Turkish Student Teachersu27 Early Experiences in Schools: Critical Incidents, Reflection, and a New Teacher Education Program

摘要

In Turkey there is an old saying about how parents feel about the role of schools: u22The bones are mine, but the flesh is yours.u22 Turkish parents want schools to not only educate but to mold and shape the values of their children in ways that the educators think appropriate. Ever since Turkey became a republic in 1923 under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, education has been highly valued. In 1924, Ataturk invited John Dewey to assess and report on the situation in Turkish schools. In Turkish villages, anyone with an education was highly respected. Old people stood up out of respect when a student returned to the village with a high school diploma or even better, a college degree. The saying echoes this blind trust in the ultimate authority and responsibility of schools to educate children.The primary purpose of this article is to report how Turkish student teachers identify and reflect on the u22critical incidentsu22 of schooling that they bring as they enter a new teacher education program. u22Critical incidentsu22 are descriptions of incidents in oneu27s past that are viewed as significant in oneu27s learning and development. The secondary purpose of this article is to analyze these incidents to inform the first authoru27s teaching and field supervision. In this way, this study is an action research project designed to be a systematic study of her own practice of assessing the nature of studentsu27 background knowledge of teaching.