The purpose of the current study was to investigate both student-level and school-level factors influencing reading literacy of students in Turkey by using PISA 2018 data. The study focused on reading literacy since the main subject of PISA 2018 was selected as reading literacy. The design of the study is a correlational research examining the relationship between student and school variables and reading literacy. The stratified random sample consisted of 6890 15-year students from 186 different schools. Data coming from PISA 2018 dataset were analysed by Hierarchical Linear Modelling (HLM) at student and school levels. Student-level variables of disciplinary climate in test language lessons, enjoyment of reading, information and community technologies (ICT) competence, parental emotional support, perceived discriminating climate, and perceived cooperation significantly predicted reading literacy, while reading literacy was also predicted by school-level variables of proportion of parents involved in the school, shortage of educational material, student behaviour hindering learning, and teacher behaviour hindering learning. Fifty-seven percent of variance between reading literacy scores of the students were caused by differences between schools. Student-level variables which are disciplinary climate in test language lessons, enjoyment of reading, ICT competence, parental emotional support, perceived discriminating climate, and perceived cooperation significantly predicted reading literacy. On the other hand, school-level variables predicting reading literacy significantly were proportion of parents involved in the school, shortage of educational material, student behaviour hindering learning, and teacher behaviour hindering learning. By considering results of the current study, collaboration between school stakeholders is recommended to increase performance of the students.

Students in graduate education have a desire to hold a degree because of contributions of graduate education such as opportunity to become faculty member, professional development, and promotion. Despite these benefits of graduate education, there are students who do not persist on gaining a graduate degree. This study aims to develop and test a model to determine the role of personal and organizational factors on student attrition from graduate education and to investigate graduate student attrition from the lenses of students and faculty. The design of the study was mixed-model research. Through a three-staged clustered random sampling and purposeful sampling, respectively, 653 and 36 participants were selected. Results of the correlational analysis indicated that intention to leave graduate education was predicted by personal factors, while the phenomenological part of the study pointed out that personal factors were more visible in student attrition than organizational factors.

Administration and governance of schools including many complex processes like bureaucracy, teaching, and school improvement is responsibility school principals. They are like bridges between micro-level dynamics and macro-level policies. Additionally, Turkey has experienced crises like pandemic and natural disasters in the recent years. These crises negatively affect the mental health of school stakeholders. All of these issues require an effective leadership style. In these aspects, the current study aims to investigate school leadership fostering mental health in times of crises. The design of the study is mixed-method research in which both quantitative and qualitative paradigms are followed. The data sources of the study were school principals and PISA 2022 dataset. PISA 2022 data related to mental health were extracted from dataset. Semi-structured interview forms were administered to school principals. Data coming from interviews are analyzed within content analysis while Hierarchical Linear Modelling (HLM) was run for PISA 2022 data. In terms of student-level variables, the PISA 2022 results showed that stress resistance was positively related to sense of belonging, feeling safe, assertiveness, and emotional control whereas it was negatively related to being bullied and empathy. Considering school-level variables, educational leadership and school diversity and multicultural views predicted stress resistance significantly. The results related to qualitative part showed that themes of perception on crisis, the impact of crises, crisis management actions, mental health support, and ways to improve mental health were effective in leadership style. It is concluded that school leadership fostering mental health depends on holistic perspective and taking action.

Administration and governance of schools in Turkey have a complex structure and process. Within the centralized structure, the procedures in educational activities are managed by school principals. In the Turkish literature, there are studies showing leadership styles of school leaders based on the leadership theories borrowed from different contexts. Furthermore, these leadership styles are linked to school outcomes like academic achievement and teacher motivation. Thus, catching compatible sides of leadership theories may serve to improve this kind of school outcomes. In these respects, the current study aimed to investigate which leadership styles have more effect on academic achievement and teacher motivation. Exclusion and inclusion criteria were determined in order to identify the studies to be analyzed. A meta-analysis study including 21 studies in Turkish context was conducted to achieve the purpose of the study. The meta-analysis results showed that the leadership styles were highly related with the school outcomes. Overall, laissez-faire, transactional, instructional, and transformational leadership styles had a high and positive relation with the school outcomes. The laissez-faire and spiritual leadership styles showed more effect on the teacher motivation while the positive and transformational style had more effect on the academic achievement. Considering the conclusions of the study, it is recommended that future studies develop a leadership theory specific to the educational settings in Turkey.

This study conducted a bibliometric analysis of studies on student outcomes in higher education from 1960 to 2020, providing a bibliometric content analysis of articles based on 52 Scopus-indexed higher education journals. Bibliometric analysis methodology was used, and Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses were employed to identify and select the 2,375 articles included in the sample. The trajectory of publications over time was also analyzed, and often-cited journals, authors, articles, and co-citations were identified. The topical foci of research on student outcomes were revealed, co-occurrence analysis was performed, and keyword co-occurrence maps are presented. Limitations, interpretation, implications, and recommendations were also made on the basis of the findings. Received: 12 September 2021 Accepted: 18 August 2022

Academic freedom has a special significance for universities within the context of higher education. However, it is fair to say that the concept of academic freedom within the Turkish literature is not well developed either conceptually or methodologically. The purpose of this study is to map the existing research and scholarship on academic freedom in Turkey so as to shed light on what is implied and discussed, and what gaps there are. Sixty-one studies were reviewed by following systematic review steps. Content analysis was used as the research design in the current study. The research reveals that academic freedom was discussed as a global, local, and institutional idea, but that in the main these were conceptual debates rather than debates that were empirically grounded. The paper argues that more empirical studies are needed of academic freedom particularly in the Turkish context.