The new Turkish early childhood teacher education curriculum: a brief outlook

This article aims to describe and reflect on the new early childhood teacher education curriculum in Turkey. The new curriculum is part of a large-scale reform agenda to improve education at all levels. The article begins with a brief history of early childhood education and early childhood teacher education in Turkey. Then, the needs for the curriculum revision and major characteristics of the revised curriculum are discussed. The article concludes with brief discussion about the innovations and suggestions for future research dealing with the implementation and effectiveness of the revised curriculum     

Curriculum development for teacher education in the Southern Philippines: A simultaneous process of professional learning and syllabus enhancement

This paper reflects on the process of curriculum development in 21 tertiary education institutions in the Southern Philippines. Assisting capacity-building of the teaching profession is an ongoing need in developing countries, but rarely does it extend to pre-service education. In this study of one aspect of a three year AusAid-funded education development project, the process of developing syllabi for English, mathematics, science and practicum/pedagogy courses was an unfamiliar activity for the majority of the sixty Filipino teacher educators and their colleagues. These educators were used to following institution prescribed syllabi without question. The focus of this study was the educators’ participation in the intensive process of syllabus review, construction and enhancement which occurred concurrently with a series of regular professional development activities based on the needs and interests of the educators. The process was documented as it evolved and was evaluated at key stages. A major outcome was the enhancement, or construction, of more than 200 syllabi across the 21 tertiary institutions. However, an unexpected and significant outcome of the process was the development of strong cross-institutional and even cross-regional relationships and a level of collegiality not previously experienced by the participants. It is argued here that such an approach to curriculum development raises the potential for sustainable long-term outcomes in international development projects.     

The cultural politics of constructivist pedagogies: Teacher education reform in the United Republic of Tanzania

This article examines recent educational reforms in Tanzania by looking at the cultural politics of pedagogical change in secondary and teacher education. It presents an ethnography of a teachers college founded on the principles of social constructivism in a country where formalistic, teacher-centered pedagogy is the norm. Using data collected through a year of participant observation, it argues that the cultural, economic, and political dimensions of teachers’ practice need to be considered alongside efforts to reform the country's educational system. It offers contingent constructivism as an alternative to the international consensus on a single model of excellent teaching.     

School Teachers’ Experiences of Science Curriculum Reform

We examine teachers’ experiences of a major reform of the school science curriculum for 14–16-year olds in England. This statutory reform enhances the range of available science courses and emphasises the teaching of socio-scientific issues and the nature of science, alongside the teaching of canonical science knowledge. This paper examines teachers’ experiences of the reform and the factors that condition these experiences. A designed sample of 22 teachers discussed their experiences of the reform within a semi-structured interview. Our analysis considers how the external and internal structures within which teachers work interact with the personal characteristics of teachers to condition their experiences of the curriculum reform. In many cases, personal/internal/external contexts of teachers’ work align, resulting in an overall working context that is supportive of teacher change. However, in other cases, tensions within these contexts result in barriers to change. We also explore cases in which external curriculum reform has stimulated the development of new contexts for teachers’ work. We argue that curriculum reformers need to recognise the inevitability of multiple teaching goals within a highly differentiated department and school workplace. We also show how experiences of curriculum reform can extend beyond the learning of new knowledge and associated pedagogies to involve challenges to teachers’ professional identities. We argue for the extended use of teacher role models within local communities of practice to support such ‘identity work’.     

Mandated curriculum change and a science department: A superficial language convergence?

This article investigates the introduction of a systemic curriculum change, the Essential Learnings curriculum framework, in the Australian state of Tasmania. Using Gee's [(2003). Language in the science classroom: Academic social languages as the heart of school-based literacy. In: R. Yerrick, & W.-M. Roth (Eds.), Establishing scientific classroom discourse communities: Multiple voices of teaching and learning research (pp. 19–37). Mahwah, NJ: L. Erlbaum Associates] six claims regarding the importance of language in science education, the responses of the science teachers within a secondary school to the curriculum reform were investigated. This research utilised a narrative methodology to elucidate the processes by which science teachers attempted to negotiate a sense of meaning for the reforms within their work context. Three particular challenges are highlighted for curriculum reformers. These challenges involve the potential for a linguistic distance between teachers and reformers, understanding the importance of the work context in teacher learning and the dangers of a superficial application of reform language to teacher practices. The article concludes by emphasising that the negotiation of a situated language can provide both teachers and reformers with both coherence and a common ownership of a reform, thus strengthening the potential for its implementation and institutionalisation.     

Moving mountains stone by stone: Reforming rural education in China

The widely reported economic divide between the richer eastern provinces and the poorer western provinces in China has an exact parallel in the development of basic education. As a result of geographical, historical and social factors the quality and management of the education system lags considerably behind the east coast.     

Reflections on the Teacher Education System Overhaul (TESO) program in Ethiopia: Promises, pitfalls, and propositions

In 2003 the Ethiopian education system experienced wide-ranging reform that touches every aspect of the system. This reform is called TESO (Teacher Education System Overhaul). Designed to address educational problems in Ethiopia, TESO introduced significant structural changes and promised to bring a ‘paradigm shift’ in the Ethiopian educational system by engaging teacher education in changing society and promoting democratic, practical, and problem-solving education. This paper examines, through an analysis of the TESO document and an examination of the views of teacher educators, TESO’s assumptions, mission and the coherence among the various components of TESO. It also reveals gaps and discrepancies between TESO’s mission, its reform process, and strategies. The promise and assumptions of TESO are challenged by considering extant realities in Ethiopian schools and evidence from literature on effective teacher education programs and educational reform. The paper reflects on how, by giving priority to equity, TESO compromises on some elements of effective teacher education programs. It is indicated that TESO has been a welcome addition to the Ethiopian education system as it addresses elements that had previously been missing from the system, such as, outlining directions to teacher education, devoting longer duration for practicum, and heeding seriously to the professional preparation of teachers. At the same time, it is contended that the imbalance among program components, its permeability to ill-prepared students and the contradiction between program rhetoric and strategy and reform processes, as described by teacher educators, could be stumbling blocks which prevent TESO from fulfilling its promises.     

Schooling progress,learning reversal: Indonesia’s learning profiles between 2000 and 2014

We examine the relationship between schooling completed and mathematics learning from 2000 to 2014 by developing learning profiles for Indonesia. Using nearly-nationally representative survey data, we find a large gap between students’ ability and standards set by the national curriculum. Learning declined over 14 years, a loss of a fourth of a standard deviation. To put this loss in context, the average child in grade 7 in 2014 achieved the same numeracy mastery as the average child in grade 4 in 2000. The reduction in learning was widespread, affecting all subgroups. Junior and senior secondary enrollment increased over this timeframe, but this decline was not due to changes in student composition.     

Delivering reading intervention to the poorest children: The case of Liberia and EGRA-Plus,a primary grade reading assessment and intervention

As governments, donors and implementation organisations re-focus Education for All Goals in terms of quality of education, increasing concerns have been raised over low literacy levels in developing countries. This paper provides key learning from the application of an early reading intervention applied in post-conflict Liberia, which included a robust assessment tool (Early Grade Reading Assessment) to measure the impact of the programme on students’ reading levels. A rationale for the design and methodology applied by the two implementing organisations (Research Triangle Institute (RTI) and Concern Worldwide) is provided, situated within the Liberian education context. The paper demonstrates the positive impact on programme quality, contextual relevancy and scale-up that a diagnostic baseline assessment has when linked to a tailored literacy intervention. Lessons learnt are presented to guide the identification of best practice in early literacy interventions at national-level and internationally.     

University teacher educators’ research engagement: Perspectives from Saudi Arabia

This paper examines university teacher educators’ engagement with and in educational research. Survey results collected from eighty-two teacher educators at a leading university in Saudi Arabia pointed to modest levels of research activity and also suggested that these individuals held largely technical views of what research is. Their assessments of their institutional research culture also signalled a perceived gap between the research productivity expected of them and the support they received from their university. The implications of these findings for promoting research activity among university teacher educators, where this is considered desirable, are discussed.     

Financing access and participation in primary education: Is there a ‘fast-track’ for fragile states?

Despite moves to ‘fast-track’ progress towards universal primary education, few fragile states have been able to access Fast Track Initiative (FTI) funding facilities. Weak systems and capacity have made these countries a high-risk proposition for donor investment. The absence of credible education sector plans has meant that the majority of fragile states are not eligible for endorsement to receive financial resources via the FTI. The analysis presented in this paper suggests that the FTI has struggled to identify suitable channels for resourcing education in these difficult development environments. Importantly, it finds that procedural and governance issues in particular have presented obstacles that have stymied the promotion of wider access to education in fragile states under the FTI umbrella.     

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.     

Assessing institutionalization of educational reforms

This study aims to assess the institutionalization of a major reform in the faculties of education in Turkey in the 1990s. A survey was administered to faculty members in eight faculties of education in the academic year 2005–2006. Factor analysis, t-tests and ANOVAs, and OLS regressions were used. Findings indicate that the most problematic area of re-structuring was “program change” caused by coercive pressures. The study concludes that institutionalization of the re-structuring has not yet been fully achieved, and an alternative re-structuring process is proposed. All three types of pressures were related and they influence one another. Normative pressures were found to be more powerful in this type of re-structuring process.     

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.