Reflections on Teacher Education in Turkey.

Overview & Synopsis

This paper discuses problems in Turkish teacher education, examining the consequences of western influence in building relevant programs. After reviewing the history of Turkish education, the paper examines three major issues in Turkish teacher education. The first is problems that stem from the overall situation in the country (e.g., rapid population growth and movement, political instability, and the low status of the teaching profession). The second issue is the selection of prospective teachers for teacher education programs (high school graduates must complete a standardized selection and placement examination in order to enter the university, which means they are admitted based only on their academic achievement). The third issue is the teacher education curriculum, which tends to be very western. The Turkish Higher Education Council recently redesigned teacher education programs to focus more on the realities of Turkish schools. Teachers have complained about the irrelevance of teacher education programs to Turkish schools (e.g., they studied from American textbooks which discussed working with African American and Hispanic students, but they never addressed the dynamics of Turkish schools). Teachers felt a lack of connection between what they studied at the university and what they found in the schools. (Contains 16 references.) (SM)