Effects of Changes in Educational Policies on the Emotions of ICT Teachers

Abstract

The aim of the present study is to examine emotional changes of Information and Communication Technology teachers during the times when alterations take place in their profession in Turkish education system drawing on online discussion forums. In this study, as a qualitative method, the case study method was adopted and the data were obtained from different resources. Firstly, a total of 302,617 online messages which were posted on the online forums between 2005 and 2015 in “Computer ICT Forum” (http://www.bilgisayarbilisim.net/) were analyzed. Then, in order to identify the decisions taken by Ministry of National Education (MoNE) which directly or indirectly influence ICT teachers, the circular notes, instructions, regulations and official correspondings of the institutions between the years of 1995 and 2015 were also reviewed. At the last stage of the study, semi-structured interviews with 30 volunteer participants from the online discussion forum were done to get deeper information about their emotions. Content analysis method was used for qualitative data analysis. The results of the study reveal that the decisions which are influential most in emotions of the ICT teachers in 11 years are related to a project titled as Movement of Enhancing Opportunities and Improving Technology (FATIH), changes in the hours of the ICT course, changes in assessment method of the course, regulational changes in position of ICT coordinators, in getting positions at the schools as an ICT teacher, in ICT teacher appointments and in changing the duty places of the ICT teachers. While these the aforementioned changes were happening, the teachers mostly had feelings of anger, sadness, boredom, desperation and insurgence, and recently, they have had stronger feelings of disappointment, pessimism and burn out because of what they were exposed to experience as an ICT teacher. Furthermore, when analysing the future expectations of ICT teachers, it is observed that all suggestions are based on the desire to fulfill their professions in a more respectful, valuable and trouble-free way and that they desire to feel like being teachers as they are. If necessary measures are not taken and if they are not supported, their negative emotional state will continue to constitute a major impediment before their successful and productive continuation of their professions.