Preschool Teacher Education As An Example Of Open Social System

Abstract

With the realization of the substantial long-term educational, social, and economic benefits produced by high-quality preschool education, preschool teachers’ education is becoming more focused on in recent years. Moreover, other than the studies focus on providing evidence for the impact of the preschool education on the children outcomes, studies showing large benefits occur only when teachers are professionally prepared and adequately compensated are also increased. On the other hand, studies focusing on the program evaluation or educational systems mainly consider the issue from a more structured and multidimensional view. In this respect, as an example of open social systems, teacher education depends on many interrelated components that affect each other directly or indirectly. The aim of this study is to review and discuss some of these components of preschool teacher education Turkish context such as the student selection policy, faculty development, recruitment policy and competencies of the graduates. Current issues of preschool teacher education are reviewed within the light of the research and related documents in order to understand the context within a macro perspective.

Keywords: Preschool teacher education, educational policy, open social system, Turkish context