Bureaucratized Scientific Knowledge Production in the Area of Social Work within the Context of Neoliberalism: Investigation of Master’s Theses Research
Canan Neşe Kınıkoğlu, Caner ÖzdemirThis paper investigates the knowledge production in social work through document analysis of the master’s theses, the primary step in professional and academic expertise, within the context of the neoliberalization of higher education in Turkey. Focusing on the period between 2005 and 2020, when the field of social work expanded in universities in Turkey, this paper poses the questions related to what social work master’s theses’ numbers, subjects, methods, and cases are, as well as how they are changing. To this end, a total of 674 open access master’s theses completed in the departments of social work, social services, and social work policies and management were examined through their abstracts and full texts. The number of masters’ thesis in social work skyrocketed after 2016, in line with the escalating number of post-graduate programs in social work in Turkey. The findings of the study reveal that this quantitative increase does not bring along a qualitative improvement in knowledge production in social work. The majority of the examined theses do not meet the basic methodological requirements of scientific knowledge, such as the correct definition and explanation of the population and sampling techniques of the study. These theses are further limited to the national scale since they mostly focus on the central regions of Turkey, such as Ankara and Istanbul, and they are differentiated nly by the micro contexts and the different subject matters they study. Thus, on one hand, knowledge production in social work at the master’s level has expanded while moving away from the foundations of scientific knowledge. On the other hand, it has been bureaucratized through limited research scopes and standardized thesis writing processes, yielding the conclusion that it has transformed into a mass production process.
Neoliberalleşme Bağlamında Sosyal Hizmet Alanında Bürokratikleşen Bilimsel Bilgi Üretimi: Yüksek Lisans Araştırmalarının İncelenmesi
Canan Neşe Kınıkoğlu, Caner ÖzdemirBu araştırma Türkiye’de yükseköğretimin neoliberal dönüşümü bağlamında sosyal hizmet alanındaki bilimsel bilgi üretimini mesleki ve akademik uzmanlaşmanın ilk adımı olan yüksek lisans tezleri üzerinden incelemektedir. Türkiye’de sosyal hizmet alanının üniversitelerde yaygınlaştığı 2005-2020 yılları arasındaki döneme odaklanarak, bu alanda yüksek lisans seviyesinde yapılan araştırmaların sayıları, konuları, kullanılan yöntemler ve ele alınan vakalar nelerdir ve bunlar nasıl değişime uğramaktadır sorularını yöneltmektedir. Bu amaçla, belirlenen dönem içerisinde sosyal hizmet, sosyal hizmetler ve sosyal hizmet politikaları ve yönetimi anabilim dallarında yayınlanmış ve erişime açık toplam 674 yüksek lisans tezinin özetleri ve tam metinleri döküman incelemesi yöntemiyle analiz edilmiştir. İncelenen dönemde yüksek lisans program sayılarının artışıyla beraber yayınlanan tez sayısının 2016 yılından sonra hızla arttığı, bu artışın araştırılan konular ve kullanılan yöntemler açısından çeşitlilik getirdiği gözlenmiştir. Araştırmanın bulguları bu niceliksel artışın niteliksel bir ilerlemeyi beraberinde getirmediğini göstermektedir. İncelenen tezlerin çoğunluğunun evren ve örnekleme tekniklerinin doğru belirlenmesi gibi bilimsel bilginin temel yöntemsel gerekliliklerini sağlayamadığı, Ankara ve İstanbul gibi merkez bölgeleri konu alarak ulusal ölçekle sınırlı kaldığı ve verilerin toplandığı mikro bağlamlar ve konu çeşitliliğiyle ayrıştıkları görülmüştür. Bu anlamda sosyal hizmet alanında yüksek lisans seviyesinde bilgi üretimi bir yandan bilimsel bilginin temellerinden uzaklaşarak yaygınlaşmakta öteki yandan kısıtlı kapsam ve standartlaşmış tez yazım süreçleriyle bürokratikleşerek seri üretimden çıkmış izlenimi vermektedir.
This research investigates the dynamics of knowledge production in social work, an applied multidisciplinary field whose institutionalization at universities in Turkey is rather recent and yet has been rapidly expanding since the early 2000s within the context of neoliberalization of higher education. It focuses on knowledge production at the master’s degree level, not only because it is considered the primary step in professional and academic expertise, but also because this education level has expanded with the commercialization of universities. With the neoliberal transformation in Turkey, especially since the beginning of the 2000s, the emphasis on university-private sector cooperation in Turkey, foundation (private) universities, and the commercialization of social work have exacerbated. This transformation re-drew the boundaries between scientific and applied knowledge in social work, which has been deprofessionalized and bureaucratized in the context of neoliberalization (Garrett, 2010; Healy & Meagher, 2017; Macias, 2015; Randall & Kindiak, 2008; Rasmussen, 2011; Specht, 1972). At this point, the present research poses the questions related to what social work master’s theses’ numbers, subjects, methods, and cases are, as well as how they are changing at a time when the field of social work expanded in universities in Turkey. These questions were addressed through document analysis of master’s theses in social work published within the 2005-2020 period to reveal the basic features of academic knowledge production in the field of social work in a changing Turkey.
There were three stages in the data collection and analyses processes. First, the abstracts and full texts of a total of 674 master’s theses completed in the departments of social work, social services, and social work policies and management were retrieved from the Turkish Higher Education’s Thesis Center. They were examined in terms of descriptive information, such as the names of the university, advisor of the thesis, publishing year, and title. Second, research subjects, spatial case selection, data collection, and analysis methods were used on these compiled theses. Finally, the methodological integrity of these theses was further reviewed by looking at the coherence between their methods and sampling techniques.
The findings indicate that, first, the number of master’s thesis in social work skyrocketed, especially after 2016, in line with the escalating number of post-graduate programs in social work in Turkey. However, this quantitative expansion has been experienced with an unequal geographical distribution. Most of the examined theses focused on Istanbul and Ankara, where most of the graduate programs are located. In contrast to the wider tendencies in the internationalization of higher education, the examined theses mainly focused on Turkish-specific cases, with very few incorporating an international or comparative approach.
Second, the increasing number of master’s theses in social work brought about a diversity of research areas. While they were limited to a few topics, such as medical and psychiatric social work or family and marriage, topics like working life, children, youth, migration or poverty were recently included in social work master’s theses. This can be related to the multidisciplinary structure of social work departments stemming from the diversifying academic backgrounds of faculty members (Alptekin et.al., 2017, p. 15), as well as the newly emerging areas of employment in social work (Topuz & Öz, 2014, p. 154). Similarly, research methods employed in social work master’s theses have also diversified. During the 2000s, quantitative research was nearly the only approach in social work, whereas in the last decade, qualitative or mixed methods have also become visible.
Third, despite the increase in diversity in terms of research areas and methods, the investigation of these master’s theses raised questions about the production of scientific knowledge in social work at universities. As a result of the methodological review of the master’s theses in social work, it is seen that most theses lack basic methodological qualities, such as the correct identification of population and sample and appropriate employment of sampling techniques. The fact that the volume of such deficiencies does not alter according to time, type of university (public or private), or geography indicates an established low methodological standard among social work master’s thesis completed between 2005 and 2021 in Turkey. Based on these findings, this study argues that knowledge production in social work at the master’s level has expanded quantitatively and diversified in terms of research areas and methods, while moving away from the foundations of scientific knowledge. It has been bureaucratized through limited research scopes and standardized thesis writing processes, yielding the conclusion that it has transformed into a mass production process.