e-Uluslararası Eğitim Araştırmaları Dergisi

Öz

 Purpose: It can be asserted that there is a lack of research and limited interest on life-long learning and adult learning in Turkey. So, the purpose of this study is to determine the current problems of the supervision of the “Public Education Centres” according to the views of their managers and contribute to the debate on the issue.
Method: The research was designed in qualitative research method. The data were gathered by interviews. In order to conduct the interviews a semi-structured interview form was developed. The study group consisted of 6 head managers of public education centres in the central provinces of Antalya. In the analysis “Content analysis technique” was used with the help of NVivo 10 program.
Results: According to the findings the most problems were stated about supervising the staff. It was found that supervising physical conditions were stated among secondly important problematic issues. Supervising evaluation process was stated to be in the third place. In the fourth place problems about instructional issues were stated and last of all problems about environmental relations were reported by the interviewers.
Conclusions and Recommendations: In relation to supervising individuals the most remarkable problem stated was about annoyance with the perception that the purpose of the supervision was to control and concentrate on official requirements. The participants also stated that supervisors have not had a satisfactory approach to develop personal and professional needs of the staff. Another problem stated by the participants was not to have been guided well enough by the supervisors because of their inequalities on this specialized education field. Being supervised by various professionals and by superiors at the same time was stated to be a challenge in providing an effective and continuous relationship among the supervisor and supervised. On the other hand participants stated that evaluations of the supervision results sometimes by face to face dialogue but most of the times via written reports have been causing difficulties in understanding and making use of them. In relation to supervising school-environment relations the participants complained that the time spent for this purpose was insufficient, observation processes were so superficial that they could not profit well enough from this kind of relationship. As a result in determining and meeting lifelong learning needs, public education centres were not sufficiently supervised. For this reason, there is a strong need to formulate a new kind of supervision structure and employ supervisors according to the required quantitative and qualitative characteristics.