Contemporary studies related to teacher autonomy mostly deal with research into how autonomy is perceived by teachers and which variables it is associated with. On the other hand, there are very few studies dealing with how teachers' instructional autonomy over the curriculum is reflected in the education process. The aim of this study is to reveal in depth the practices carried out in the context of instructional autonomy by science teachers who have different levels of autonomy. The study is based on data gathered from eight teachers employed at different schools in the province of Izmir in Turkey. Interviews, observations and documents were used for collecting the data. The results reveal that while teachers with high instructional autonomy successfully apply contemporary teaching methods, alternative evaluation techniques, high-order thinking skills and effective classroom management, teachers with low instructional autonomy fall short in all of these areas.

This qualitative study attempts to determine favorite TV dramas of children from two rural schools and analyze children’s discourse about messages and values of TV dramas. As parallel to children’s views, teacher perceptions on critical media literacy were investigated in the study. This study aims to explore the content—messages/values—of popular TV dramas through the eyes of fifth-grade students and teachers in two rural schools in Turkey. This study was conducted in two rural public elementary schools in the district of Aydin, Turkey, in 2007. Six volunteer children aged between 10 and 13 (three girls and three boys) and three teachers from two different rural schools were included in this case study. Semistructured interview forms for teachers and children were developed and used in this research for data collection.