As has been explained above (see Chapter 1, section 1.3.2 pp. 13-22), Turkey has a long history of EMI education, perhaps more so than most countries in Kachru’s expanding circle (Selvi, 2011). In the past, PD was often an informal affair based on the individual institution; however, since Turkey’s entry into the Bologna process and HE world rankings, there have been efforts to formalise PD in the country. Nevertheless, private institutions are often still free to organise their own PD, and many have PD programmes in place.
1.3.3.1 Turkish Government policies for PD in HE
In order to comply with the Bologna process (signed by Turkey in 2001) and conform to current global performance culture, Turkish HE institutions require their ELT staff to engage in some form of PD (Westerheijden et al., 2010) to obtain Turkish HE accreditation. This PD includes professional learning in different forms. In 2005, a national quality assurance system for education was established in Turkey—the Commission for Academic Assessment and Quality Improvement in Higher Education (YÖDEK). HE establishments in Turkey often create internal systems, such as the Language Education Evaluation and Accreditation Commission (DEDAK), which was established in 2012 for PYPs; however, at the time of this writing, it was not yet fully operational. HE establishments also utilise international quality assurance systems, such as the UK’s Pearson Assured and BALEAP, the Council of Europe’s EAQUALS,
and the US’s CEA (British Council, 2015). The British Council (2015) reports that more than 75% of PYPs have active PD programmes.
For publicly run universities, there is a less obligatorily international focus for PD. Turkey has polices laid out for in-service training in its National Ministry of
Education’s Rules and Regulations for In-Service Training (2016). These policies
govern public universities, and, in summation, they award grades to training courses ranging from excellent to unsatisfactory (translated from p. 8). This grading of professional learning can be said to reflect Turkey’s hierarchal society, where there is a power distance between management and employees, the student and the teacher, and the teacher trainer and the participant (Hofstede, 2017) (see Chapter 2, section 2.8.1 p. 64-65).
1.3.3.2 Turkish PD educational partnerships
Often, international teachers in PYPs do not have an understanding of their students’ previous experiences of learning English at school. As such, it might be beneficial to develop more joint PD between schools and HE. To date, there is limited partnership between K–12 schools and HE; however, the need for this is currently being addressed by the Turkish government and is supported by academics in the field. Akşit and Sands (2006) observe that within teacher education programmes, the emphasis has moved further towards working with schools. A national faculty-school partnership programme was set up in 1998, and training was provided for those associated with it (Koç et al., 1998) to obtain the full and willing cooperation of schools in teacher training. While this programme is on-going, a lot of work still needs to be done. Since 1998, a number of studies have been carried out to explore means of improving the situation (British Council, 2014, 2015; British Council and TEPAV, 2015).
1.3.3.3 Organisations supporting ELT PD in Turkey
There are a number of organisations that support the ELT teacher PD in Turkey. As a result of a joint project carried out by the Ministry of Education, TEPAV, and YÖK, the Turkey National Needs Assessment Report was published in 2013, which demonstrated the shortfalls in school language teaching that have had an impact on
international and national, supporting PD in ELT in schools and in HE. This PD comes in a variety of forms, such as conferences, presentations, seminars, and workshops. In November 2015, the British Council launched a baseline study that focused on tertiary- level English language education in Turkey, which involved visiting 38 universities in 15 cities, surveying 4,300 students and 400 teachers, observing 65 classes, and interviewing 72 teachers and administrators. The subsequent report presented the perceived challenges experienced in English language teaching in Turkish universities. One major challenge observed was the need to teach students the language in such a short period of time that classes were often exam-driven. This focus on achieving such challenging aims could possibly affect teachers’ outlooks on teaching and professional development as they could be limited in their scope in the classroom.
In addition to the assistance provided by international organisations such as the British Council, there is also support for ELT on a national level provided by a number of Turkish organisations. The English Language Education Association (INGED) was formed in 1995 to assist English language teachers in Turkey at all levels (K–12, university, adult education). It holds annual conferences and runs a website offering materials for teachers. There is also Trainers’ Professional Learning and Unlimited Sharing (T-Plus), which started in 2012 and supports in-house teacher educator PD in PYPs. It has bi-annual meetings where members engage in workshops and seminars and share research. Finally, there is English Language Teacher Education Research (ELTER), which has a profile of teacher educators who educate pre-service and in- service teachers. ELTER’s aim is to collaboratively research and inform policy and practice. These organisations function outside individual universities’ PD units, their role being primarily to provide support to those in the field who choose to voluntarily participate; these include trainers who often attend and give feedback or cascade what they have learned within their own departments. In contrast, in-house PYP PD is often delivered through seminars on subject matter deemed suitable by management (Aydınlı and Ortaç, 2018).