This page includes brief updates alumni from the department’s PhD and MA CI programs. If you are a graduate of these programs and want to be included, please contact ci@bilkent.edu.tr. For information about the alumni of the GSE teacher education programs, please visit http://teached.bilkent.edu.tr/.


Bilkent University Graduate School of Education is where my learning to teach journey began. I am a graduate of  the teacher education program which helped me to grow as a confident, progressive, and committed teacher.  After I began my teaching career, I wanted to pursue my academic career with an aim to contribute to the advancement of the knowledge in teacher education. I received my PhD degree on Curriculum and Instruction with a research focus on learning to teach processes of pre-service mathematics teachers. As a full-time mathematics teacher at a demanding school, the process that led to this degree was quite long and challenging. However, I felt that It was a transformative experience as a person, a teacher, and a researcher. I always felt thankful for the supportive and caring environment of GSE, which kept me motivated along this journey.

Dr. Özge Keskin
Mathematics Teacher
TED Ankara Koleji

Eğitim Programları ve Öğretim Bölümü doktora programının ilk öğrencilerinden biriyim. Profesyonel çalışma hayatımla birlikte sürdürebileceğim bir doktora programı olması karar vermemde önemli bir nokta olmuştu. Ayrıca, Bilkent Eğitim Fakültesi’nin disiplinlerarası yaklaşımının okulda çalışan bir psikolojik danışman olarak çok katmanlı bir bakış açısını deneyimlememe fırsat vereceğini düşündüm. Bu süreçte aldığım dersler ve içerikleri oldukça kapsamlıydı. Tez aşamasında ise meslekî alanımla bağlantılı ihtiyaca dönük bir program geliştirme, öğretimini tasarlama ve değerlendirme süreçlerini ele alabilmem motivasyonumu artırdı. İçine girdiğim bilgi dünyası, gittikçe derinleşen ve yeniden anlamlandırmaya çalıştığım bir yolculuk gibiydi. Bu eğitim yolculuğunda bölümdeki tüm hocalarım ve arkadaşlarım, katkılarıyla beni zenginleştirdiler. Bu uzun süreçte tez danışmanım Dr. Aikaterini Michou’nun yol göstericiliği, sabrı ve analizci yaklaşımı çok kıymetliydi. Hem doktora sürecimin tamamında hem de mesleki yaşamımda fikirlerine saygı duyduğum Dr. John O’Dwyer’ın geniş bakış açısı çok değerliydi. Tez Komite Üyesi Dr. Robin Ann Martin, doktora sürecimi başından sonuna kadar yakından takip edip önerilerini ve dostluğunu her zaman açıklıkla sundu. Bölümdeki öğretim üyeleri hocalarım, Bölüm Başkanı Prof. Dr. Margaret Sands, Prof. Dr. Alipaşa Ayas ve Dr. Necmi Akşit sürecimin tamamında çok destekleyici oldular. Doktora eğitimi gibi dayanıklılık gösterme sürecinde azimle yol alabilmek için yanımda hissettiğim, bilgisine ve deneyimine güvendiğim tüm rehberlerimle birlikte yürümek benim için bir şans oldu. Şimdi geriye dönüp baktığımda “İyi ki Bilkent Eğitim Programları ve Öğretim  Fakültesi’nde doktora deneyiminden geçme fırsatım olmuş” diyebilmem mutlu hissetmeme neden oluyor.

Dr. Jale Ataşalar
Head of Psychological Counseling and Guidance Dept.
Bilkent Primary School

My desire to improve and challenge my knowledge and contribute to my field of work inspired me to start and pursue my PhD journey. In this journey, the road towards the finishing line was full of strenuous yet rewarding climbs, more highs than lows. The highs were when I devoured into research, developed a research niche and immersed into it with a view to linking my data to the theories and research I was reading. With a great mentor who joined me in this intellectual journey, there were moments where I felt like a bona fide researcher, especially when my PhD research was refined into a publication. There were also obstacles on the way. As such, these lows were opportunities for reinvigoration to prove to myself my commitment, perseverance and resilience in this journey. I have been extraordinarily fortunate to be able to complete my PhD in Curriculum and Instruction at Bilkent University Graduate School of Education.

Dr. Ayça Üner
Head of Teaching
Bilkent University School of English Language

Undertaking the PhD program in Curriculum and Instruction at the Graduate School of Education has been a truly awe-inspiring and life-changing experience for me. I feel enlightened as an international practitioner in the field of education and action researcher at my workplace. All the core and elective courses in the PhD program prepared me to contribute to international education through my various roles as an IB workshop leader, examiner, school visit team member as well as CIS school visit team member, co-chair and chair. Besides, the Bilkent expectation with regard to getting published on the PhD research in an SSCI journal (before the oral defense) highly motivated me to pursue my academic research with further publications in numerous international journals. More importantly, I have been very lucky to have a committee of dedicated, supportive, and accomplished scholars who worked with me closely to provide continuous support and invaluable feedback at all stages of my academic journey. Without their guidance, it would not have been possible to get the IB Jeff Thompson Research Award for my PhD dissertation. Finally, I am deeply indebted that I have been given the lifetime opportunity to visit the Graduate School of Education at the University of Cambridge as a visiting scholar and work with an external mentor during the final stage of my PhD dissertation. 

Dr. Akın Metli
High School Principal
Bilkent Erzurum Laboratory School

PhD in Curriculum and Instruction at Bilkent University has provided me the opportunity to expand my horizons in education through research and collaboration. During my PhD, I was able to focus on a research topic that I had always been interested in education, and teacher education more specifically. For my PhD research, I worked with experienced researchers from Turkey and the USA who specialized on teachers’ habits of mind and I was supported through constant collaboration with my supervisor from the Graduate School of Education. By the time I completed my degree, I could get two research papers published in high-indexed international education journals.

I think one of the most significant outcomes of my PhD journey at Bilkent University has been to construct a researcher identity while being a practitioner at the same time. Nowadays, I am involved actively in research in education and I continue my practices as an educator at different levels of K12 as well as graduate level.

Servet Altan
MYP Coordinator
Bilkent Middle School

The MA in CITE programme opened my eyes to the fascinating secondary school teaching opportunities. I had a successful 10 years of career teaching IBDP and MYP courses at the most prestigious schools in Turkey. After serving as DP coordinator, head of biology department, now I have the privilige to serve as a member of IB Educator Network as an examiner, workshop leader and school visit team leader. Thanks to PhD degree I earned at Bilkent University, I’ve been appointed as Assistant Professor and IB Educator Certificate Academic Coordinator at Yeditepe University in the Educational Sciences Department since 2019.

Dr. Öykü Dulun
Faculty of Education
Yeditepe University