The Examination of The Postgrade Theses on Harmonization Programs in Preschool Period: Analysis of Problems and Solution Suggestions

The preschool education of children who need special care has become obligatory in the delegated legislation no 573 on special education, issued in 1997, and in the regulations of special education services, prepared in 2006 on the basis of that legislation. The harmonization education is defined as special education practices “ based on the principle suggesting that individuals in need of special education can continue their educations, together with their peers without any incapability, at public or private, preschool, primary school, secondary school, and widespread education institutions”. As well as in this legislation, the regulations related to the harmonization education were also made in the MONE legislation of Preschool Educational Institutions. It is seen that preschool educations of children in need of special care have been guaranteed by legal arrangements. The important problems arising in harmonization education have caused scientific studies and postgraduate studies to focus on this issue. The purpose of the study is to examine the postgraduate theses on harmonization programs in the preschool period in Turkey and analyze the defined problems and solution suggestions. The study was done in a mixed pattern, and document analysis method was used in it. The qualitative and quantitative analysis techniques were used in the analysis of the data. The postgraduate theses used in the study were selected through the thesis review page of Higher Education Institution. For the identification of the theses, the keywords, including “harmonization, preschool, program”, were used, and accordingly, a total of 17 postgraduate theses were reached. The data were collected by “ Pre School Harmonization Programs and Postgrade Thesis Studies Review Form” prepared by the researcher. The form contains 11 items that include variables such as the types of postgraduate theses, their production year, production institute, department, sampling, research type, these data collection place. Besides, the conclusion and suggestions parts of the theses were deeply examined with content analysis method. As a result of the study, it was found that the theses of harmonization programs in preschool period in Turkey mainly were done on postgraduate level, their majority were studied at the departments of Educational Sciences Institution, and mainly at special education sections, and their majority were descriptive studies based on teacher views, and the problems identified at postgraduate theses of harmonization education and solution suggestions of that were deeply examined with content analysis, and thematically submitted, and the suggestions of the studies to be newly conducted on this issue were offered