TEACHER EDUCATORS’ EVALUATION OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING PROGRAM: A TURKISH CASE

This study explored the perceptions of teacher educators regarding the changes in the English Language Teacher Education Program introduced by the Turkish Higher Education Council (HEC) in 2006. Employing a qualitative design, open-ended questionnaires were administered to 18 lecturers working at five different state universities. The analysis of the data yielded that while teacher educators found some of the changes appropriate, such as the addition of some courses, they raised far more serious concerns with the newprogram regarding the sequence, content, structure, procedure and removal of courses. In addition, the top-down and centralized program restructuring movement, disregarding the opinions, experiences and the practices of the end users of the program, such as teacher educators, teachers and teacher trainees, was also criticized heavily by the participants.