Cultural diversity, the equality of opportunity, human rights, democracy, pluralism, citizenship, social justice, respect to differences, and empathy are important values and skills for teachers responsible for educating future generations. However, after examining the content of the teacher training programs‟ curriculums in Turkey, we have found out that while no teacher training program has a specific course on multicultural education, very few programs have courses dealing with multicultural educational skills and values. Therefore, this study aims to explore the productivity of teacher training programs by conducting interviews with the senior students in the School of Education at Yıldız Technical University in Istanbul. The study focuses on two issues: determining the students‟ awareness about the basic concepts of multicultural education and their assessment of the training they received in terms of its contribution to their plural thinking and to development of the skills needed to teach in the multicultural settings. 64 semi-structured interviews were conducted with Foreign Languages Education and Computer and Instructional Technologies department students. The study shows that students are not satisfied with the training they received during their training in terms of helping them to develop plural thinking and skills needed to teach in the multicultural settings
ABSTRACT
Cultural diversity, the equality of opportunity, human rights, democracy, pluralism, citizenship, social justice, respect to differences, and empathy are important values and skills for teachers responsible for educating future generations. However, after examining the content of the teacher training programs’ curriculums in Turkey, we have found out that while no teacher training program has a specific course on multicultural education, very few programs have courses dealing with multicultural educational skills and values. Therefore, this study aims to explore the productivity of teacher training programs by conducting interviews with the senior students in the School of Education at Yıldız Technical University in Istanbul. The study focuses on two issues: determining the students’ awareness about the basic concepts of multicultural education and their assessment of the training they received in terms of its contribution to their plural thinking and to development of the skills needed to teach in the multicultural settings. 64 semi-structured interviews were conducted with Foreign Languages Education and Computer and Instructional Technologies department students. The study shows that students are not satisfied with the training they received during their training in terms of helping them to develop plural thinking and skills needed to teach in the multicultural settings.
Key Words: Multicultural Education, Teacher Training, Diversity.
Primary Language | Turkish |
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Journal Section | Makaleler |
Authors | |
Publication Date | December 4, 2014 |
Published in Issue | Year 2014 Volume: 2 Issue: 1(ÖZEL) |
ASIAN JOURNAL OF INSTRUCTION
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