Special Education Research in Turkey

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine special education research trends in Turkey through analyzing articles about special education published in five Turkish journals entered in the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI). Hacettepe University Journal of Education, Turkish Journal of Psychology, Education and Science, Eurasian Journal of Educational Research, and Educational Sciences: Theory & Practice are the journals included in the study. Content analysis method was used for data analysis; all the accessible issues of included journals were quantified within the framework of the established codes. According to the findings, the total number of articles in 334 issues of five journals is 4478; the number of articles published in the field of special education is 113, and the ratio of special education articles within all articles is %2.52. Additionally, 33.63% of the authors of the articles were associated with Anadolu University while 24.78% were associated with Ankara University. Furthermore, the number of published articles in the field of special education has steadily increased during the years, and the period when the highest number articles were published is after 2011. The obtained data were discussed within the context of developments in special education in Turkey. For future research, more journals and articles
should be included and additional variables should be examined.