Factors affecting pre-service English teachers’ career plans in Turkey: institutions and regions

Dinçer Z., Seferoğlu G.

Journal of Education for Teaching, cilt.46, sa.1, ss.4-19, 2020 (SSCI) identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 46 Sayı: 1
  • Basım Tarihi: 2020
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1080/02607476.2019.1708622
  • Dergi Adı: Journal of Education for Teaching
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, Communication & Mass Media Index, EBSCO Education Source, Education Abstracts, Educational research abstracts (ERA), ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Index Islamicus, Linguistics & Language Behavior Abstracts, MLA - Modern Language Association Database, PAIS International
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.4-19
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: institutional plans, Pre-service English teachers, regional plans, workplace decisions
  • Hakkari Üniversitesi Adresli: Hayır

Özet

English is vertically distributed in the socioeconomic layers of Turkish society as there has been a discrepancy between English learning opportunities in public vs. private educational institutions and developed vs. underdeveloped regions. Attracting qualified English teachers to work in unprivileged regions and public schools would be one of the solutions for the social inequity caused by unbalanced access opportunities to satisfactory English proficiency. Collecting and analysing questionnaire data from pre-service teachers from 13 English Language Teaching departments (N = 583), and conducting semi-structured interviews with 88 participants, this study aims to understand regional and institutional plans of pre-service English teachers with a focus on factors affecting their plans. Majority of the participants plan to work in public institutions as they offer job security and moderate workload; on the other hand, professional development opportunities in private institutions are quite attractive for many teacher candidates. Participants seem to have a tendency to work in developed regions. Cultural concerns, geographical concerns, altruistic concerns, opportunities and beliefs derived from others’ experiences are found to be effective on their regional plans.