English Language Teacher Education Program in Turkey: A Qualitative Meta-Synthesis Study.

Teacher education has always been a crucial aspect in the Turkish education agenda. There have been major policy changes throughout the years especially after the foundation of Higher Education Council (HEC) in 1982, which clustered all teacher education programs under its roof. Since then, it has also become the central body to develop the curricula of all teacher education programs at faculties of education across the country. This study highlights one of the prominent areas in teacher education, language teacher education, as it is considered to play an important role in the Turkish educational system (Kırkgöz, 2007). In terms of teacher education, all teachers in Turkey need to obtain a university degree. Primary and secondary school teachers take a 4-year course of study for language education programs. Prospective teachers do not take subject related courses only, but take pedagogical, subject specific, and general cultural courses proposed in their curriculum. Practice teaching in a school is a nationally required course conducted collaboratively by faculty mentors and supervisors in partner schools. Currently, despite the fact that some people from other professions can get a teaching certificate, the responsibility for preparing qualified and competent teachers rests primarily with teacher education programs in universities (Haznedar, 2012, p.52). In a comprehensive review of studies related to language teaching, Alptekin and Tatar (2011) identified main research directions in focus areas such as language teaching, language learning and learners, and language teacher education. Specifically, studies exploring aspects of teacher education were reported to focus mainly on “pre-service, in-service teacher attitudes, beliefs, values, and perceptions” (Alptekin & Tatar, 2011, p.337). In terms of teacher education studies; there are also a few meta-synthesis studies on such as teacher identity (e.g. Taner & Karaman, 2013), teacher practicum in ELT (e.g. Ceylan, Uştuk & Çomoğlu, 2017). In the light of the brief literature presented, it might be said that there is a gap on studies compiling and analyzing qualitative studies conducted in teacher education in English language teacher education (ELTE) in Turkey. In lieu, this study intends to identify and highlight the problems reported in the current literature and aims to bring contributions to the field by reviewing these studies and showing directions for policy and practice for English language teacher education in Turkey