Global Education in the Turkish Social Studies Teacher Training Programme


Kaymakci S.

CROATIAN JOURNAL OF EDUCATION-HRVATSKI CASOPIS ZA ODGOJ I OBRAZOVANJE, vol.14, no.4, pp.817-854, 2012 (SSCI) identifier identifier

Abstract

Global education is a recent topic in Turkey and research on global education has rapidly increased in the last decade. In particular, the process of accession to EU (European Union), and rapid and important changes in science, technology and communication have triggered this research focus. Thus, curricula reforms were carried out at the primary school, high school and college levels of education between 2004 and 2007 in Turkey. Within this context, the aim of this study is to identify the quality of global education in Turkish social studies teacher training programmes. This study uses a qualitative research approach and is a case study. Data sources include analysis of document and semi-standardized interview protocols. For document analysis, Turkish social studies teacher training programme and curriculum were reviewed. The semi-standardized interviews were conducted by contacting 5 university professors working at different universities in Turkey, 5 social studies teachers who graduated from different universities in Turkey, and 5 social studies fourth-year (senior) student teachers who were studying at different universities in Turkey in the spring semester of the 2009-2010 academic year. Participants were invited to the study by using a snowball sampling strategy. The data were analyzed with content analysis. The results showed that current Turkish social studies teacher training programmes are not well-equipped to provide training on global education.