Policies and Practices of the Doctoral Programs in English Language Teaching in Turkey

Abstract

The present review focuses on the doctoral programs and dissertations in the field of English language teaching between the period 2010 and 2015 in Turkey to reveal how the latest reforms on higher education shaped the programs, supervisors, students and dissertations. This research focus requires immediate attention as there is not yet an established body of literature addressing how the National Qualifications Framework of Higher Education, as the national interpretation of the European higher education policies, works in practice across doctoral programs. To this end, 13 graduate programs on English language teaching were analyzed in 2014-2015 academic year in terms of program structure, courses, supervisors and students. In addition, 137 doctoral dissertations written in those programs between 2010 and 2014 were investigated with regards to their subject areas and research focus and how those two factors were distributed across the programs. Findings indicate that although the national qualifications framework seems to contribute to the programs significantly in terms of standardization, nation-wide policies are necessary to expand the impact of doctoral dispositions beyond academia, and that further research studies are needed to yield data about the scholarly impact of those doctoral programs.