Inclusion and exclusion are restricted into special education and disability with a narrow definition (Booth and Ainsoow, 1998) and Potts (2013) redefine the term with increasing participation and decreasing marginalization about gender, ethnicity, sexuality and poverty on which researchers conduct studies.  Although, these studies in educational research feed the policies, reforms and practices by providing theoretical and conceptual framework (Göktaş, Hasançebi, Varışoğlu, Akçay, Bayrak, Baran & Sözbilir, 2012), blind hole in the field draws attention of educational researchers and researchers show an effort to make brighter this hole by synthesizing and summarizing the other studies (Usluel & Mazman, 2010). Namely, exploration of many studies in education and their systematic dissemination make contributions to both society and education as a research field.  Furthermore, analyzing studies reveals out general structure of that field by indicating information about the depth of the subject (Turan, Karadağ, Bektaş & Yalçın, 2014).

Exclusion and inclusion issues are very much the focus of discussion these days in educational sciences in Turkey and elsewhere due to changing demographics and globalization. Ups and downs in globalization affect what to study in education. With the blurred borders, the increase in the desire for multicultural education, fostering diversity and hindering marginalization have an impact on what is studied in educational research. Although many content analyses have been done in the field, none of these analyses focus on inclusive and exclusive education.

For instance; in a content analysis conducted by Göktaş et. al, (2012) about educational research studies published in SSCI and ULAKBIM from 2005 to 2009, it was found that instructional technology, science, guidance and math education studies with quantitative focus dominate the field in which they examined 2115 articles from 33 journals. However, studies about philosophy, religious and health education is rare. Content analysis results indicate that studies in Turkey mostly focused on educational science research, (Arık & Türkmen, 2009; Selçuk & Palancı, 2014), technology (Koçak-Usluel & Mazman, 2010), math (Çiltaş, Güler & Sözbilir, 2012), and environmental education (Erdoğan, Marcinkowski & Ok, 2009). Moreover, Selçuk and Palancı (2014) reviewed 492 articles in which they identified that most articles are about curriculum and instruction, educational administration, science education and there is no article about biology, philosophy and chemistry education. Furthermore, Turan et al. (2014) remarked that studies in relation to educational administration and planning are restricted into a narrow area by using survey model and t-test as statistical analysis. From another perspective, Günay and Aydın (2015) analyzed the articles about multicultural education in Turkey as an inclusion issue and they remarked that the history of multicultural education studies dates back to ten years and focused on attitudes of students and academicians towards multicultural education.

Considering the content analysis trend in Turkey, there is none emphasizing inclusion and exclusion in education. For this reason, the main purpose of this research is to map the research terrain in Turkey in relation to inclusion and exclusion issues. This study will fill the gap by revealing out the studies about inclusion and exclusion conducted in Turkish context and shed light on the future studies through systematic content analysis. With this aim, the following research questions will be analyzed:

1  Which issues are mostly studied related to inclusion and exclusion? 

2  In which years are these studies conducted?

3  What kind of research design does these research utilize?

4  What is the publishing type of studies in that field?

5  Which samples are selected in relation inclusion and exclusion?

6  Which data collection tools are utilized?

7  Which analysis do they use?

In which type of organizations are these studies conducted?

Content analysis is utilized in this research in order to analyze the studies conducted in relation to inclusion and exclusion in a systematic way. Content analysis is a way of summarizing the main parts of the data (Cohen, Monion & Marrison, 2007) which enables explaining more with few themes or categories (Weber, 1990). This study will reveal the trends and method of inclusion and exclusion studies in Turkey by reporting the articles, reports and dissertations. Through this research, the steps identified by Cohen et al. (2007) such as defining sample, identifying criteria for inclusion or exclusion and analyzing the data by using codes and themes will be utilized. Considering this, four criteria are identified: 1. The studies that focus on inclusion or exclusion (have these concepts as keywords), 2. The studies conducted in Turkey, 3. The studies that focused on education, 4. The studies published as an article, report or dissertation. There is not a selected specific time period that will be examined since it is new research area. Based on these four criteria, Web of Science, EBSCO, ULAKBIM, ERIC and National Dissertation Database have been searched by two researchers. In the first phase, inclusion and exclusion with education and same words in Turkish are used as keywords that returns a few research. Therefore, Romans, immigrant and refugee are also used as keywords in the second phase since these are identified as disadvantageous groups in Turkey by UNICEF (2012). Search results presented 261 results; 28 of these resources are get from EBSCO search, 71 are from ERIC; 44 are from ULAKBIM; 27 are from Web of Science and 91 are from Dissertation Database. After eliminating unrelated studies, there were 231 studies examined in total. As data collection tool, Paper Classification Form developed by Sözbilir, Kutu and Yaşar (2012) is used after reorganizing the parts in relation to the field, topic and sample of the studies. In order to increase validity and reliability, two researchers independently search the keywords in the database both in English and Turkish. Furthermore, two researchers analyzed randomly selected 15 studies. This 15 classification were compared and, similarities and differences were identified. Furthermore, the list of all studies included in this research is shared for providing transparency. The data were analyzed by using content analysis in which codes are analyzed. The codes and categories are listed to SPSS24 Package Program to analyze frequencies and to form charts.

Considering the contents declared in the research questions, the descriptive data analysis was performed. In terms of the year studies published, most of the studies (n=87) were conducted in the last five years that made a peak in 2016 (n=27) and the first published study was in 2006, which implies that it is a new research area in Turkey. The number of article (n=89) was more than number of thesis (n=37) and reports (n=2). The studies analyzed up to now showed that literature in Turkey focused mostly on inclusion (n=117) and limited focus on exclusion (n=9). Furthermore, most frequently studied topics were perceptions and attitudes (n=37), inclusive education (n=27), disadvantaged groups including disability, Romans and refugees (n=25), and instructional processes (n=22). On the other hand, primary school (n=57) and pre-school (24) drew attention as the organizations in which studies were conducted. In terms of methodological procedures, the most remarkable trends were descriptive studies (n=48) as research design, interviews (n=52) and questionnaires (n=48) with more Likert type scales (n=35) as instrumentation, qualitative data analysis (n=77) and descriptive quantitative analysis (n=31) as data analysis method. Moreover, teachers (n=62), disadvantaged individuals (n=38) and K-12 students (n=34) are selected as sample. Among disadvantaged individuals, those who are disabled (n=20) and refugees (n=15) were predominant. Findings in relation to methodology are consistent with Göktaş et al. (2012a; 2012b) and Turan et al. (2014) in which it was highlighted that descriptive studies, teachers as samples and t-test analysis are mostly utilized in Turkish studies. Overall, these preliminary findings based on about half of the documents indicate that inclusion in education is more studied compared to exclusion. Furthermore, disability, special education are mostly focused rather than refugees, Romans or other disadvantageous groups.

Arık, R. S., & Türkmen, M. (2009). Eğitim bilimleri alanında yayınlanan bilimsel dergilerde yer alan makalelerin incelenmesi. I. Uluslararası Eğitim Araştırmaları Kongresi. Booth, T., & Ainscow, M. (1998). From them to us: An international study of inclusion in education. London: Routledge. Cohen, L. & Manion, L. (2001). Research methods in education (5th Edition), New York: Rotledge Falmer. Çalık, M., & Sözbilir, M. (2014). Paramaters of content analysis. Education and Science, 39(174). Çiltaş, M., Güler, G., & Sözbilir, A. (2012). Türkiye’de matematik eğitimi araştırmaları: Bir içerik analizi çalışması. Kuram ve Uygulamada Eğitim Bilimleri,12(1), 565-580. Erdoğan, M., Marcinkowski, T., & Ok, A. (2009). Content analysis of selected features of K‐8 environmental education research studies in Turkey, 1997–2007. Environemental Education Research, 15(5). Göktaş, Y., Hasançebi, F., Varışoğlu, B., Akçay, A., Bayrak, N., Baran, M., & Sözbilir, M. (2012). Trends in educational research in Turkey: A content analysis. Educational Sciences: Theory and Practice, 12(1), 455-459. Günay, R., & Aydın, H. (2015). Inclinations in studies into multicultural education in Turkey: A content analysis study. Education and Science, 40(178), 1-22. Potts, P. (2013). Inclusion in the city: Selection, schooling and community. London: Routledge. Selçuk, Z., & Palancı, M. (2014). Tendencies of researchers published in education and science journal: Content analysis. Education and Science, 39(173). Sözbilir, M., Kutu, H., & Yaşar, M. D. (2012). Science education research in Turkey: A content analysis of selected features of papers published. In J. Dillon& D. Jorde (Eds). The World of Science Education: Handbook of Research in Europe (pp.341-374). Rotterdam: Sense Publishers. Turan, S., Karadağ, E., Bektaş, F., & Yalçın, M. (2014). Türkiye’de eğitim yönetiminde bilgi üretimi: Kuram ve Uygulamada Eğitim Yönetimi Dergisi 2003-2013 yayınlarının incelenmesi. Kuram ve Uygulamada Eğitim Yönetimi [Educational Administration: Theory and Practice], 20(1), 93-119. doi: 10.14527/kuey.2014.005