The Literature on the History of Institutions which Trains Teachers
The publications on Village Institutes set aside; the literature on the history of teacher training in Turkey began to develop after transferring the task of training teachers to the universities by which it was transformed into a scientific field. The number of studies on the history of periodical and institution-based teacher training activities has started to mount after the 1980s, and this development has accelerated with a large number of graduate theses produced in recent years. Different study models and methods have been employed in studies conducted in recent years. One of the new developments in this field is the frequent usage of the oral history method. Moreover, it has also been observed that the primary sources, including archival documents, have started to be effectively employed. However, in spite of the positive developments, it cannot be stated that a satisfactory level has been achieved in terms of method and style in scientific works related to the field. Moreover, the number of studies conducted in the history of teacher training does not exhibit a balanced distribution among relevant institutions, even by setting aside the Village Institutes which have a considerable significance in literature. Although some publications do exist on some institutions, there are no noteworthy scientific publications on many others. In consequence, the studies on the history of teacher training in Turkey are still insufficient in terms of their quality and quantity in spite of positive developments in recent years. Correspondingly, there is a widespread lack of knowledge and deep unawareness about the historical foundations of the Turkish teacher training system, which paves the way for certain ill-formed policies and practices. The way to eliminate this problem is for the universities to conduct more studies in this field.
CEMİL ÖZTÜRK
