Teacher education accreditation in Turkey: The creation of a culture of quality

Turkey's experience in developing and piloting accreditation criteria and national standards for teacher education is examined. The full implementation of an accreditation process for teacher education programs was not completed within the time of the development project. However, the effort to do so encouraged the formation of a ‘quality culture’ in the faculties of education. The paper discusses what took place and analyses the later response of teacher educators to the introduction of accreditation criteria and the way in which they were introduced. Educators largely welcomed national standards and accreditation, but wished to have flexible means of implementation.     

Restructuring reforms in Turkish teacher education: Modernisation and development in a dynamic environment

The paper examines the effectiveness of recent reforms in teacher education in Turkey, specifically the restructuring of programmes in university faculties of education. It first, briefly, sets the reforms of the 1990s in an historical context, prior to the 1997 Act which increased the length of compulsory schooling from 5 to 8 years, and the 1998 restructuring of faculties of education. It considers the national need for the restructuring of teacher education and the issues involved. The thrust of the paper is a study of how teacher educators across the country perceive both the changes and their effect on the quality of teacher education, methodology as a discipline, school partnerships, and relationships with the Ministry of National Education.     

Curriculum reform in Turkish teacher education: Attitudes of teacher educators towards change in an EU candidate nation

Educational development is one way through which Turkey enhances progress towards its social goals and prepares itself for European Union membership. A major effort to upgrade the Turkish educational system was made through a multi-phased comprehensive reform of the sector introduced during the 1990s. One part of this reform, perhaps most crucial to the long-term effectiveness of other developments in education, was a transformation of the approach to teacher education. This paper utilizes recently conducted research to assess the nature and extent of that reform as well as identifying the factors which enhanced its effectiveness.     

Quality management in Hungarian higher education: organisational responses to governmental policy

This article focuses on responses of higher education institutions to governmental policy. We investigate the influence of organisational characteristics on the implementation of quality management in Hungarian higher education institutions. Our theoretical framework is based on organisational theories (resource dependency and neo-institutionalism), Allison’s models on organisational decision-making processes, and also addresses some of the more specific characteristics of higher education institutions. Our empirical investigation shows that organisational characteristics matter in policy implementation of quality management in Hungarian higher education. Certain organisational variables, viz. leaders’ commitment to the implementation process, the involvement of external consultants, institutional reputation, and bureaucratic and political decision-making processes have strong effects on the implementation of quality management. Characteristics particular to higher education institutions were much less influential.

Accreditation of engineering education: review,observations and proposal for global accreditation

In engineering education, the accreditation and assessment of academic programmes is vital in order to maintain the quality and the status of engineering graduates, and hence the technical workforce. Results of a survey of the relevant literature and observations indicate that various accreditation models have been developed regionally, as well as internationally but most of these models seem to be non-uniform, too complex, non-transparent and, moreover, non-precise. This leads to confusion and growing concerns about the mutual recognition and global mobility of the engineering profession. As a result, there is an urgent need for a systematic global model of engineering accreditation that can be used to assess global professional skills and attributes of engineering graduates. The aim of the current paper is to present a brief review of existing accreditation systems implemented in engineering education worldwide as well as to describe the methodology for developing a global accreditation model in engineering education. Various existing accreditation models in engineering education are briefly discussed in this paper and the strengths and weaknesses of these models are outlined and presented. The need for the global accreditation model has been justified and the methodology for the development of the model is outlined with its advantages listed in the paper.     

Tensions and paradoxes in teaching: implications for teacher education

This paper focuses on the tensions and paradoxes in teaching. At present time, teacher education has the obligation to prepare teachers for diverse student populations, living in a highly varied context. This situation creates several competing expectations of the meaning of teacher education. For instance, preparing for professional autonomy in a world of externally imposed educational policy. The tension between achieving immediate results and success in external exams versus the need to prepare students in an era of migration and growing multiculturalism in school contexts is addressed. It is argued that a common knowledge base is a necessary response to growing multiculturalism while simultaneously leaving space in the curriculum for multicultural aspects of the student population. These double requirements have implications for teacher education which are discussed in the last section of the paper.     

Policy as Boundary Object: A New Way to Look at Educational Policy Design and Implementation

Policy implementation research in general and educational policy in particular is loosely connected to policy-making processes. There is a gap particularly in the field of vocational education. This often leads to conflicts and contradictions between policy-maker objectives and end-user implementation. To avoid such a disconnect, the relation between the world of end users and the world of decision-makers should be carefully constructed. This might be done through connecting the process of decision-making to implementation and carefully developing methods that encompass the demands of decision-makers and the needs and informational requirements of end users. Our intensive case study research on the process of a vocational education reform in the marine sector confirms that the lack of robust connection and active engagement of implementers as the end-users in the design of the policy created challenges for its implementation. Using a theoretical framework based on the notion of boundary objects we bring an alternative to current practice by creating the potential to illuminate and remove tensions and challenges for policy implementation. From there we infer that adopting this concept for policy design may prevent such conflicts and contradictions and result in successful implementation.

Internationalization of higher education in the crucible: Linking national identity and policy in the age of globalization

Nationalism’s rise represents a potential harbinger of doom for the internationalization of higher education (IoHE). Space exists for research to amplify our understanding of the interplay between internationalization and nationalism from a public policy theory perspective. The study identified and classified policies and policy ideas pertinent to IoHE, and furthermore, explored how political rivalries in Taiwan have influenced IoHE’s development under globalization. Analysis of documentary data from an online national database reveals how IoHE policy changes reflect the machinations of political actors to advance domestic political agendas and provoke controversy. The advocacy coalition framework informs our explanation of how the aforementioned changes reflect Taiwan’s inward-looking political climate, unique geopolitical circumstances, and longstanding controversy over national identity. The paper discusses the implications of context for IoHE development across three consecutive government regimes to provide insights for further comparisons with other localities and contexts.     

Integrated teacher education programme for open distance learning: a model for development and implementation

Teacher education in India, including that offered by the open distance learning (ODL) system to thousands every year, imparts mainly pedagogic knowledge, although the need for integrated teacher education programmes has been underscored. As the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), an ODL institution, will develop an integrated Bachelor of Education programme for secondary-level teachers, a model based on the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework has been proposed for developing and implementing it. The model takes cognisance of the systemic challenges to TPACK-based teacher education, but it does not envision radical changes in IGNOU’s teacher education framework for addressing these challenges. It includes propositions with theoretical underpinnings for redesigning the major components of the framework while retaining its basic structure. The model has been described in terms of its rationale, its structure and the way it envisages the progress of teacher trainees from a phase of learning with the help of self-learning material designed for imparting integrated theoretical knowledge to one whereby they apply such knowledge in simulated situations, and finally moving on to a phase of situated learning during internship.     

Understanding how local actors implement teacher rotation policy in a Chinese context: a sensemaking perspective

ABSTRACT

The Teacher Rotation Policy (TRP) is a recent teacher policy developed in the context of China. TRP seeks to close China’s teacher quality disparities through rotating ‘high-quality’ urban schoolteachers to teach in hard-to-staff rural schools for a period of time. This qualitative case study examined how five policy actors carried out TRP in one rural county from 2012 to 2015. Guided by a sensemaking perspective, the study generated interview and observational data over three months of ethnographic fieldwork in 2016. The analysis of the data revealed high administrative expenses as well as unintended consequences of rotating teachers across schools. Three sensemaking strategies, namely using argumentation techniques, tailoring policy incentives, and leveraging cultural logics have emerged from the participants’ efforts at enacting this policy. These research findings suggest implications for the efficacy and effects of teacher rotation for equalising teacher workforce in China and internationally.     

Using standards to evaluate accountability policy in context: School administrator and teacher perceptions of a teacher evaluation system

Accountability policy in the United States requiring school districts to design and implement state policy-directed teacher evaluation systems that utilize multiple measures, most often observations of professional practice and student achievement data, has been reflective of shifting international public discourse surrounding educational accountability, specifically related to teacher quality. Although the most recent wave of policy change provides states some flexibility in determining how teachers are evaluated, many are still mired in debate on how to improve teacher professional practice and increase student learning. This study examined the perceptions of school administrators and teachers in a large, suburban, public school district regarding their district’s new teacher evaluation system. Understanding the convergent and divergent views of participant groups regarding how (i.e., the standards by which) they defined and measured the effectiveness of the evaluation system is necessary to not only better understand their lived experiences but also to potentially inform policy change.     

Language,culture and identity in the transition to primary school: Challenges to indigenous children's rights to education in Peru

This paper analyses a ‘critical moment’ in the educational trajectories of young indigenous children in Peru: the transition to primary school. It addresses the inequalities in educational services that affect indigenous children, before looking at the micro-level processes that take place in school settings, through a focus on two selected case studies from the Young Lives study of childhood poverty. Using longitudinal information collected in two consecutive years, the case studies show how the children's language and culture are excluded from school premises and their very identity as children and indigenous people is disregarded, negatively affecting their educational performance.     

Challenges and prospects for improving teacher education and development through the National Policy Framework on Teacher Education and Development

Abstract

This paper examines the prospects for improving teacher education and development in South Africa through the National Policy Framework on Teacher Education and Development (NPFTED). The key elements of the policy framework are critically analysed in terms of their limitations and their potential for improving teacher education and development as a crucial means to improve learner performance. The paper looks at the current realities in teacher education and development, the progress made and opportunities available, the identifiable gaps, and the proposals for closing the gaps. Possibilities and constraints in the current situation, as they are described in the NPFTED, are discussed. These include globalisation, the challenges facing a fledgling nonracial democracy, the legacy of skewed development under apartheid, current social inequalities, conditions in rural schools, declining recruitment trends, large mismatches between the supply and demand of teachers, HIV/AIDS and other diseases among teachers, the limits of the current planning, information and communication systems, and the situation in education faculties in higher education institutions. The paper concludes that the challenges are formidable, but that proper planning and synergisation of objectives and resources by government, higher education institutions, labour unions, the private sector and the public can contribute to significant improvements.     

School and teacher performance incentives: The Latin American experience

This paper discusses performance evaluation and the introduction of incentives into education in Latin America from an analytical and methodological perspective. The aim is to describe ongoing strategies and learn from practical experiences in this field. The cases analyzed reveal that school-level evaluations and collective incentives adapt better to the characteristics of the educational process and the potential for teamwork, while individual evaluations pose some difficulties. Several evaluation systems currently in use emphasize educational inputs and, in some cases, mainly compliance with rules and procedures, irrespective of education results (output). If the factors considered in assessing school performance do not correlate well with educational achievement, the incentives vanish. Hence, the importance of emphasizing output and ensuring that if measures are included for inputs and processes, these must line up with educational achievement.     

Making connections: a conference approach to developing transformative environmental and sustainability education within initial teacher education

Abstract

Children today face significant challenges in response to living in a globalised world and the predicted environmental threats to the planet. However, implementing environmental and sustainability education (ESE) within schools can be complex and is often ignored within initial teacher education (ITE). In response, this project aimed to evaluate pedagogies for developing transformative learning for ESE within the context of university-based ITE. We ran a conference for trainee teachers informed by critical, participatory and arts-based pedagogic approaches. Alongside this, we undertook an interpretive case study, collecting data through questionnaires, focus groups and in-conference spoken reflection. Findings suggest trainee teachers gained a more nuanced understanding of the value and nature of ESE, as well as more affective and informed engagement with it, across the conference. Implications for ESE within ITE focus around the potential of pedagogies which provide affective experiences, in particular participatory and arts-based pedagogical approaches, for inspiring and empowering trainee teachers to enter into schools and develop their own ESE practice as classroom teachers.     

Science teacher shortage and the moonlighting culture: The pathology of the teacher labour market in Uganda

The Ugandan Government promotes the rapid expansion of secondary education and requires an emphasis on mathematics and science subjects at that level, but has a “market” approach to the recruitment of teachers. This study uses both national and local evidence to demonstrate that, not only are the teachers of these subjects too few for the policies to be effective, but many of them are employed in more than one school, and some in other work. This “moonlighting” trend, which contributes to problems of poor service, is seen as part of a questionable tendency to commercialise teaching. Policy changes and practical steps are suggested in order to regulate and reduce moonlighting.     

The duration of compulsory education and the transition to secondary education: Panel data evidence from low-income countries

A straightforward way of keeping children in school is increasing the duration of compulsory education. Evidence of the impact of this type of policy in Western countries is abundant. However, its effectiveness has been rarely tested in low-income countries. Using panel data of low-income and lower-middle-income countries covering the period 1996–2017, this paper analyzes the impact of lengthening the duration of compulsory education on the progression of children from primary to secondary education. The empirical results show that in those countries where this policy is implemented, there is a significant increase in the share of children progressing from primary to secondary education but only in those countries where after the reform the duration of compulsory education becomes longer than the duration of primary education.