What has inspired me for this business venture is a quotation by the famous scientist İsmail Ebuliz El Cezeri. In order to explain the situation that he finds himself in, he says “After a while, I freed myself from imitations and what others do, and only then I was able to look into problems from my own perspective” (İzgeç, 2015). I was feeling in the same way when I retired from the university of my own free will. Yes, I had been granted all academic degrees as a professor; however, I noticed that I had been simply introducing and teaching others’ ideas and practices. My students were clearly aware of the fact that I was doing my best to reflect my own point of views and my own approaches in the lessons and the dissertations I supervised, which was never an easy task to fulfill. As a result, I decided to retire from the university in order to get my own perspective on the education-related problems both in Turkey and the world and find effective and efficient solutions to them. I personally believe that, regardless of the field they study, scientists should stick to both theory and practice. Although one of them overweighs the other from time to time, a healthy balance will be achieved in time.   

Another notion by İsmail Ebul-iz Cezeri is that “Science that are not put into practice will be stuck between “the right” or “the wrong” (Çırak and Yörük, 2015, p.179). In this quotation, he demonstrates that every theory, or knowledge that are not put into practice stands somewhere between the right or the wrong. We can claim that the idea lying behind this quotation is valid for all fields of science and scientists. It is, therefore, essential in educational sciences to get a perspective that entails both theoretical knowledge that is transferred into practice and the practice that contributes to the development of the theory. Focusing only on theory or practice at a time results in very weak, if not broken, bonds between science and real life. 

For instance, why is a child reluctant to read? It is difficult to find a sound answer to this question by conducting or examining studies focusing merely on theoretical backgrounds because different conditions have different effects on developing and sustaining reading skills of each child. Thus, it is necessary to take unique conditions of each child into consideration and to find and implement specific solutions accordingly instead of making generalizations. I personally believe that the most efficient ways to follow are to conduct innovative and creative studies on educational issues, to benefit from theoretical background in order to find subjective and creative solutions to problems, to emphasize subjective experiences through phenomenological approach, and to reflect one’s own perspectives on each single case. Considering all of the ideas and belief mentioned above, I decided to establish Kıymet Selvi – Educational Assistance and Consultancy. 

References

Çırak, B.; Yörük, A. (2015). Mekatronik biliminin öncüsü İsmail El – Cezeri vanguard of mechatronic science Ismail Al-Jazari Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi,  Journal of Social Sciences Institute Year – Yıl 2015 | Number – Sayı 4, sayfa 175-194.