Teachers’ views on favourism and its implications in educational organizations

The current study aims to investigate the views of teachers on favourism in educational institutions, and also elaborates on how favourism is reflected in schools and in the feelings of teachers. The study has a qualitative methodology. The participants of the study were 17 teachers working in formal secondary and high schools in Ankara-Altındağ during the spring term of 2013/14 academic year. The participants had at least 10 years of experience. The study used the criterion sampling method which is categorized under purposive sampling for the selection of participants. Therefore, the year of experience was used as a criterion for purposive selection. The data was collected by semi-structured interviews and descriptive analysis was used for data analysis. The findings showed that favourism exists in every level of the Turkish educational system; favourism is mostly practiced by teachers’ union and school principals; crynism is the most common type of favourism reported by teachers; and favourism mostly affects educational processes. The study also presents that favourism arouses feelings of injustice, inequality, rage and anger in teachers. The research suggests that there is a need to increase awareness of decision-makers at every level of educational system on favourism, and the principles of transparency and accountability should be adopted.