A Glance at Standard Development Studies and Accreditation Process as Sustaining Tools for Quality in Teacher Education in Turkey

Abstract

The demand for qualified teachers has been constantly on the increase all over the world. Quite naturally, the teacher education programs have gained renewed importance. It has become indispensable that the effort and resources assembled to teacher education should be effective and sustainable. In Turkey, with the foundation of republic, challenging changes occurred in accordance with the state’s fundamental policy. Yet, these changes were temporal and conducted to just save the day. Moreover, they were limited to alter the teacher education program and inadequate in terms of sustainability. In this framework, the developed countries have focused on developing standards and establishing accreditation process to ensure sustainable the quality in teacher education. This has also influenced Turkey and since 1990s, the standard development studies in teacher education have been carried out and an accreditation process has been initiated. However, the researches and applications regarding these standards and accreditation process have not adequately been conducted. This study aims at pointing the standard development studies and accreditation process in teacher education in Turkey in order to gain insight about this standard development process and the current state.