Competition in Public Education from School Administrators’ Perspective: A Qualitative Study on Public Schools in Türkiye

Abstract

The aim of this qualitative study is to determine how public school administrators experience competition in public education. The research was conducted with a phenomenological design. The study group of the research consists of 25 public school administrators working in Istanbul province in Turkey. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews, and the data were analyzed with content analysis method. The research results revealed that public school administrators experience competition as a situation that harms public education in general. School administrators have an opinion that conditions of competition are not equal, and inflated grades in private schools lead to an advantage to private school students. Based on the results of the research, it is recommended that public education should be supported more as it is a basic human right.