysis. The findings of the study were discussed under the themes of the objective of contracted teaching, its negative aspects, and the future of the practice and solution recommendations. According to the results of the study, the vast majority of the participants were aware of the objectives of the practice of contracted teaching. The participants thought that the practice provided continuity in instruction-teaching and teachers at the schools they were appointed to. The vast majority of the participants were of the opinion that the practice of contracted teaching led to status discrimination as tenured-contracted teachers, and this reduced their motivations and organizational commitment. They stated that this practice carried negative aspects in terms of postgraduate education and being prospective teachers.


Introduction
In Turkey and the world, education systems exist to serve certain purposes, and they spend efforts to realize this. Goals such as being a good person, good citizen and good member of a profession are among these purposes. The purposes of education systems are realized at schools, especially classrooms that are units of schools. In reaching goals, it is important that the teacher is effective. Training of teachers and assignment and operation of them within the educational system affect the quality of education (Gunduz, 2008). There are various forms of teacher employment in the world as tenured and contracted. In Turkey, teacher employment has also been achieved with different models. These are tenured teaching, contracted teaching, substitute teaching, freelance teaching and military teaching (Soydan, 2012).
With the Directive dated 3 August 2016, the Ministry of National Education (MoNE) went into the system of contracted teachers (MoNE, 2016). The purpose of this Directive was to determine the procedures and principles regarding teacher employment, primarily in regions that have principal significance in development (MoNE, 2016). The application terms for being able to be appointed for contracted teacher positions are as follows (MoNE, 2016): 1-Having a diploma from a faculty of education. 2-Having a pedagogic formation certificate if one does not have a diploma from a school of education. 3-Having received the base score or higher determined for the field they would be appointed to from the Examination for Selection of Public Personnel (ESPP). 4-Satisfying the conditions of being a civil servant.
Being appointed as a tenured teacher takes time. Contracted teachers are subjected to candidacy training. Those who have completed their four years of employment and become successful in the candidacy process are appointed to the tenured positions at the educational institution they work at upon their request. They work at the same institution for at least two more years (MoNE, 2016). For solution of the problems that emerged in the process and upon requests, the four-year employment time as contracted teachers was reduced to three years, while the two-year minimum working time after appointment for tenure was reduced to one year, and these changes were made in the law (Official Gazette, 2019).
It was concluded that the practice of contracted teaching affects the profession of teaching negatively and positively (Bilir, 2011;Eun-sook, Soung-ho & Gyung-eun, 2017;Olebe, 2010;Reupert, Wilkinson & Galloway, 2010;Uygun, 2005;Sezgin Nartgun, 2008;Soydan, 2012;Yahaya, 2018). In the study conducted by Feather and Rauter (2004) job satisfaction and organizational commitment level of contracted teachers is decreased because of insecurity reasons. Moreover, it is also indicated that contracted teachers feel more insecure comparing full-time teachers. Besides that regarding contracted teachers, Feather and Rauter (2004) also implies decrease on job satisfaction, organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behaviours.
Employment of contracted teachers is a new practice in Turkey. This practice has justified reasons for the Ministry of Education. One of these reasons is the realization of the right to education throughout the country. It is the application of the principle generality and equality in the education system. Contracted teachers must stay in the province for a long time where they are appointed. There are similar disadvantages of contracted teachers in studies conducted in several countries. For instance, in the study conducted by Kim (2001) in Korea, it is concluded that full-time employees has higher job satisfaction, positive work attitude toward colleagues and feel less role conflict in their job status. Moreover, Beard and Edwards (1995) stated that part time employees feel insecure because of their temporary job status in USA. De Witte (2005) conducted a study regarding part time workers' job satisfaction and it is found that participants having permanent job feel more secure than part time workers.
Since they are stakeholder of this new practice, it is important to get informed about contracted teachers' needs. Thus, taking into account previous mentioned studies, the primary aim of this study is to try to fill the gap in the literature by determining the views of contracted teachers on the practice of contracted teaching regarding employment policy that is being newly adopted in Turkey.
For this purpose, answers were sought for the following questions:  What is the purpose of contracted teacher employment policy?  What are the positive aspects of contracted teacher employment policy?  What are the negative aspects of contracted teacher employment policy?

Methodology
This section describes the study's model, sample, data collection instruments and the data collection process.

Research Design
The purpose of this qualitative research is to determine the views of contracted teachers on the practice of contracted teaching that is being newly adopted in Turkey. In this context, phenomenological approach is preferred by the researcher to examine the current phenomenon of the study. Phenomenological approach is preferable where the boundaries within subject context are not definite (Yildirim & Simsek, 2008).

Population and Sample
The sample of the study included a total of 24 contracted teachers (10 women, 14 men) including those working at the city centers of Sanliurfa (10) and Erzurum (14) in Turkey. Among the participants, 13 were primary school teachers, while 11 were branch teachers. Among the branch teachers, 2 were Social Studies, 2 were Computer Technologies, 2 were Religious Culture and Moral Knowledge, 2 were English and 3 were Turkish teachers. While determining the sample, supplying the participants from the cities that were primarily prioritized for employment of contracted teachers in terms of development (Official Gazette, 2016) was considered.
Convenience sampling was utilized to determine the sample of the study. Convenience sampling is usually used when the researcher does not have the possibility of using other sampling methods (Yildirim & Simsek, 2008). The regions where contracted teachers are appointed in Turkey are the primarily prioritized regions in terms of development (MoNE, 2016). These regions are mainly in the Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia Regions in Turkey (Ministry of Development, 2018). In this sense, the participants were determined in terms of convenience from locations in the east and southeast of Turkey.

Data Collection Instrument
The data of the study were collected by using the interview form prepared by the researcher. Based on the importance of preparation of a usable interview form and checking that the preliminary interviewed individuals understand the questions (Buyukozturk, Cakmak, Akgun, Karadeniz & Demirel, 2012), firstly a pilot implementation was carried out. While preparing the form that was used in the pilot implementation, the relevant literature was reviewed, and the opinions of three faculty members who are experts in the field of educational sciences were collected. After this stage, the form that was created was applied with five contracted teachers. As a result of implementation, the questions that were considered to not have been understood sufficiently were modified, and new questions were added by consideration of the responses. After these modifications, opinions of the three faculty members were collected again, and the forms were finalized. The following questions were included in the interview:  What might be the purpose of contracted teacher employment policy? (for the teacher, for the student, for the school etc.)  What do you think about the positive aspects of contracted teacher employment policy? (for the teacher, for the student, for the school etc.)  What do you think about the negative aspects of contracted teacher employment policy? (for the teacher, for the student, for the school etc.) Sub-questions were used to fully understand main questions by the interviewers. For example, for the second and third questions sub-items such as: for the teacher, for the student, for the school were used.
The interview form prepared was applied to the participants in the months of February, March, October and November in 2018. Before conducting the interviews, the necessary permissions were received from the relevant Directorates of National Education. After this, the persons who were planned to be included in the implementation were informed about the objective of and reason for the study and the privacy of the information to be collected. The interviews with the contracted teachers were carried out on a voluntary basis. The interviews were conducted at schools and at times when the participants felt comfortable. In the process of interviewing that lasted for about 30-45 minutes, an environment where the participants could feel safe that allowed them to provide sincere responses was offered.

Data Analysis
The data collected in the study were analyzed by using the method of content analysis. According to Patton (2014), content analysis is a qualitative reduction and sense-making effort to determine the main consistencies and meanings by taking on a qualitative material at a volume. According to Yildirim and Simsek (2008), content analysis involves the processes of gathering similar data under certain concepts and interpreting these by organizing them in a way that could be understood by the reader to be able to explain the collected data. The reason for subjecting the data to content analysis in this study was that it allows gathering comprehensive data obtained as a result of an interview process under similar and different themes, sub-themes and codes and presenting them with an organized content.
In the study, within the framework of the content analysis stages described by Creswell (2016), the process included the steps of organizing data, reading and keeping reminder notes, describing the data in the codes and themes, classification, data interpretation, presentation and visualization. The individual interviews were recorded by note-taking, read again, organized in the Microsoft Word software and kept with addition of themes, sub-themes and codes. Before starting the analysis, firstly themes were determined, and these themes were shaped based on the new information that was collected (Buyukozturk, et al., 2012). With this method, the data that were similar to each other could be interpreted by being gathered under certain sub-themes. In the coding process of the content analysis of the interview data, descriptive codes were determined under the frame of predetermined themes and sub-themes. Strauss and Corbin (1998) stated that deductive analyses where data are analyzed based on a determined frame constitute the essence of developing hypotheses regarding relationships among concepts.
The frequency (n) and percentage (%) values of the opinions of the contracted teachers who participated in the study were calculated and are presented as tables. These tables are presented in detail in the findings section. In order to present and support the findings obtained in the study, the views of the participants were included with direct quotes that reflected their own expressions. It is stated that direct quotes, in addition to being the source of raw data in qualitative studies, reveal individuals' thoughts, the depths in their thought and basic understandings (Patton, 2014, p. 21).
In the study, within the processes of data collection and analysis, validity and reliability were aimed to be achieved. Yildirim and Simsek (2008), who argued that the issue of validity has more priority over the issue of reliability in qualitative studies, emphasized that the validity of a study is an important factor that determines its reliability. The possibility of reaching detailed and in-depth information and opportunity of obtaining abundant data with the method of face-to-face interviewing are important characteristics that provide validity in qualitative studies (Yildirim & Simsek, 2008). In the scope of this study, the sample was informed about the objective and privacy-related aspects of the study, and individual and comprehensive interviews were carried out with contracted teachers who participated voluntarily.
These interviews were defined in detail on a level to be able to make comparisons in terms of the sample, environment and processes.
Achievement of credibility and consistency within the context of reliability studies on qualitative data analysis is possible by achieving agreement between coders. Intercoder agreement is reached after the obtained data are coded by two or more researchers, and the consistency between these coding processes is checked (Creswell, 2016). In order to achieve reliability, the analysis processes of the data were regularly checked. In the process of analyzing the data within the scope of this study, academics were asked to examine the distributions of themes and sub-themes that were created in relation to the participants' views and check the suitability of the sub-themes for the themes. Patton (2014) also recommended to utilize experts and meta-assessments to measure the analysis quality of data with the strategy of expert-inspected review.

Findings
The findings that were obtained based on the questions for which answers were sought in the study are presented within the context of codes, sub-themes and themes and with frequencies. The purpose of MoNE in Turkey to adopt the practice of contracted teaching was related to teacher circulation, which is among the problems in Turkey. While Turkey has advantaged regions, it also has disadvantaged regions. Especially teachers who started their jobs by being appointed for the first time to disadvantaged regions were able to request appointment elsewhere as a result of their one-year service in teacher candidacy. In this case, they could be lack of teachers in these disadvantaged regions. MoNE brought the system of contracted teaching to solve especially this problem. The first version of the practice involved a minimum of six years, and the latest change involved a minimum of four years of staying in the same province. The findings showed that the majority of the participants had agreement in relation to continuity of teachers.   Table 2 shows the sub-themes and codes under the theme positive aspects of contracted teaching that was formed based on the responses of the participants. As part of the participants responded as teacher experience (n=10), regular education (n=4) and no benefit to the teacher (n=10).
The participants also responded under this theme by putting the student in the center as stability in education (n=12), teacher stability (n=11) and no benefit to the student (n=1). The participants also responded under this theme by putting the school in the center as stability in education and teaching (n=10), teacher continuity (n=9), making the job of the administration easier (n=4) and no difference (n=1).
The participants also responded under this theme by putting time in the center as Time is too long (n=14), equal work (n=4), teacher development (n=3) and shortening the time (n=3), while due to the elements regarding the service time of the teacher.
The participants also responded under this theme by putting displacement in the center as useless for appointment (n=17), service scores (n=4), healthy appointment (n=2) and staying patient until appointment (n=1).
The participants also responded under this theme by putting spouse status in the center as negative for spouse status (n=22) and spouses in the same place positive (n=22).
The participants also responded under this theme by putting postgraduate education in the center as no benefits for master's (n=15), gaining experience (n=7) and no opinion regarding master's (2).
The participants also responded under this theme by putting teacher candidacy in the center as no benefits for teacher candidacy (n=16), beneficial for teacher candidacy and provides experience (n=7) and problematic for teacher candidacy (n=1).
Examples of the direct statements of the participants for sub-themes are provided.

Stability in education and teaching: This eliminates the possibility of teachers getting appointed to different regions for any reason. This situation reflects positively on the education and instruction activities at the school. (P11) Time is too long: The time is too long, and it does not have a positive aspect regarding the teacher. (P1) Useless for appointment: I do not think it has a positive aspect in terms of appointment. (P17) Negative for spouse status: I do not think contracted teaching has a positive aspect in terms of spouse status. (P17) No benefits for master's: It is very difficult to do a master's degree; it does not have a positive aspect. (P12) No benefits for teacher candidacy: It does not have a positive aspect, [there is] additional examination. As if we take too few examinations, unnecessary and useless. (P15)
According to the findings, contracted teaching has positive aspects in terms of different dimensions. The teacher gains experience, the student can stay with the same teacher or teachers for long times, there is continuity of teachers at the school, and lack of teachers is minimized. Stability in education and instruction is achieved. This continuity may contribute to increased quality and success at the school. At least the contracted teacher works equally and gains equal service scores. This situation may lead to healthier appointments in further years.  Table 3 shows the sub-themes and codes under the theme negative aspects of contracted teaching that was formed based on the responses of the participants. A part of the participants responded in relation to this theme by putting the teacher in the center as status discrimination (n=13), low motivation (n=8) and postponement of goals (n=3). The participants also responded under this theme by putting the student in the center as no negativity for the student (n=12) and negative learning climate (n=12).
The participants also responded under this theme by putting the school in the center as no negativity for the school (n=11), lack of formation of organizational commitment (n=9), lower success (n=3) and no difference (n=2).
The participants also responded under this theme by putting time of contracted teaching in the center as time is too long (n=21) and shortening the time (n=3), while due to the elements regarding the service time of the teacher.
The participants also responded under this theme by putting displacement in the center and considering the minimum four years of time for the right to be appointed as negative influence (n=24), which were related to teachers' appointment elsewhere and thus covered under the sub-theme of regarding appointment elsewhere (n=24).
The participants also responded under this theme by putting spouse status in the center as disrupts integrity of family (n=24).
The participants also responded under this theme by putting postgraduate education in the center as disadvantageous for master's (n=21), advantageous (n=2) and no opinion regarding master's (n=1).
The participants also responded under this theme by putting teacher candidacy in the center as negative for teacher candidacy (n=22) and no difference for teacher candidacy (n=3).
The participants also responded under this theme by putting salary and additional course payments in the center as inequality of salary and additional courses (n=24).
Examples of the direct statements of the participants for sub-themes are provided.

Status discrimination: The teacher is forced to work under heavy conditions that they do not know about at all in disadvantaged regions for more than 4 years. They are deprived of most basic rights and freedoms. (P6)
No negativity for the student: Receiving education with the same teacher for four years is not a negative thing for students.
No negativity for the school: The school gets the teacher, no negative aspect. (P12) Time is too long: The teacher has to tie themselves to a place for a long time. This delays their future plans for a long time.
Disrupts integrity of family: For someone whose spouse is in Sirnak, reaching their spouse from a western city is only possible by certain flights. It means experiencing an incredible difficulty. It shakes the concept of family deeply. (P11) Negative for teacher candidacy: The administration and teachers constantly remind us that we are both contracted and in candidacy. This is mostly insulting. (P22) Inequality of salary and additional courses: At first, they told us that the salaries would be higher. After that, we started working for a lower salary and lower payment for additional courses. Salaries should be equal, equal work needs equal payment. (P1) Accordingly, contracted teaching has negative aspects in terms of different dimensions. For the teacher, status difference is seen as the most significant problem. Since contracted teaching was put into practice, a tenured teacher -contracted teacher discrimination has started to emerge. The rights and opportunities of tenured teaching are higher, while those of contracted teaching are more limited. Important problems include that salaries and additional course payments are lower, they need to stay in the same city for six years (reduced to four years later) and do not have the right to request appointment elsewhere in this time, spouses work in different provinces as spouse status is not considered as valid excuse, and thus, the integrity of the family is disrupted. Other problems that are experienced are that little or no opportunity of access to postgraduate education and not being able to utilize supervisor teachers which used to be available in the previous system of contracted teaching. According to the views of the participants, all these problems reduce their motivation and productivity.

Discussion
According to the vast majority of the participants, the purpose of the practice of contracted teaching is to ensure that teachers serve for a long time in priorities regions and especially the east. In these disadvantaged provinces and regions, one of the most important educational problems is teacher circulation (Taskaya, Turhan, & Yetkin, 2015). Teachers who are appointed to these regions request appointment to more advantaged regions in a short time due to difficulties they experience, and thus, teacher circulation occurs (Nar, 2008). Ongoing teacher circulation disrupts the quality of the education in the region (Gonulacar, 2016). It was concluded in this study that most participants had this awareness. As a result of the requests of teachers who were appointed to disadvantaged regions in the previous appointment systems to be appointed elsewhere as a result of their one year of candidate teaching, the practice of contracted teaching was started. The objective was that disadvantaged regions would not be deprived of teachers, and students would be more qualified. However, the fact that the contract time used to be a total of six years including four and two years of service which was recently reduced to four years and a set of inequalities in the practice have led teachers to feel concerned about situations that are against their favor while accepting the purpose of the Ministry of National Education.
The vast majority of the participants found positive aspects of it as they thought it achieves the unity between the teacher and the student, provides continuity in education-instruction and the teacher, forms stability by knowing the personnel at the school, working equally and gaining experience. A previous study reported that the practice of contracted teaching reduced the lack of teachers in the Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia Regions of Turkey (Mete, 2009). A study in Canada concluded that contracted teachers applied reflective learning more and achieved more personal development by knowing more colleagues (Reupert, Wilkinson & Galloway, 2010). For their professional development, contracted teachers allocate more time for institutions outside the school (Olebe, 2010). Richard and Belanger (2018) stated that professional interest and social dynamics are both appearing to be significant factors in teachers' decision and commitment. It was determined that the effect of the status difference between contracted and tenured teachers on student success is low (Yahaya, 2018). Education officials do not have the right to arbitrarily terminate the contracts of contracted teachers (Lunenburg & Ornstein, 2013). Their thoughts of transitioning to tenured teachers or equalization of their personal rights increases their willingness to stay in their profession (Colak Olmez, 2009). The participants stated that this practice is especially in favor of schools and students in disadvantaged regions. Circulation of teachers at schools decreases, and the students utilize the advantages of having education and instruction with the same teachers. For example, primary school lasts four years in Turkey, and it is completed with one teacher (form teacher). With the practice of contracted teaching, the student would be able to complete primary school with the same teacher. The same case is applicable to the similarly four-year secondary schools and high schools in Turkey where branch teachers instruct.
The vast majority of the participants believed that the practice of contracted teaching leads to a status discrimination as contracted-tenured, this decreases their motivation, a negative learning climate occurs for students as a result of this, and they are forced to postpone their goals for the future. About half of the participants thought that, in such an environment, their organizational commitment does not develop, and school success decreases. Almost all participants stated that the term of the contract is too long, not being able to get appointed affects them negatively, and family integrity is disrupted as spouse status is not accepted as a valid excuse. Almost all found the disadvantaged regions they were appointed to be disadvantageous in terms of postgraduate education and the practice in terms of candidate teaching to be negative. Accordingly, salaries and additional course payments are not equal, and this is unjust. This may lead to a dilemma or conflict of professional and non-professional at schools (Colak Olmez, 2009;Hoy & Miskel, 2015). A study concluded that professional identity formation is not provided as fast for contracted teachers as for tenured teachers, and these teachers do not sufficiently adopt the school culture (Reupert, Wilkinson & Galloway). Contracted teachers are negatively affected by their form of appointment, they believe they do not have the same security as tenured teachers, and they find their personal rights to be lacking (Bayram, 2010;Celik & Bozgeyikli, 2019;Colak Olmez, 2009). It was determined that discrimination-based practices reduce the organizational commitment of contracted teachers (Sahin, 2011), those who work under weak working conditions for a very long time cannot show an effective commitment, their identification with their institutions is almost impossible (Akar, 2018), and while there are studies stating the opposite case (Gunduz, 2008), tenured teachers have higher normative commitment than contracted teachers (Sezgin Nartgun & Menep, 2010;Soydan, 2012). Since organization citizenship levels of contracted teachers decrease, they tend to work alone which might affect organization performance in negative way (Blau, 1964, Organ, 1988Podsakoff, Ahearne, & Mackenzie, 1997). Similar to Feather and Rauter (2004), Dyne and Ang (1998) conducted a study in Singapore and found that part time employees feel less organizational commitment and show less organizational citizenship behaviors.
The fact that contracted teaching may be a stage of transition to tenured teaching may lead to dissatisfaction and great disappointment in contracted teachers (Laoire & Shelton, 2003). In comparison to tenured teachers, contracted teachers have lower job satisfaction (Altinkurt & Yilmaz, 2012) and productivity (Arslan, Sabah & Goksu, 2006). Moreover, Demir (2018) stated that organizational commitment is a full mediator in the relationship between structural capital and job satisfaction. School administrations are not satisfied with low productivity (Arslan, Sabah & Goksu, 2006). The quantitative increase in the numbers of contracted teachers reduces the quality (Eun-sook, Soung-ho & Gyung-eun, 2017). It was argued that trying to eliminate lack of teachers by contracting teaching and appointing tenured teachers to other regions is a practice against equality of opportunities in terms of students (Mete, 2009). Teacher quality was found to cause regional differences and differences among schools in terms of success (Sezgin et all. , 2016). Teaching is a professional occupation. Until recent years, teachers had been appointed as tenured teachers in Turkey. The personal and other rights of tenured teachers have been strongly protected by laws. The rights in contracted teaching are more limited in comparison to those in tenured teaching. Contracted teachers have more responsibilities under compulsory working times, they have lower salaries and additional course payments, and they have almost no right to request appointment during their contract. For these reasons, they may be separated from their spouses and get their family integrity disrupted. Their access to postgraduate education is highly difficult as they serve in the farthest places in the country that are not close to universities. All these reflect negatively on the organizational commitment, motivation and working styles of contracted teachers.

Conclusion
According to the results of the study, the vast majority of the participants were aware of the objectives of the practice of contracted teaching. The participants thought that the practice provided continuity in instruction-teaching and teachers at the schools they were appointed to. The vast majority of the participants were of the opinion that the practice of contracted teaching led to status discrimination as tenured-contracted teachers, and this reduced their motivations and organizational commitment. They stated that this practice carried negative aspects in terms of postgraduate education and being prospective teachers.

Suggestions
Based on these results, the following recommendations may be provided for policymakers of education:  While teachers generally know about the purpose of the practice of contracted teaching, as they have negative opinions about the implementation, MEB may provide trainings for information and awareness-raising for them and prospective teachers.  Contracted teachers may be made happier by abolishing inequalities observed in contracted teaching in terms of status, salary and additional course payment.  Contract times may be shortened, and the service scores of disadvantaged regions may be increased.  Supervisor teachers who would guide them in their professional process may be appointed for contracted teachers.  The practice of contracted teaching may be continuously improved by MEB based on results of studies to be carried out for the stakeholders in this area.
The following recommendations may be provided for researchers:  This study was carried out with contracted teachers. It may be replicated with school administrators.  Today, all teachers are being appointed with contracts. A quantitative study may be carried out on this topic.