AUTONOMY IN THE WORKPLACE: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF PUBLIC AND PRIVATE EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS
The aim of this study was to determine the job autonomy perceptions of secondary school teachers working at public and private educational institutions. The universe of the study composed of secondary school teachers working at private and public educational institutions in Gaziantep city centre during the academic year of 2016-2017. The sample group was determined through random sampling method and included 500 teachers working at 16 distinct schools, half of which were private educational institutions and the other half were public ones. The research data were collected through the Work Autonomy Scales. Descriptive statistics, t-test and ANOVA analyses were applied to the data set. According to research results, teachers working at both types of educational institutions had similar autonomy perceptions except for taking initiative pertaining to work and doing specific work activities. The comparisons indicated that difference between the two was in favour of private educational institutions. Additionally, while there was a high level of significant difference between teachers' opinions at both educational institutions based on the variable of gender, no statistical difference was detected by the variable of age. A high level of significant difference was found in favour of public educational institutions for the variable of professional seniority.

Keywords
Autonomy, job autonomy, public educational institutions, private educational institutions