An investigation of the factors causing inequality of opportunity in education in Turkey through rank order judgement from the perspective of academicians

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the factors which can cause inequality of opportunity in education in Turkey through the law of rank order judgement on the basis of academicians' views. The research was a quantitative descriptive study, which was carried out with 102 academicians. In the research, a data collection tool was used which consisted of the questions aimed at determining demographics of the participants, and factors that could lead to inequality of opportunity in education. The participants were asked to rank the variables of gender, socio-economic level, place of residence, geographical region, disability, religion and belief, ethnicity, native language, the number of children in a family, parents' characteristics and technological possibilities individuals have from the highest to the lowest potential to cause inequality of opportunity in education beginning with 1 until 11. The data collected in this study were analyzed by using the method of rank order judgement scaling. In consequence, it was found that academicians considered the socio-economic level as the most important factor causing inequality of opportunity in education in Turkey, which was followed by the place of residence (rural-urban areas), parents' characteristics, disability, geographical region, native language, gender, the number of children in a family, technological possibilities individuals have, religion and belief, and ethnicity respectively