Comparison of foreign language teacher education programmes during Republican Period

In this study, foreign language teacher education policies were analyzed and foreign language teacher education programs were compared. In order to do this comparison, the programs of the teacher education institutions were examined. In this study, at first, foreign language teacher education policies were analyzed in a chronological order and then foreign language teacher education programs were compared. Through this comparison and analysis, the same, similar and different courses within the content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and general culture courses were found. Then the changes in all programs were presented. In addition, each program was compared with each other in terms of these dimensions mentioned above and percentages allocated for the content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and general culture courses within the whole program since the foundation of the Republic were found. The findings of the study showed the followings below: The analysis of the foreign language teacher education policies revealed that they were inconsistent with each other in terms of supporting qualified teachers and the main focus of these policies was on the quantity rather than quality. It was also realized that due to the membership negotiations with the EU, a consistency was observed in the foreign language education and foreign language teacher education policies as seemed they focused on more qualified teachers and a multi-language aspect which is consistent with EU foreign language policies. Considering the course in the programs, it was seen that there were three different course groups: content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and general culture in all of these programs. It was found that the content knowledge courses presented in all programs were similar to the previous ones; despite the changes in their names, they were similar in terms of the contents. Most pedagogical knowledge courses were found to present either with changes in their names or contents, as they were integrated with another course or presented under different courses in terms of their contents. In terms of general knowledge courses, most of the these courses given with other teacher education departments were found to remain almost the same in all programs with minor changes in the course names; but other general knowledge courses related to the department were found to be different. Analyzing the content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and general culture courses in terms of allocated weekly hours and number of these courses, it was found that the number of the courses in these groups were almost similar to each other. However, the weekly course hours were found to be different. It was also found that the percentages of the content knowledge area courses were decreased and the percentages of the pedagogical knowledge and general culture courses were increased and equalized within the whole program after 1983 program. Key Words: Foreign Language Teachers, Teacher Education, Curriculum Evaluation, History of Education, Education Policies