THE VOICES OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS REGARDING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: A THIRD SPACE ACTIVITY FOR IN-SERVICE ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS

Abstract

Since faculties of education mainly serve in the field of pre-service teacher education, their role for in-service teacher education is questioned for a long time. In Turkey, a partnership protocol signed in 1997 between the Ministry of National Education (MoNE) and the Council of Higher Education (CoHE) to enable pre-service teachers to adapt to the school process and to the act of teaching skills with the guidance of a mentor teacher. Yet, in-service teacher education is widely neglected by universities creating a big gap in terms of providing teachers with in-service teacher training activities by the Faculties of Education. Thus, this study set out to understand English language teachers' perceived needs in terms of in-service teacher education and their expectations from faculty academics. For the study, a partnership agreement was signed between the Directorate of National Education (DoNE) and the Education Faculty and a two-day seminar and workshop was conducted organized as a "Third Space Activity". At the end of the event, teachers' perceived needs for in-service teacher education, their views about the Third Space activity, and their expectations and wants from the academics were investigated. The qualitative data were analysed on the basis of Hutchinson and Waters' needs analysis. Based on findings, this study highlights the significance of a close cooperation between the universities and schools. This study also highlights and questions a neglected function of education faculties in terms of providing in-service teachers with the necessary teacher training activities.