Navigating priorities: Assessing the challenges of curriculum reform in Turkish Urban and Regional Planning Schools

İpek Şen; Turgay Kerem Koramaz

doi:10.47818/DRArch.2024.v5i2126

Navigating priorities: Assessing the challenges of curriculum reform in Turkish Urban and Regional Planning Schools

Authors

İpek Şen Short Bio Istanbul Technical University

Ipek Sen is a researcher and PhD candidate at Istanbul Technical University who lives and works in Istanbul. After graduating from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University Urban and Regional Planning, she completed her M.A. at Istanbul Bilgi University Cultural Studies Program. She was accepted as a visiting researcher at Cardiff University in 2015. Her research is gathered around the topics of urban poverty, inequality, and decolonization. After teaching at ITU and Istanbul Bilgi University for six years, she transitioned to the private sector as a market researcher and strategist and is now working as a consultant for various companies around the world.
Turgay Kerem Koramaz Short Bio Istanbul Technical University

Turgay Kerem Koramaz has been an academic staff member at ITU Faculty of Architecture, Department of Urban and Regional Planning since 2000. He completed his PhD there, with a thesis on computer-aided 3D visualization techniques in urban historic sites. In 2008, he was a visiting researcher at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. His research focuses on ICT and spatial analysis in urban planning and conservation. He is an associate editor at the Journal of Urban Planning and Development (ASCE) and a member of AESOP (Association of European Schools of Planning), ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites), ERSA (European Regional Science Association).

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.47818/DRArch.2024.v5i2126

Keywords:

curriculum revision, planning curriculum, planning schools’ association, urban planning education

Abstract

Planning departments in Türkiye recently witnessed a boom. In less than 20 years, the number of universities offering urban planning programs increased from a dozen to 45, most accepting students with limited resources. Urban planning education has faced many challenges over the last two decades, and offering education with limited resources carried this problem to another level, increasing concerns among scholars about the quality of the education and the learning outcomes a planner should possess at graduation. While planning schools in Türkiye deals with the issues above, global debates in planning education revolve around integrating topics such as climate change, inequality, informality, and decolonization into the curriculum. This study aimed to reveal to what extent global issues find their way into Turkish planning school agendas in an environment where more pressing matters threaten the quality of education. To look further into this issue, all documents published by TUPOB (Türkiye Planning Schools Association) since its foundation were analyzed, and seven in-depth interviews with TUPOB members were conducted. A predominantly qualitative approach was utilized. The findings suggest that the lack of resources is the most critical problem for urban planning schools, followed by insufficient teaching faculty. The curriculum updates and integration of global issues such as climate change and urban poverty come later in the priorities list. This research showed that concerns regarding resources and lack of standards take precedence over global discussions in planning curricula.

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2024-08-30

How to Cite

Şen, İpek, & Koramaz, T. K. (2024). Navigating priorities: Assessing the challenges of curriculum reform in Turkish Urban and Regional Planning Schools. Journal of Design for Resilience in Architecture and Planning, 5(2), 168–184. https://doi.org/10.47818/DRArch.2024.v5i2126